Mindi Levinson
Norfolk,MA
Websites
Quote
Simple is hard. Easy is harder. Invisible is hardest.
Jean-Louis Gassee
Summary
User experience leader with a track record of motivating high-performing teams. Known for taking a results-oriented approach and delivering impactful outcomes. Proven expertise establishing user experience teams in the enterprise.
Overview
19
19
years of professional experience
Skills
- Collaborative leadership
- Team-Building
- Coaching and mentoring
- Staff management
- Hiring & retention
- Stakeholder relations
- Research & design operations
- Design systems
- Mixed-method research studies
- Usability testing and benchmarking
- Surveys and data analysis
- Voice of customer & Voice of employee
Work History
Sr. Director Product Design & Research
Cision
07.2023 - Current
- Led the unification of two design teams after a company merger.
- Looked after a diverse team of ux managers and individual contributors during a time of company upheaval and uncertainty.
- Fostered a work culture of collaboration and inclusion to increase morale and reduce turnover.
- Worked closely with design, customer experience, and product partners to build a vision for the design team.
- Established performance goals for the department and methods for reaching milestones.
- Built a career ladder for ux design and profiles for each job level.
- Oversaw research and design operations including tooling, participant recruitment, and partner relationships.
Director, Design Research
Cision
10.2022 - 07.2023
- Established a research practice in a B2B enterprise environment.
- Worked closely with design, customer experience, and product partners to build a vision for the research team.
- Hired and looked after a diverse team of ux researchers.
- Educated and guided usage of research approaches for a variety of circumstances, moving across qualitative and quantitative, attitudinal and behavioral.
- Established performance goals for the department and methods for reaching milestones.
- Built a career ladder for ux research and profiles for each job level.
- Oversaw research operations including tooling, participant recruitment, and partner relationships.
- Designed, built, and maintained a user research library
- Managed the research budget
Assistant VP, Experience Design Research Manager
FM Global
07.2018 - 09.2022
- Established a research practice in a B2B enterprise environment.
- Established performance goals for department and methods for reaching milestones.
- Hired and managed employees to maximize productivity while training staff on best practices and protocols.
- Educated and guided usage of research approaches for a variety of circumstances, moving across qualitative and quantitative, attitudinal and behavioral.
- Worked with direct reports on training and development plans.
- Established a UX benchmarking framework to measure product improvement in an Agile environment
- Designed, built, and maintained a user research library
- Established a standard UX research toolset
- Managed the UX research budget and vendor relationships
Director, User Research
Curriculum Associates Inc
11.2017 - Current
- Managed and provided direction for 3 UX Researchers; including performance reviews, training plans, & project resource plans
- Established and nurtured site relationships for ethnographic research
- Leveraged data (quantitative & qualitative) from multiple work streams to identify areas for product improvement
Sr. Manager, UX Design Research
CVS Health
05.2016 - 10.2017
- Managed experience design research strategy across the digital portfolio
- Brought research in-house by building an internal research team, thereby lessening reliance on vendors and reducing the cost of in-person usability testing by 55%
- Tripled the number of usability tests executed annually (on a flat budget) by introducing remote testing
- Supervised and provided direction for the UX research team; including performance management and career guidance
- Built new processes adding rigor to the UX research team; including test prioritization and analysis
- Managed the UX research budget and vendor relationships
Sr. Manager of User Experience
CVS Health
09.2015 - 05.2016
- Managed large-scale projects and introduced new systems, tools, and processes to achieve challenging objectives.
- Hired, coached, and managed a team of UX designers
- Partnered with business owners and IT to craft experiences that fit users needs and were technically feasible to implement
- Built interactive prototypes, design specifications, and interaction guidelines
- Supervised and directed designers and design teams to keep projects on-track and tasks prioritized.
UX/UI Manager
Utilidata, Inc.
05.2014 - 07.2015
- Built a UX/UI team from the ground up at a startup company
- Hired, coached, and managed team members
- Researched and proposed new solutions to make company websites more user-friendly.
- Tested websites at different design and production stages to assess compliance with designs.
- Identified, documented and reported on technical factors impacting interface performance.
- Designed creative assets to achieve marketing objectives.
Sr. User Experience Analyst
Sun Life Financial
07.2012 - 05.2014
- Conducted ethnographic research with customers
- Designed creative to achieve marketing objectives.
- Created maps, models and templates for diverse projects.
- Built diagrams to outline system interactions and sequences
- Created global design guidelines.
- Contributed to a quarterly newsletter covering various design and research topics
- Introduced and supported a standard user experience survey for Sun Life
- Created project plan templates and guides for integrating UX into an agile environment
User Experience Specialist
Boeing
01.2006 - 07.2012
- Led a redesign of Boeing's Learning and Training system
- Created company-wide educational guides on informal usability testing and interactive prototyping
- Co-developed a series of interactive tutorials designed to teach non-user experience professionals about UX and how to carry out informal testing
- Served as user experience designer for a web application that provided visibility of cost and consumption for managers and executives
- Developed user interface specification documents for web and desktop applications
Usability Specialist
Aditi Technologies (Consultant At Microsoft)
09.2005 - 12.2005
- Conducted user research through interviews, surveys, and contextual inquiry
- Created prototypes for usability testing
- Conducted both formal and informal usability tests
Usability Specialist
Infinite Computer Solutions(Consultant At Southwestern Bell)
11.2004 - 04.2005
- Analyzed business requirements and user needs
- Assisted in screen mock-ups, modeling, wire-frames, graphic design, and user testing of the product
- Revised and reworded user help screens and error messages.
Education
Master of Science - Human-Computer Interaction
DePaul University
Chicago, ILBachelor of Science - Computer Science
Webster University
Webster Groves, MOBachelor of Arts - Anthropology
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, MOTimeline
Sr. Director Product Design & Research
Cision
07.2023 - Current
Director, Design Research
Cision
10.2022 - 07.2023
Assistant VP, Experience Design Research Manager
FM Global
07.2018 - 09.2022
Director, User Research
Curriculum Associates Inc
11.2017 - Current
Sr. Manager, UX Design Research
CVS Health
05.2016 - 10.2017
Sr. Manager of User Experience
CVS Health
09.2015 - 05.2016
UX/UI Manager
Utilidata, Inc.
05.2014 - 07.2015
Sr. User Experience Analyst
Sun Life Financial
07.2012 - 05.2014
User Experience Specialist
Boeing
01.2006 - 07.2012
Usability Specialist
Aditi Technologies (Consultant At Microsoft)
09.2005 - 12.2005
Usability Specialist
Infinite Computer Solutions(Consultant At Southwestern Bell)
11.2004 - 04.2005
Master of Science - Human-Computer Interaction
DePaul University
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
Webster University
Bachelor of Arts - Anthropology
Washington University in St. Louis
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