Research for high-stakes product decisions.

Lead-level UX researcher across Reddit's Growth, Trust & Safety, and AI/ML products.

Senior UX Researcher specializing in qualitative research with strong survey craft.

Domain depth in high-stakes, multi-sided platforms and AI/ML products.

Now

  • Leading research across 6 Growth product teams at Reddit: Notifications, Paid User Acquisition, Machine Translation, SEO, Partner Syndication, and Youth Experiences

  • Mentoring junior researchers and partnering with Director-level stakeholders to set research direction across teams

Before

  • Led research for 4 Trust & Safety teams at Reddit, including the AI/ML moderation work behind Reddit's LLM-powered moderation suite

  • UX Researcher at HBO Max (Warner Bros. Discovery)

  • Strategy & innovation consultant at Smashing Ideas, advising Global 500 clients across airline, financial services, healthcare, agriculture, and CPG industries.

Education & publications

  • M.S. in Human Centered Design & Engineering, University of Washington

  • B.A. in Business Administration, UW Foster School of Business

  • CHI 2023 — publication on safety in navigation technology

 

My Skillset

I work across generative and evaluative research, with particular depth in qualitative methods, large-scale survey craft, and AI/ML product evaluation. I'm strongest in ambiguous, high-stakes problem spaces and at translating insight into research-led product strategy.

Research Methods

  • In-depth interviews

  • Contextual inquiry & embedded field research

  • Usability testing

  • Cross-platform benchmarking

  • Large-N survey design & analysis

  • Concept testing & opportunity sizing

  • Journey mapping

  • Card sorting & tree testing

  • User segmentation & personas

  • Participatory design

  • Human-AI / model evaluation

Research Strategy

  • Director-level stakeholder partnership

  • Multi-team research roadmap & portfolio planning

  • Mentorship & development of junior researchers

  • Build-vs-no-build framing & strategic trade-off analysis

  • Cross-functional alignment & program management

  • Research-to-decision pipelines & executive storytelling

  • Design thinking workshops

Domains

  • Trust & Safety; content moderation & harm detection

  • Growth, activation & retention

  • AI/ML, LLM, and Responsible AI evaluation

  • Multi-sided platforms & marketplaces

  • Consumer products & enterprise SaaS

Select Projects

Researching Reddit’s first LLM-powered safety filters

[Coming soon…]

Exploring communication between airline employees

Using contextual inquiry to understand how airline employees share information during the airplane turnaround process

 

Creating a user-centered eCommerce taxonomy

Using mixed-methods research to develop a new information architecture for an emerging beverage category

 
Ty has high output, high quality, and clear product application. He is broadly acknowledged among his peers and directors for his strong presentation and facilitation abilities. He is a cultural asset in Safety and is well-positioned to do the same in Reddit UX.
— Reddit Manager
Ty is constantly asking questions, searching for answers, and geeking out. His curiosity is endless.
— Smashing Ideas Manager