User Research 
Kate generates valuable insights through user research, including interviews, contextual inquiry, surveys, pilot groups, and usability testing.

• An insurance company wanted to create a new product to serve their agents better but didn't know if the product they envisioned was desirable. Kate designed and conducted exploratory user research with the agents, analyzed the study, and communicated the insights through personas and journey maps. As a result, the client learned that instead of investing in building the proposed product, they would better serve their agents and customers by removing friction points in their existing process.

• An education company needed to become more competitive by updating its eLearning experience. Kate conducted research with stakeholders, customer support, and customers to understand the difficulties they encountered using their existing system. Kate facilitated design workshops, performed usability testing with users, and analyzed customer support issues and metrics. As a result, the company launched a new eLearning system that reduced their support costs, increased customer satisfaction ratings, and allowed them to compete in the online learning marketplace.

UX Strategy

Using a combination of competitive analysis, market research, product-market fit analysis, and customer feedback, Kate is skilled at helping companies to envision and plan strategic growth opportunities.

• A transportation startup needed to understand the market expectations for a modern, sleek, environmentally-conscious ride-hailing app. Kate conducted field research, observations, and market research, then created a persona and user journey map for their application. She then designed a high-fidelity prototype mapping out a signature branded ride-hailing experience.

Education

Kate has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University and an M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University.