Lead UX Researcher and Design Strategist

Frank Romagosa, PhD New Orleans, LA and New York, NY

Lead UX Researcher and Design Strategist +1-415-***-**** Portfolio Available remote, open to relocation

OVERVIEW

Lead UX Researcher and Design Strategist has over two decades of experience putting people and data at the center of products, platforms, and services. A mission-driven anthropologist and design strategist crafts continuous data-driven insight to guide product development, inform design and strategic practices, impact product roadmaps, and steward the business mission and its values. A research leader establishes practices, processes, structures, and standards. Mentors and guides colleagues. Agile in approach, leads with a growth mindset and a bias for action. A stakeholder and leadership partner assesses and responds to business needs and strategic priorities. Collaborates with design, product, technology, data science, and marketing teams to solve complex and challenging problems, achieve scalable and effective results, and deliver sustainable business value and growth. Passionate about people and data; digital and physical experiences; app use and design; emerging technologies (AI, ChatGPT, LLM); markets, measures, and metrics. Leads research workshops and design sprints to align stakeholders and build empathy across all levels of an organization. Storytelling, journey maps, jobs- to-be-done, user personas, and data visualization are fundamental. Conducts and oversees end-to-end foundational, generative, and evaluative research from discovery, execution, development, delivery, and implementation. Mixed methods expertise includes ethnography, field studies, 1:1 interviews, user panels, surveys, usability studies, A/B testing, concept testing, prototyping tools (Figma, Sketch, Miro), opportunity mapping, benchmarking, data analysis. Sources and manages research vendors. Experience in Software and Technology, Enterprise Software, Financial Services & FinTech, Health & Wellbeing, Pharma & PharmaTech, Logistics, Insurtech, hybrid industries. B2B, B2C, B2B2C, and SaaS experience. BUSINESS EXPERIENCE

Career Break, New Orleans, LA January 2024 –

Focus on elderly parent care, tutoring, writing, and organizing conference groups Research and Strategy Consultant, New York, NY and New Orleans, LA January 2023 – Allied Modern Health via Morning Light Strategy: In progress, supporting effort using qualitative research and co- creation to build new brand positioning that connects with prospective customers in functional health care space Google (FitBit) via Apex: Conducted rapid research testing and data-informed opportunity mapping for Fitbit in the Health and Wearables portfolio to understand how customers define and inhabit health routines British Petroleum via Akraya: Built a robust team structure by transforming team dynamics and work processes Conducted Gulf of Mexico Group staff & leadership remote interviews to support 4-day service design workshop. Co-created journey maps and work process service blueprints. Developed data-driven collaborative tools approach and mission-critical rigs and HQ information retrieval system Bakkt, Director, Design Strategy, New York, NY (lay-off) October 2022 – December 2022 Directed UX research for a fintech startup's loyalty/rewards program, identifying key user behaviors that informed product and program enhancements

CloudSort, (remote), Senior User Experience Researcher, Seattle, WA June 2022 – September 2022 Defined research roadmap for 12-person SaaS-based transportation logistics start-up Worked with program managers, data analysts, and interaction designers to improve tools for package sortation JP Morgan Chase, Lead User Experience Researcher, New York, NY May 2021 – May 2022 Managed several qualitative/quantitative research programs in the Payments digital product portfolio Delivered user testing insight/direction to improve Auto, Home Mortgage, and Credit Card bill-pay products Co-developed mobile fraud-alert concepts to protect customers likely to be defrauded during pandemic Wells Fargo, Senior User Experience Researcher, San Francisco, CA July 2020 – April 2021 Guided team towards conceiving and creating an innovative, data-rich solution in the home mortgage space Workshopped different customer scenarios to uncover digital processes in mortgage discovery Conducted over 30 consumer-centered user interviews and concept tests HiRoad (BlueOwl), Senior Design Researcher, San Francisco, CA June 2019 – June 2020 Led hypothesis-driven qualitative and behavioral research for a data-first InsurTech startup Evaluated consumer choose/implement/use app behavior using Qualtrics and user behavior analytics Conducted in-person research to establish targeting and marketing direction and to improve app interface Career Break, New Orleans, LA February 2019 – May 2019 Dedicated time to professional and creative writing Workday, Senior User Experience Researcher, San Francisco, CA September 2017 – January 2019 Oversaw in-person testing for SaaS Financial Services and Workforce Planning mobile and desktop solutions Set up recurring RITE research with a small group of product developers on FS implementation software Partnered with data analytics and VOC to build a customer persona and user type system across all product areas Research and Strategy Consultant, New York, NY April 2014 – August 2017 Otsuka (Abilify Mycite): Led product interaction and package design research for a digital therapeutics solution that bolsters prescription adherence for MDD, Bipolar Disorder, and Schizophrenia patients. This was the first product offer in the digital therapeutics space

BCG Digital Ventures (Gazprombank): Early-stage concept exploration work for major Russian corporate bank to build new retail banking business. F2F research with bank customers in Moscow and Novosibirsk. Co-developed data-backed customer persona system to guide concept development Viteos Planned and carried out research programs to deliver a sales-ready CFO/COO persona system and sales tool Intel, Senior User Experience Strategist, Santa Clara, CA April 2013 – March 2014 Planned and led user research process to build True Key™, a global no-password security solution. Research based on open and extensive use of online research communities. Advised colleagues on research planning in Chinese market Research and Strategy Consultant, New York, NY

Latin American Bottled Water Association (LABWA), Ignite Venture Partners January 2011 – March 2013 GSK Avodart (Canada), Nike+ Fuel (R/GA) January 2007 – May 2010 RAPP, Associate Director of Communications Planning, New York, NY April 2010 – December 2010 Gardasil (Merck) and Nicorette (GSK): Channel planning, market segmentation and persona development Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, Senior Planner Miami, FL April 2006 – December 2006 Compass Commercial Bank and Coke Zero

Research and Strategy Consultant, New York, NY Sept 2002 – Aug 2006 Nike + iPod Sensor, Vue Technology, Johnson & Johnson (Ethicon), Kraft, HP Doblin, Senior Design Planner, Chicago, IL Sept 2001 – Aug 2002 Pfizer (Suda- and Bena-), Citibank (Citi Thank YouÔ Card and Citi Rewards) E-Lab / Sapient, Senior Researcher, Chicago, IL Sept 1999 – March 2001 iOptions (an options-trading start-up) and Intel Connected Products Division EDUCATION

University of Chicago

PhD in Anthropology 2002

MA in Anthropology 1993

Princeton University

BA (Honors) in Anthropology 1990

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ Sept 2005 – June 2006 Lecturer, Department of Anthropology

Parsons The New School of Design, New York, NY Sept 2004 – June 2006 Visiting Lecturer, Department of Strategic Design & Management CONFERENCES and NETWORKS

EPIC (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference): Equity Council, 2023- ; Co-Chair, Pecha Kucha EPIC 2022 and 2021; Curator, EPIC 2020; Presenter, EPIC 2011; Reviewer, 2008-2018; American Anthropological Association SKILLS:

Strategic design thinking, participatory design, prototyping, wireframing, quantitative/qualitative research, ethnography, usability testing, diary studies, benchmark studies, lab studies, survey design, behavioral research, heuristic evaluation, contextual inquiries, data analysis/visualization, hypothesis testing, online experiments, site intercepts, A/B testing, focus groups, secondary research, competitive analysis, card sorting, remote testing, rapid iterative prototype evaluation, personas, JTBD, customer journeys, scenario development, workshop planning, concept development, vendor acquisition, participant recruiting.

TOOLS: Qualtrics, UserTesting, dscout, Survey Monkey, Figma, Miro, Sketch, Optimal Workshop, Adobe Suite, Microsoft Office Suite

LANGUAGES: Native English and Spanish speaker, fluent in French

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