Experience

Reddit, Inc., Seattle, WA - Senior UX Researcher & Lead, Safety

Lead researcher for two product teams, Consumer Safety & Community Safety. Responsible for developing research agendas for both product spaces, managing planning and execution for myself and another researcher, and ensuring research insights translate to product roadmaps. Select impact includes:

• ML-Powered Safety Filters:

• Led end-to-end generative and evaluative research for Reddit’s groundbreaking ML-powered One-Click Safety Filters—one of the platform’s first uses of machine learning to detect safety violations for moderators automatically.

• Synthesized qualitative and quantitative insights to shape ongoing technical and design decisions, laying the groundwork for a pioneering suite of safety features.

• Bad actor behavioral archetypes:

• Conducted foundational research to codify behavioral archetypes of bad actors who target Reddit users, establishing an overarching taxonomy to categorize violative users.

• Enabled design and product teams to develop products targeting bad actors, ML teams to develop new models flagging malicious behavior, and policy teams to develop a more nuanced approach to policy development.

• Long-term Sentiment Benchmarking Program: 

• Managed survey-based benchmarking program that gauges moderator readiness to address critical safety issues. 

• Translated survey insights into ongoing actionable recommendations that directly influenced product roadmaps and strategic decision-making.

• Cross-Functional Impact & Mentorship:

• Collaborate with product, design, engineering, and data science leaders to integrate research insights into strategic roadmaps.

• Managed research planning, execution, and performance for a junior researcher to enhance overall team capability and research quality.

• Developed a framework for documenting the long-term product impact of research initiatives, improving the team’s ability to advocate for research’s organizational value. 

• Led Reddit’s Safety Roundtable program – a cross-team presentation forum driving project visibility and collaboration between disparate Safety org teams and functional groups.

HBO Max, Seattle, WA — UX Researcher (Contract)

January 2020 - PRESENT

I work on the Service Design Team conducting international generative and evaluative research to inform new feature development. Select projects include:

• Personalized Communication: Conducted qualitative research exploring user behaviors and expectations when engaging with streaming service messaging to inform requirements for a new communication feature.

• Profile Concept Testing: Led international concept and usability testing to evaluate the impact of a user profile feature on the safety of kids’ profiles.

• International Feature Comprehension: Designed an international survey evaluating user comprehension of a new streaming feature.

Smashing Ideas, Seattle, WA — Senior Strategist, UX Research

SEPTEMBER 2021 - JANUARY 2022

Smashing Ideas is a UX research and design agency partnering with enterprise clients to create human-centered products and services. 

As a member of SI’s Strategy team, I work with clients to define business goals, conduct user research, and translate findings into actionable opportunities. Select projects include:

• Airline Contextual Inquiry: Currently leading a contextual inquiry study for one of the world’s largest airlines exploring employee communication at airports during the airplane turnaround process. As the lead researcher on a 4-person team, I am responsible for planning our research engagement, managing client relationships, and guiding the team through an intense sprint of field research and synthesis.

Smashing Ideas, Seattle, WA — Strategist, UX Research 

OCTOBER 2020 - AUGUST 2021

• E-Commerce Information Architecture: Conducted a mixed-methods study for one of the world’s largest beverage manufacturers to create a human-centered e-commerce taxonomy that will improve product discoverability for an emerging beverage category.

• IT Service Desk Usability: Conducted an in-depth heuristic evaluation and usability testing on a large healthcare provider’s web and mobile service desk applications, identifying multiple short-term and long-term opportunities to provide a seamless support experience.

• Banking Customer Experience: Partnered with a local credit union to conduct generative research and ideation workshops to understand the experience of new banking customers, resulting in a future-state roadmap for the company’s customer onboarding.

• Agriculture Technology Product Strategy: Partnered with a global agricultural company to shape the product strategy for a new precision agriculture mobile application by conducting generative research with North American farmers and by leading workshops to translate findings into new product concepts.

Flexe, Seattle, WA — Technical Recruiter

MAY 2019 - SEPTEMBER 2020

Flexe is a venture-backed logistics technology startup and was named the second-fastest-growing tech company in Washington by Deloitte.

As an early member of Flexe’s recruiting team, I played an integral role in doubling the size of the company’s engineering team by hiring over 25 new employees in less than one year, conducting 12+ interviews per week to uncover the goals and needs of job candidates, and by collaborating with senior leadership to develop a talent acquisition strategy aligned with the company’s business goals.

As part of a broader DEI initiative, I also implemented new sourcing strategies to increase our engineering team's racial and gender diversity, resulting in a 2x increase in the number of women on the team.

Smashing Ideas, Seattle, WA — Recruiting & Employee Experience

OCTOBER 2017 - MAY 2019

As the agency’s sole recruiter, I leveraged a human-centered design process to improve the company’s onboarding program and led hiring during a high-growth period, resulting in over 30 new hires joining the company.

Search Associates, Seattle, WA — Business Manager

FEBRUARY 2014 - OCTOBER 2017

Search Associates is an education marketplace helping teachers find jobs with international schools abroad.

In a cross-functional role spanning marketing, finance, and operations, I drove key projects for the company’s largest office to increase customer acquisition by 10-20% annually, streamline financial systems, and orchestrate large-scale international events that attracted 850+ attendees.

Education

University of Washington, Seattle, WA — M.S. Human Centered Design & Engineering

Coursework includes: User-centered design; Usability studies; Qualitative research; Experimental research; Theoretical foundations in HCI; Misinformation research; Designing for VR

Publications: Recently submitted a paper for peer review at the 2022 NORDICHI conference exploring the impact of mapping technology (E.g., Google Maps) on gender and racial safety.

University of Washington, Seattle, WA — B.A. Business Administration, Minor in Music