Outcome-driven Solutions Architect with 10+ years of experience creating user-centered solutions that align business goals, technical constraints, and user needs. Skilled in stakeholder collaboration, research, data analytics, and Service Design to deliver cohesive, end-to-end experiences across products and touchpoints.

Ph.D. Human-Computer Interaction Iowa State University (2015)

B.A. Computer Science
St. Olaf College (2009)

Experience

UX Solutions Architect

Sandia National Laboratories, Sept. 2022 - Present

• Improving multi-touchpoint cross-product experiences in HR systems by focusing on consistency, scalability, andusability, leveraging frameworks, analytics, and user journey mapping.
• Enabling better data access for analysts by reimagining how enterprise data is requested, granted, and managed, through the creation of standardized processes, user profiles, and governance structures.
• Enhancing IT service design and delivery by focusing on service value chains, understanding end-user outcomes, business requirements, and optimizing existing workflows.
• Matured UX requirements in a software quality framework by promoting user-centric thinking throughout the productlifecycle, integrating standards, pattern libraries, and best practices.
• Increased UX scores by 20%+ for enterprise applications by conducting outcome-driven research focused on translating business requirements into user-centered solutions.
• Exploring AI integration in Enterprise IT through user interviews, literature reviews, and analysis of industry trends to inform the development of corporate applications.

Lead User Experience UX Researcher

CrowdStrike, Jul. 2022 - Sept. 2023

• Collaborated with cross-functional agile teams to research, design, architect, and develop solutions that fine-tune user experiences with a low-code workflow automation platform.
• Incorporated UX metrics within the research and design process to identify trends and benchmark performance.
• Advocated for cohesive, consistent, and intuitive experiences across platform modules by communicating research insights across the organization.
• Reduced participant recruitment effort by deploying a custom data analytics tool that cut down on the steps required to solicit study participants. Supported development of participant tracking database to limit customer oversampling.
• Mentored researchers, visual designers, and project owners on UX evaluation techniques through one-on-one coaching sessions.

Senior UX Researcher

Sandia National Labs, Jul. 2015 - Jul. 2022

• Enriched enterprise product and service experiences by conducting qualitative and quantitative UX research; demonstrated measurable ROI using analytics and metrics.
• Evolved UX research capability by leading initiatives focusing on standards, templates, processes, and software tools to support the UX community at Sandia.
• Streamlined how UX data is collected, analyzed, and communicated by creating custom software tools (Python, R, Excel) for designers and researchers.
• Facilitated user-centered design training to equip 100+ project managers with practical UX design and research skills.
• Simplified how 80+ IT services are discovered and requested. Leveraged journey mapping, touchpoint analysis, and service design to implement an IT service catalog in WordPress.
• Directed a cross-functional team to draft a UX strategy for benchmarking IT products and services that focused on metrics and user feedback.

Graduate Research Assistant

Iowa State University, Jan. 2011 - Jul. 2015

• Conducted field studies to evaluate how industry professionals use virtual reality (VR) in product design decisionmaking.
• Investigated future applications of immersive VR and its integration with normative and descriptive design methodologies. Published research findings in peer-reviewed journals and presented at academic and industry conferences.

Design Research Intern

Microsoft, Summer 2013

• Influenced the design thinking of designers and product managers by providing user-centered insights on core Desktop experiences in Windows 8.
• Designed and executed qualitative research studies to forecast end-user reception of Windows 8.1 updates, delivering actionable insights to product teams.

HCI Research Intern

Biomedical Informatics Research Center, Summer 2012

• Strengthened designers’ and managers’ understanding of how medical staff interact with electronic health record (EHR) systems through in-depth user research.
• Identified and communicated usability issues in an EHR prototype by conducting usability tests, heuristic evaluations, interviews, and focus groups with physicians.

Academic Research

Enhanced Immersive Technology to Improve Collaborative Decision Making

Funded by the National Science Foundation, research explored new design methodology combining analytic tools for design decision making and immersive, sensory environments to support complex design. Iowa State University. 2011-2015.

Capstone Research Project: Image Compression

Directed a team of students in the design and implementation of an image compression algorithm in Python. Researched existing literature to establish goal benchmarks. Final design compressed image data by exploiting polygon mesh connectivity utilizing a special segmentation method. St. Olaf College. Fall 2009.

Sociotechnical Analysis of Regents Hall

Conceptualized prospective human-computer interactions within the Regents Hall of Natural Science at St. Olaf College. Surveyed collaborative spaces to identify potential interaction issues. Observed and interviewed potential users to influence future space alterations. Presented findings and recommendations to the building's design team. St. Olaf College. Spring 2008.