I distill and prioritize user needs in order to make complex systems easier to use.
I distill and prioritize user needs in order to make complex systems easier to use.
Hi, I'm Caroline! I have over 10 years of experience as an experience researcher. I started working as a researcher as an undergrad in summer National Science Foundation programs and found my niche in User Experience and Product research once I finished my Ph.D. in May 2015. I have worked in the robotics field, focusing on physical product experience research (e.g., self-driving cars, consumer robots) and more recently have focused on digital experiences with financial products. I find that my expertise really lies in understanding how to boil down important, complex systems for easier, more enjoyable decision-making.
BILL
Staff Product Researcher, Accounts Payable
April 2022 - PresentResearch lead for the Accounts Payable product team. Practicing mixed method research including usability testing, moderated interviews, survey design & analysis with users from small- and medium-sized businesses. Helping to establish research processes and developing resources for quantitative research. Managed PhD student intern.
Capital One
Principal User Experience Researcher, Small Business Card Design
January 2022 - April 2022Research cohort lead for the Small Business Card Design team. Established onboarding materials and led onboarding for 6 new researchers. Individually mentored an early-career researcher.
Senior User Experience Researcher, Small Business Card Design
May 2020 - January 2022Research lead for the servicing and high credit line divisions of the Small Business Card Design team. Duties included: design and execution of usability testing, customer interviews, and surveys, coordination with product teams, communication of findings to interdisciplinary audiences.
Small Business Connect - co-creator and lead of a monthly research newsletter that is distributed to the entire Small Business Card organization. Established and led a monthly research forum.
Horizontal research support - Enabling broader team designers to run usability tests, developing research templates and best practices, managing team research cohort.
Piaggio Fast Forward
Senior Researcher, Product Innovation
July 2018 - April 2020Reported directly to c-level executive team member (CVO) and regularly presented to CEO and board members.
Product pipeline research and ideation lead for the gita consumer robot product line - created 92 product ideas and narrowed down to 4 designs. Used Magic Leap AR headset to help determine product sizes and carrying capacities. Newly released gita mini is derived from the 4 pipeline designs.
Data privacy research lead including coordinating with engineering teams to determine on-board robot data recording and sharing needs in accordance with GDPR and CCPA data privacy laws.
Experimental design lead for human-robot interaction studies, completed literature review, and ideation for understandable robot behaviors with the Smart Behaviors group.
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.
Senior Member of Technical Staff, Human-Systems Collaboration Engineer
May 2015 - June 2018Selected Projects:
Highly Automated Driving - Design team lead for self-driving car’s tablet interface. Developed 12 personas for using automated vehicles. Executed in-person surveys, observation, and interviews of clients and test riders in a self-driving car. Managed development team of 3.
Co-Adaptive Human-Computer Interaction - Design team lead for internally funded research project to model user behavior and adapt software to match user needs. Managed 4-person team of designers, handled budgeting and task planning with project lead. Presented to CEO.
Web Team Awareness Kit (WebTAK) - Designer & researcher. Led contextual inquiry research and design of map-based situational awareness web tool, an extension of an existing desktop application and phone application. WebTAK has subsequently been used at large events, such as the 2021 presidential inauguration.Vanderbilt University | Nashville, TN - Ph.D.
June 2009 - May 2015Dissertation Title: Workload and task performance in human-robot peer-based teamsAdvisor: Julie A. Adams (now at Oregon State University)Department: Computer ScienceVanderbilt University | Nashville, TN - M.S.
August 2009 - May 2011Department: Computer Science, Systems & Software Engineering focusGPA: 3.9/4.0University of Virginia | Charlottesville, VA - B.A.
August 2005 - May 2009Department: Interdisciplinary Computer Science