Michelle Peterson
Cedar Park,TX
Summary
I am a User Experience leader and strategist, as well as an expert in human cognition and quantitative and qualitative research methods. I have a robust knowledge of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) theory and Design Thinking best practices. I have outstanding strategic, analytical, problem solving, planning, interpersonal, and business skills. Over the course of my career, I have worked in both B2B and B2C environments.
As a leader, I have built UX teams from the ground up and have influenced cross-functional teams, including Product Management and Engineering, to adopt processes that maximize the user experience of products while deftly handling technological constraints and increasing value for the business.
Complementing my industry role, I contribute to the academic sphere as an Adjunct Professor at The University of Texas at Austin, focusing on Human-Computer Interaction, User Experience Design, and User Experience Research. This dual engagement allows me to capitalize on my deep understanding of human cognition in digital interactions, enabling me to craft educational experiences that prepare the next generation of UX professionals, while also embedding cutting-edge academic principles into practical, industry-leading research methodologies.
Overview
33
33
years of professional experience
Work History
User Experience Manager
Indeed
Austin, TX
10.2017 - 05.2024
- Analyzed user feedback to identify opportunities for improvement in the user experience.
- Created personas, identified jobs to be done, and defined user journeys to better inform product and design decisions.
- Provided strategic guidance on how to improve usability and accessibility of products while meeting business goals.
- Conducted regular usability testing sessions with target users during development cycles.
- Conducted user research and interviews to understand users' needs, behaviors, and motivations.
- Created detailed reports outlining findings from user research activities or usability tests.
- Participated in project planning meetings with product management, technical leads, and engineers.
- Managed external vendors providing UX services.
- Collaborated with stakeholders to ensure that UX best practices were being followed throughout the product development cycle.
- Facilitated workshops with stakeholders and customers to gather requirements for new projects or features.
- Created A and B tests to validate hypotheses about customer behavior changes based on UX designs.
- Educated other team members about UX principles through presentations or hands-on training sessions.
- Maintained an up-to-date knowledge of industry trends related to UX processes and technologies.
- Performed heuristic evaluations of competitor websites or apps to uncover best practices in UX design.
- Led cross-functional teams of designers, developers, product owners, and other stakeholders in creating a unified experience across products.
- Designed responsive web interfaces for improved user experience.
- Created wireframes, mockups, and prototypes to guide development.
- Maintained up-to-date knowledge of industry trends and standards.
- Managed multiple projects while adhering to tight deadlines.
- Conferred with management and development teams to prioritize needs, resolve conflicts, and develop solutions.
- Delivered accessibility-conscious designs compliant with WCAG guidelines.
- Leveraged expertise in user preferences and accessibility requirements to establish design specifications and optimize approaches.
- Developed mobile-first designs for cross-platform compatibility.
- Coordinated production across stages from concept and design development through final testing and optimization.
- Collaborated with developers to implement seamless user flows.
- Conducted A/B testing to optimize key metrics.
Vice President of Research
Sentier Strategic Resources, LLC
01.2016 - 01.2017
- Define, develop, and refine overall business strategy and service offerings for this small, custom consultancy, as a member of the Executive Leadership Team
- Execute business development and client relations processes
- Manage and guide staff in designing and conducting UX and market research, as well as design thinking and business strategy exercises for clients
- Specialize in projects focused on the complex domains of Enterprise systems, Healthcare Human Factors, and Information Technology (IT) Professionals
- Provide User Experience and Human-Computer Interaction consulting and expert reviews.
Senior Manager, Experience Design & Head of UX Research
Rackspace Hosting
01.2012 - 01.2016
- Built the UX/Design Research capability at Rackspace from the ground up
- Put in place tools, methods, and processes in order to systematize research practices as part of a user-centered design process in the growing Rackspace Experience Design Group
- Recruited, managed, and retained strong team of UX researchers and data scientists who conducted primary and secondary research at all touchpoints across the customer journey
- Removed barriers to efficient recruiting and compensation of study participants
- Trained and mentored inexperienced designers and product managers unfamiliar with UX research methods
- Implemented Lean UX research activities in order to make existing processes more efficient
- Drove improvements to the existing customer experience based on research results.
Senior User Experience Engineer
Dell Inc.
01.2010 - 01.2012
- Discerned strategic insights from primary and secondary user research in the domain of virtualization management and enterprise private cloud
- Drove research-based requirements to executive leadership and product teams in pursuit of a best-in-class user experience for Dell’s Next Generation Computing Solutions
- Developed personas for Dell’s Next Generation Computing Solutions, including new roles and tasks for those organizations transitioning to a private cloud architecture
- Analyzed social media data, using tools such as Radian6, to find trends impacting the user experience of Dell’s enterprise solutions
- Drove a strategy for a consistent user experience across Dell’s plug-ins to Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager and VMWare vCenter Server
- Conducted user research necessary to the development of an interaction design style guide and SDK for Dell’s virtualization plug-ins
- Collaborated with market researchers to produce actionable, strategic quantitative research to inform both product planning and user experience design activities.
Online Experience Manager
Usability Sciences Corporation
01.2006 - 01.2010
- Provided expertise to sales personnel in a pre-sales role to ensure that the solutions offered to clients matched their needs
- Supervised and maintained the research skills of online experience analysts through training and mentoring
- Developed new solution offerings and contributed to the improvement of existing solutions
- Conducted quantitative and qualitative user experience research combining website analytics data and large-sample survey responses
- Led projects for Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies, including multinational websites, in a variety of industries including pharmaceutical, travel, consumer goods, and education
- Provided services that included understanding the clients’ objectives, developing the necessary survey, administering data collection, analyzing both survey and clickstream data, and providing a detailed written report and presentation.
Senior Usability Analyst
Usability Sciences Corporation
01.2003 - 01.2006
- Designed and executed user experience research including focus groups, lab-based projects, and field studies
- Led projects for many high-profile clients including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Dell, SAP, and Verizon
- Moderated sessions in numerous locations around the United States and in foreign countries including Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia
- Established comprehensive training program for new usability analysts which reduced total training time while increasing ultimate quality of analysts’ performance.
Usability Engineer
Microsoft Corporation
01.2001 - 01.2003
- Conducted primary and secondary research that guided the vision for and design of major features in the Windows client software and the MSN 8 Internet client software
- Collaborated with marketing and product planning teams to conduct large scale research efforts, translated the results into actionable recommendations, and drove those recommendations into positive change within the product
- Advanced a user-centered design process within feature teams and ensured that team members maintained a customer focus when making decisions
- Conceived and designed a usability issues tracking system used by 25-member usability team.
Post-doctoral Researcher
Carnegie Mellon University
01.1999 - 01.2001
- Designed and implemented experiments as part of a large multi-university collaborative project
- Experiments consisted of behavioral, fMRI, and ERP investigations of episodic recognition memory with the goal of relating behavioral and brain activity data with a computational model of memory
- Collected and analyzed complex quantitative data using a variety of software tools
- Published findings in peer-review journals and presented at both internal symposia and professional conferences
- Managed a staff of research assistants and organized regular meetings of the principle investigators and other researchers working on the entire project.
Research Lab Manager
University of Florida
01.1991 - 01.1996
- Coordinated and supervised researchers and other staff members
- Contributed to complex studies using behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology, and psychopharmacology methods
- Secured funding from government grant programs for additional research projects.
Education
Ph.D. - Cognitive Psychology
University of Florida
01-2000
M.S. - Cognitive Psychology
University of Florida
01-1998
B.S. - Psychology
University of Florida
01-1995
Skills
- Expertise in human cognition
- Quantitative and qualitative research methods
- Robust knowledge of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) theory and best practices
- Rapid prototyping and evaluation of hardware, software, and web-based products
- Ethnography & contextual inquiry
- Social media data mining
- Website analytics
- Card sorts
- Heuristic evaluations/expert reviews
- Cognitive walk-throughs
- Formative & summative user tests
- Persona development
- Focus groups
- Innovation Games
- Questionnaires & surveys
- Eye-tracking
- Strategic, analytical, problem-solving, planning, interpersonal, and general business skills
- Strong oral and written communication skills
References
See LinkedIn profile for recommendations and endorsements from clients, colleagues, and managers: www.linkedin.com/in/michellepeterson/
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
User Experience Manager
Indeed
10.2017 - 05.2024
Vice President of Research
Sentier Strategic Resources, LLC
01.2016 - 01.2017
Senior Manager, Experience Design & Head of UX Research
Rackspace Hosting
01.2012 - 01.2016
Senior User Experience Engineer
Dell Inc.
01.2010 - 01.2012
Online Experience Manager
Usability Sciences Corporation
01.2006 - 01.2010
Senior Usability Analyst
Usability Sciences Corporation
01.2003 - 01.2006
Usability Engineer
Microsoft Corporation
01.2001 - 01.2003
Post-doctoral Researcher
Carnegie Mellon University
01.1999 - 01.2001
Research Lab Manager
University of Florida
01.1991 - 01.1996
Ph.D. - Cognitive Psychology
University of Florida
M.S. - Cognitive Psychology
University of Florida
B.S. - Psychology
University of Florida
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