CX-UX Research / Product Architect

Proactive problem solver: Derive unmet (often, unrealized) needs of target population; execute on insights for products that are customer magnets. Skills: product strategy, quantitative/qualitative research, project management, user segmentation, personas, ethnography, heuristics, journey maps, site maps, storyboards, change management, customer experience. Lean, agile, scrum, cascade/waterfall methodologies. Expert presentation, communication, negotiation. Fast learner, innovator. Purpose-focused and solution-driven.

Actionable solutions that achieve business goals, provide measurable results, delight customers

·      Reengineered S&P's proposed online rating service from a simple entry form into an information resource that their B2B customers love. Competitors had nothing similar: service’s sales dominated the rating market, achieved unprecedented customer loyalty.

·      Self-service solution for Qwest's SMB customers transformed this losing market segment into a dynamic profit center.

·      Corporate B2B personas depict target organizations' decision pathways; clarified B2B sales strategy. Sales quadrupled.

·      Architected first major bank’s online banking.  Citibank’s launch exceeded projected customer retention/acquisition by huge margin.

·      Reengineered segmentation, content, focus of IBM Education Division. First post-release quarter: $15 million over projection.

Experience

CX/UX research, product strategy, project management for Raytheon, Pfizer, S&P, others.                         2006 – Present

Raytheon, Billerica, MA   CX/UX Research / Human Factors Engineer / Product Architect / Team Management

Problem: An enterprise portal must be planned and architected from inception as part of the company's infrastructure, with business drivers clarified. This was not done. All 15 RTN divisions refused to deploy the portal. Assignment: salvage portal. Actions: Analyze, solve problems; research each division’s tactical needs; find smallest possible change that would ensure portal met specific needs.  Optimize content, navigation; install metrics systems and management dashboards. All divisions accepted the redesigned portal. Process:

·      Field/contextual research, surveys, focus groups, card sorting, one-on-one interview, heuristic walkthroughs. Triangulation validation procedures. Led participatory design sessions. Iterative usability tests.  Balanced multiple parallel and overlapping initiatives & teams.

·      Craft creative direction that eliminated pain points; drove design/build of conceptual model including personas, user journey maps, storyboards, functional prototypes. Seamlessly integrated with mobile interface. Change strategy and metrics.

·      Managed project; crafted ROI, market, competitive, SWAT analyses; trained team. Plan included cultural change issues.

Vertex Inc, Berwyn, PA  Product Strategy / CX-UX Research / Change Management / Management Consulting / Project Plan
Established B2B tax/financial software company faced evolving price/cost structure, delivery mechanisms, partners, competitive structure, customer objectives. Actions: mapped new initiatives, crafted market/product/competitive analyses, opportunity assessments. Strategic roadmap to navigate changing landscape, including internal issues, new product direction. For sales, introduced B2B company personas, drove from MV POC to release; mapped contact strategies for target companies in geographically dispersed markets.  

Standard and Poor’s, Inc, New York, NY    CX-UX Research / Product Architect            

Contextual/remote customer research for proposed customer-facing interactive online rating service. Used working prototype for studies.  Transformed initial premise into an expanded customer experience that multiplied revenues on release. Prototype: Axure, testing: Morae.

(Company confidential), Rome, ITALY and New York, NY  Project Management  / Product Architect / CX/UX Research
Scope: Improve management’s view of market. Field research program to provide ongoing feeds of qualitative data; digitized qualitative findings and integrated with BI/performance data; appropriately target information streams to corporate/division mgmt. Design web, mobile, IVR and other management dashboards, plus B2B/B2C UIs. Addressed acceptance, change management issues.  Manage multiple parallel initiatives & teams, some remote. Tech: MS-Dynamics optimizes internal/customer interactions, TeaLeaf monitors CX issues/responses; Tridion manages diverse web/mobile sites worldwide, localizes content. CX analytics, multiple sources.

Pfizer, New London, CT (subcontractor, Microsoft project).   Project Plan: User Experience Issues

UX roadmap and plan specifications for new multi-division portal, including change/cultural issues. Crafted journey maps, personas; specified scope, methodologies; implementation.  Adobe AEM to target content for specific roles and locations.

UX research, mobile, VUIs/contact center issues for Citibank, Qwest, State Farm, AT&T, others   1996– 2006

Qwest, Denver, CO & New York, NY   Human Factors Engineer / Product Strategy

Self-service innovation transformed a weak B2B2C market into a profit enter for Qwest. User-friendly wizard enabled SMB executives to create/manage/provision B2C IVRs. Drove wizard from POC to release. Re-engineered legacy IVRs into wizard.

AT&T, various locations, NJ and NY   Project Management / CX/UX Research / Product Strategy/Architecture

Ethnographic research of users’ mobile needs; establish user behaviors/motivations; find gaps for innovative new products. Plan/perform field research; manage research team. Derive insights from data, architect design language, convey findings. Drive results.

Citibank, New York, NY     Human Factors / Product Architect / CX/UX Research

User experience for first major bank’s online retail banking site. ‘Citibank Direct’ exceeded expectations on all KPIs. Ethnographic field research, data tracking/analysis, surveys, discovery interviews; journey maps, visual/navigation metaphors; site architecture; optimize CX.

Additional consulting projects, details available on request   

IBM, (Education Div.) Somers, NY & Thornwood, NY

Business Analysis / Product Strategy

American Stock Exchange, New York, NY

Project Mgmt / Product Strategy

Reuters, New York, NY

Product Re-engineering/ UX Research, Architecture

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
User Experience Architect  / HFE

Chase Bank, New York, NY

CX/UX Research / Product Architect

AT&T, White Plains, NY

UX Research, Human Factors Engineer

State Farm Insurance, Bloomington, IL

CX/UX Research, PM, Contact Center solutions

Call Sciences, Edison, NJ

UX Research, HFE / IVR?VUI Product Architect