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Info
- Summary
I’m an imaginative and entrepreneurial whitespace explorer, user empathy builder, knowledge synthesizer and sandbox player. More creative than geek. Empirically-driven concepts about evolving social meaning are created with Lean UX teams resultng in vivid and actionable narratives, user models, and prototypes.
Propose and validate (or counter) theories using experience research, business and market data. Inform product and business pivots.Thrive integrated in cross-functional teams.
I get companies out of buildings; an ace investigator of product and service landscapes, how people live and think.
EPIC Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference - Board Member
Specialties: experience maps & design product/service/brand/business strategy Lean UX mobile devices/apps, mobility, context-awareness cross-platform user behaviors social digital media hi-tech home entertainment use of built environments getting to 'why'Experience- Oct 2012 - PresentSr. Human Experience Researcher / Autodesk
- Mar 2012 - Oct 2012UX Dean of UZ University / UserZoom
Building a value-add component: strategy, content development and experience design of content to boost UX research success. Exclusive to UserZoom customers.
Unmoderated remote usability researcher for mobile and web products and services.
- Apr 2011 - Mar 2012Strategic UX Researcher / Real Life Research
Research consulting, expanding (my) horizons.
~ Intuit: Semi-moderated remote and field ethnographic cross-platform research among consumers & small businesses toward design guidelines.
~ VMware: Strategic web design research including personas and user model generation; online survey with Survey Monkey, web analytics with Omniture SiteCatalyst, findings visualizations for LEVEL Studios.
- Jan 2011 - Apr 2011Lead sabbatical-taker / Sabbatical
Reading, writing, more writing.
- 2008 - 2011Community Manager / Trend Micro
Stepped forward to manage Trend Community, a public-facing B2C Lithium community.
- Concurrent with Sr. UX Research role
- Manager and Spirit Animal of Trend Community
- Support, product development and brand management objectives
- Steady and real-time interaction with customers and employees informed UX Research goals and influence.
- World-wide collaboration between employees, affiliates and the market - 2006 - 2011Sr. UX Researcher / Trend Micro
Proposed and conducted strategic enterprise and core technology studies, significantly informing product and business direction. Direct and continuous involvement of key stakeholders.
* Customer and non-customer informants
* Competitive and market analyses
* Diary studies among IT Admins and managers; introduced diary studies at Trend Micro
* Ethnographic interviews and extended observation of office and plant operations
* Debriefings and deep dives into data with product managers, fellow researchers
* Global presentations customized to team interests conducted with the SME key stakeholder
* Evangelizing to adjunct teams and executives
Consumer research on home wireless device and infrastructure practices
* Significant influence on product interface and feature developmentPrimary research on consumerization of smartphone use and security attitudes, and resulting architecture in IT ecosystems.
Trained and mentored Asian-based UX employees in ethnography methods for use in China and Taiwan.
- 2005 - 2007Ethnographer / Habitat for Humanity
Pro bono.
- 2004 - 2005Senior UX Researcher / Yahoo
Ethnographer for the Search and Marketplace Group.
- 2002 - 2004UX Researcher @ PlayTable>Surface>PixelSense & Game Studios / Microsoft
Generative and complex proof of concept contract ethnographic research.
New Consumer Products Incubation - Microsoft PlayTable
Conducted the first multi-phase ethnographic study among 7 Seattle area families. Early large-scale horizontal NUI interface.
- Research on a technology unknown publically at the time
- Redesigned the original research plan for more complete results: group and individual semi-formal interviews, participant observation with developers & designers, assisted storytelling, in-lab demonstration, semiotic testingMicrosoft Game Studios
Proof of concept and Playtest lab studies of emerging technolgies and game concepts among female gamers. - 2002 - 2002Xbox Game Quality Administrator / Microsoft
- 1998 - 2002VAM / Microsoft
Managed 40+ vendors to optimize a $2M annual budget.
Analysis and reporting on 30K open-ended survey responses, completed in three weeks.
Simultaneous usability mentorship at Microsoft Research.Relocated Charlotte > Redmond in 20 days, $2K under budget
Education- University of California, Los AngelesMA in Socio-Cultural Anthropology
- The University of New MexicoBUS in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, European History
Activities: On-air personality on NPR station KUNM-FM. - Harvard UniversityEconomics, Math, PR/Advertising, Anthropology
- Outward BoundCertificate in SE Utah Wilderness Canyoneering
- University of WashingtonSoftware Program Management Certificate work
Additional Information-
Honors:Music Letter: Shawnee Mission East High School, Prairie Village, Kansas. Sophomore year.
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Interests:Winner on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me". Indie film/animation, rock scrambling, hiking, painting furniture, video games, internet radio, alternative realities, PADI diving, indigenous textiles, the art of fashion.
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Tweets
- This Wilhite agrees. Language is organic. “@agolis: No seriously, language doesn't work that way. I'll pronounce GIF however I want.”
- "If you're going to go up to the bell, ring it." Mel Brooks #AmericanMasters
- @SamuelAAdams Catch is, other less exciting things happen with gray hair.
- @ScottBrownMA Chipotle = a Coca-Cola subsidiary. Why not patronize a local, family-owned restaurant? The American Dream in action.
- A fable: luck is not coming to those who keep finding the same dime.
- For "heroes" (gag)“@KuraFire: I just discovered @Draper_U by @TimDraper; cannot stress how excited I am about this new type of university.”
- RT @ev: Everything is going according to no plan.
- @tomcoates Nimoy projects an admirable mien, better than many actors.
- @tomcoates Walter Koening is embarrassing? I can see The Shat but the others, not so sure.
- @robbiekanner That will be so much fun.
- @robbiekanner What will be even harder?
- “@odannyboy: @Maggid I was only teasing...” Plus, my design team didn't get a book.
- .@odannyboy : people remember differently. Taking notes isn't cheating. It means I AM paying attention. #BayCHI
- Someday there may be hint, what good all this staying informed does for me really. #signal+noise
- New habit of the 21st Century #18: Constantly plugging and unplugging cords from power strips and sockets. #thedeclineofswitches
- "Telephone instrument dial design and use as influence on the length of women's fingernails"
- Interesting. “@flowchainsensei: "By the excessive promotion of leadership, we demote everyone else." ~ Mintzberg”
- Autodesk's 2013 Sustainability Report http://t.co/zNG4BvwlCA #sustainability The future of construction, infrastructure, manufacturingMay 07, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Taking House Seat, Sanford Cements a Return to Politics, via @nytimes #sodisappointed http://t.co/o1MvCgZqGS
- Okay, who's working on a poop-proof escalator? http://t.co/cJNiDDwFA0
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Checkins
- Colma BART Station365 D St
- 24th St. Mission BART Station2800 Mission St
- Colma BART Station365 D St
- Pacifica Farmers Market450 Manor Plz
- Embarcadero BART Station298 Market St.
- Autodesk1 Market St.
- the Landmark @ One Market1 Market St
- Starbucks1 Market Plz
- Colma BART Station365 D St
- Sigmund Stern Grove2750 19th Ave
- Dolce & Salato3613 Sacramento St
- Patrick Richards Salon3631 Sacramento St
- City of San FranciscoAnywhere!
- San Francisco State University1600 Holloway Ave
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Map
- Dallas and NY2013-04-17 - 2013-04-19
- Trip to Portland.2013-04-09 - 2013-04-12
- UCLA lecture2013-02-11 - 2013-02-13
- Culture-packed Weekend2013-01-12 - 2013-01-13
- San Francisco, CA, November 20122012-11-30 - 2012-11-30
