Kasey Canlas
Kasey Canlas
Research Operations Leader & Consultant
Genesys
UX Research Operations Manager
- Founded the UX Research Operations team within a multi-product B2B organization, increasing from a solo role to lead a 4+ UX Operations team, enabling the 90+ UX team to complete 350+ annual research studies across 6 product areas for customer service AI.
- Designed and launched a B2B2C in-house participant panel within 3 months of joining Genesys, growing from 0 to 60+ customers/partners in the first year. Guided team on participant panel expansion to the general population through cross-collaboration, promotional rebrand strategies, and improved workflows to achieve 13x participant panel increase over 3 years.
- Developed and delivered comprehensive research training programs including live sessions, open office hours, and specialized Q&As to enhance team understanding of research methodologies and best practices.
- Served as a strategic UX research advisor to product teams, helping establish research governance frameworks, accessibility guidelines, and ethical research practices that balanced business objectives with user needs.
- A 3-year Genesys Jira Guild member, focused on Jira optimization, best practices and workflows. Initiated Jira transformation by proposing and piloting additional issue levels (Program and Initiative) and structure, which became the base structure company-wide for enhanced project tracking within the project development process.
McGraw-Hill Education
UX Research Operations
- Designed an in-house research participant database, with growth from 300 to 1,600 active members, including school-age children in less than 2 years.
- Collaborated with Legal and Data Privacy to establish a company-wide research governance framework including:
- Panel participation terms
- Participant Informed Consent templates
- NDAs
- Research data privacy policy
- Recruitment and research with people with disabilities
- Established enterprise-wide Research Repository for School UX Research team
Highlights:
- 12+ years of operations experience, with 6+ years building and scaling UX research operations from the ground up at enterprise companies.
- Demonstrated success at scale, growing global research teams from 5 to 20+ researchers across three continents.
- Collaborated with senior leadership across PM, DevOps, Customer Success, Customer Engagement, Data Privacy, Legal, to move forward company-wide initiatives.
Bachelor of Communications, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
UX Certificate with Specialty in UX Management, Nielsen-Norman Group
UX Research Operations Consultants
UX Research Operations Consultants
Rob Brantley
Autodesk, Research Operations Lead
- Scaled research participant panels by 15,000+ members, improving research validity
- Established governance and compliance frameworks, ensuring ethical and privacy-compliant participant management
- Implemented secure research insight storage systems, improving cross-team collaboration
- Worked with vendors to implement AI research tools Relevance.ai, Outset.ai
Kasey Canlas
Research Operations Leader & Consultant
- 12+ years of operations experience, with 6+ years building and scaling UX research operations from the ground up at enterprise companies.
- Demonstrated success at scale, growing global research teams from 5 to 20+ researchers across three continents.
- Collaborated with senior leadership across PM, DevOps, Customer Success, Customer Engagement, Data Privacy, Legal, to move forward company-wide initiatives.
Our Process:
-
- Begin the process by contacting the Guild with your requirements or requesting a consultation with a featured leader.
- Once we know your needs, we will identify leaders who fit your criteria and propose them to you.
- Review and select a leader to meet via Zoom to confirm their suitability.
- If the match is mutually agreeable, we will make contractual and financial arrangements to begin an engagement.
Consultants from the Guild typically work remotely but can also work onsite. When onsite work is required, preference is given to those who live in the same city or region. When a local leader is not available, the Guild selects those willing to travel to work and collaborate in person. For travel and tax considerations, the Guild only works with organizations based in the U.S.
Rob Brantley Senior Research Operations Consultant
Rob Brantley
Senior Research Operations Consultant
Autodesk
Research Operations Lead
- Scaled research participant panels by 15,000+ members, improving research validity
- Established governance and compliance frameworks, ensuring ethical and privacy-compliant participant management
- Implemented secure research insight storage systems, improving cross-team collaboration
- Worked with vendors to implement AI research tools Relevance.ai, Outset.ai
Autodesk
Community Manager
- Launched engagement initiatives that increased participant diversity by 50%
- Developed and executed targeted outreach strategies, improving response rates and research reach
- Integrated participant data with Salesforce and other CRM tools, automating profiling for better recruitment
Highlights:
- Experienced Research Operations Lead focused on streamlining processes, managing participant panels, and ensuring research governance at scale. Skilled in data management, compliance, and operational strategy to support impactful user research.
- Expertise in research governance, participant panel management, and workflow optimization
- Proven track record of scaling research participant communities and improving engagement
- Strong operational leader, reducing researcher administrative burden and improving efficiency
- Skilled in building self-service research tools and training teams on best practices
- Currently focused on building AI-powered automation systems for lead generation
B.A. in Communications & Information Sciences | Psychology – The University of Alabama
Research-Ops: Operationalizing & Socializing User Research – NN/g
Data Analytics Bootcamp – Nashville Software School
Debbie Levitt UX Research Leader
Debbie Levitt
UX Research Leader
Various Freelance Projects
- Qualitative generative and evaluative research for Sanofi, helping them understand and improve pharmaceutical claims and returns.
- Qualitative generative research for a famous two-sided marketplace. 71 interviews with sellers. Then did a moderated and unmoderated card sort to understand how to improve the “list your item” form.
- Qualitative discovery research for a fintech startup who hadn’t found product-market fit. We interviewed target audiences, found the problems, and invented how the startup might approach solving them.
- Qualitative generative and evaluative research for an innovative student-focused system at Arizona State University. Research heavily impacted strategies, decisions, and designs.
Strategy Consulting and Department Rebuilding
- 6-month contract to help StepStone/TotalJobs improve their UX teams and practices. Coached Researchers and Designers. Delivered a strategic change plan to C-level execs.
- 3-month contract to help a CX/UX agency organize internal processes. Coached the team. Invented processes to manage daily operations, work reviews, and projects. Advised the CEO and board on various decisions.
Portfolio
Highlights:
Debbie is an experienced leader with a track record of building and leading diverse research and design teams, shaping product vision, influencing strategies, and driving initiatives. She has many years of experience in CX and UX strategy, research, information architecture, interaction design, prototyping, testing, and more.
- Helping companies from startups and Fortune 200s strategize customer experiences, understand user needs, and innovate experiences that truly solve problems.
- Coming from the work, Debbie has many years of experience in CX and UX strategy, research, information architecture, interaction design, prototyping, testing, and more. Often brought in as a player-coach.
- Author of multiple books and articles teaching companies and teams how to achieve business goals through customer-centricity. Over 1000 instructional videos on YouTube.
Jessica Bluestone
Jessica Bluestone
Behavioral Researcher
Cultural Responsivity and Service Delivery
- Led end-to-end mixed-methods research to optimize behavioral health services for 10,000+ ethnically and culturally diverse families.
- Leveraged advanced statistical software to identify key pain points, informing data-driven improvement in service provision.
- Developed and facilitated staff training workshops, enhancing cultural competence across organizations and driving an increase in consumer retention.
- Led and mentored teams of junior researchers, fostering growth and skill development in research methodologies.
- Developed and implemented strategies to improve culturally competent service delivery, positively impacting stakeholders satisfaction and community engagement.
Portfolio Available Upon Request
Additional Projects:
Very Low Birth Weight
- Led literature reviews and interviews on NICU risk factors, supporting the creation of a $600,000 grant-funded program to improve parent support and neonatal care.
State Council for Developmental Disabilities
- Conducted a large-scale content analysis of over 3,000 education-related data points, providing recommendations that influenced county-level educational policies.
Empowering Students with Personalized Tools
- Created user personas and enhanced LMS functionality, increasing user engagement from 35% to 80%, while improving communication and marketing efforts via CRM platforms.
University of California, Santa Barbara
PhD, Educational Psychology
MA, Education
BA, Psychology
UX Research Leaders Available on a Fractional or Full-time Basis
UX Research Leaders Available on a Fractional or Full-time Basis
The remarkable UX research leaders featured by the Guild have just about done it all: they have built teams from the ground up, implemented research operations, built research repositories, democratized research, and integrated AI tools.
Their domain experience includes B2B SaaS software, financial services, healthcare (cardiology, diabetes, women’s health, med-tech), retail, education, entertainment, transportation, travel, architecture, design, engineering, and gaming.
Could you use their expertise in your organization? They are available as hourly consultants, or on a fractional or full-time basis. To request a consultation with them, call or text (415) 640-4564.
Sarah Morgan
Ex-Sr. Director, UX Research FanDuel (8 years)
- Founding member of FanDuel’s UX Research team, scaled from a solo researcher to a team of 25, covering eight platforms including apps, web, retail, and TV.
- Launched new-to-market technologies across gaming, travel, and med-tech, building a culture centered around user-focused design, empathy, and data-driven problem-solving.
- Established a DIY research program that trained 100+ people to conduct over 300 studies in 2 years, democratizing research across the organization.
Christie McAllister
Ex-Director of Experience Research, Consumer Insights, Autodesk (6 years)
- Responsible for global digital properties, including licensing portals, e-commerce sites, community forums, learning content, etc.
- Built searchable research repository of all research studies across multiple research teams within the company
- Developed experimentation model to leverage generative AI/ML to scale and increase velocity of research testing cycles
Shannon Graf
Director of Design Research, Signet Jewelers (4 years)
- Using consumer insights to enhance e-commerce and in-store tech and drive digital transformation
- Personalizing shopping experiences and fostering brand trust to boost Signet’s success in the competitive jewelry market
- Gathering employee feedback to improve organizational practices and foster a positive workplace culture
Our Process:
-
- Begin the process by contacting the Guild with your requirements or requesting a consultation with a featured leader.
- Once we know your needs, we will identify leaders who fit your criteria and propose them to you.
- Review and select a leader to meet via Zoom to confirm their suitability.
- If the match is mutually agreeable, we will make contractual and financial arrangements to begin an engagement.
Leaders from the Guild typically work remotely but can also work onsite. When onsite work is required, preference is given to those who live in the same city or region. When a local leader is not available, the Guild selects those willing to travel to work and collaborate in person. For travel and tax considerations, the Guild only works with organizations based in the U.S.
Christie McAllister Strategic Research Leader with Global B2B SaaS and AI Experience
Christie McAllister
Strategic Research Leader with Global B2B SaaS and AI Experience
Autodesk
Director of Experience Research, 2018 – 2024
- Responsible for global Autodesk digital properties, including licensing portals, e-commerce sites, community forums, learning content, etc.
- Drove business, digital, and CX strategy through customer-centered, data-driven research insights
- Grew and scaled a multi-methods team of UX researchers and operations from 4 to 15
- Led Autodesk research leadership council to raise practice excellence and maturity
- Built research operations, recruiting process, participant community, and governance model
- Built searchable research repository of all research studies across multiple research teams within the company
- Led research to transform subscription experience to a named-user and consumption model
- Led research initiatives on customer trust, platform experiences, and executive engagement
- Developed experimentation model to leverage generative AI/ML to scale and increase velocity of research testing cycles
- Developed Autodesk user journey mapping and persona frameworks
- Domains: architecture, engineering, construction, 3D design, manufacturing, and entertainment
Additional Experience:
Scansion
VP of Strategy, 2015 – 2018
(Boutique innovation strategy and research consultancy)
- Knowledge expert in business strategy, analytics, journey mapping, and human-centered insights development
- Led significant client projects, including RFP, project design, and client management
Favorite Medium
Director of Strategy, 2013 – 2015
(Global design and development agency)
- Developed and implemented the product strategy offering
Hot Studio (acq. By Facebook)
Director Of Business Management, 2011 – 2013
(Digital design and development agency)
- Implemented program management and financial reporting for two studios and 120 users
Frog Design
Program Analyst, 2009 – 2011
(Global Innovation Consultancy)
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- Designed project estimating, tracking, and management tool across teams
BS, Business Administration, UC Berkeley
MBA, Design Strategy, California College of the Arts
Shannon Graf Principal UX Research and Product Strategy Consultant
Shannon Graf
Principal UX Research and Product Strategy Consultant
Signet Jewelers
Director of Research and Product Strategy
- Leading, mentoring, and managing a team of researchers
- Developing and executing a comprehensive research strategy that aligns with business goals
- Managing research budgets, vendors, and timelines effectively
- Using consumer insights to enhance e-commerce and in-store tech and drive digital transformation
- Personalizing shopping experiences and fostering brand trust to boost Signet’s success in the competitive jewelry market
- Gathering employee feedback to improve organizational practices and foster a positive workplace culture
Dialexa, projekt202, Hall & Partners, Sachs Insights, Usability Sciences Corp
- Research Director across digital and global agencies
DIRECTV and Blackbaud
- In-house digital product strategy
Highlights:
- 20+ years of experience in UX research and strategy
- Strategic advisor to Marketing, Digital, and IT executives
- Extensive experience in consumer goods, including beauty and retail, as well as finance, healthcare (cardiology, diabetes, women’s health), and education
- Global research experience in Europe and APAC
- IDEO certification in Advanced Design Thinking
- Featured on User Testing’s Insights Unlocked Podcast
Sarah Morgan UX Research Leader Consultant
Sarah Morgan
UX Research Leader & Consultant
FanDuel
Senior Director of UX Research & Ops
- Founded the UX Research practice within a multi-product organization, scaling from a solo role to a team of 25 across 8 platforms, including apps, retail, and TV.
- Developed and mentored UX Researchers, Managers, and Directors, creating a pipeline of skilled leaders and fostering a strong user-centered design culture.
- Collaborated with senior leadership on product strategy, leading launch strategies for new-to-market technologies in fast-evolving sectors.
Research & Ops Innovation
- Established a DIY research program, training over 100 team members across disciplines to independently conduct research, resulting in 300+ studies in 2 years.
- Led an operational team spanning UX Research, UX Design, and UX Writing, pioneering innovative research methodologies for both in-person and remote settings.
Portfolio Available Upon Request
Highlights:
- Over a decade of experience driving UX research and product strategy in high-growth industries, including gaming, travel, transportation, and med-tech.
- Extensive background in scaling product ecosystems, transforming user experiences, and delivering measurable business impact.
- Renowned as a strategic partner who aligns user insights with business goals, fostering empathy-driven design and data-informed problem-solving.
- Expert trainer and mentor, embedding user-centered design principles to cultivate a deep understanding of user needs across product teams.
Helen Lee Lin UX Research Consultant Community Leader
Helen Lee Lin, Ph.D.
UX Research Consultant & Community Leader
Meta (contract)
Senior UX Researcher
- Led Incubator research on digital communities, Gen Z creativity/humor, and content creation/consumption
- Insights drove 5K creations and 1M+ views in the first week of shipping
- Steered app-wide changes, up to C-suite level
TikTok (contract)
UX Researcher
- Shaped early strategy on mobile gaming, informative content, and policy in a startup environment
- Partnered with directors covering European, Southeast Asian, and South American markets
- Influenced decision-making on algorithm innovations & public-safety transparency
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Lead Research Manager
- Managed 6 national/regional healthcare studies, including 2 clinical drug trials
- Monitored compliance for federal regulatory agencies
- Co-authored 2 book chapters & 2 peer-reviewed articles
Case Studies Available Upon Request
Highlights:
- Mixed-methods (80% qualitative) design researcher
- Led over 60 research projects in tech, healthcare, education, and more
- Ph.D., Social Psychology, University of Houston
- Interested in: 0–1 research, consumer products, emerging tech, and mission-driven work
- Remote & in-person research, mobile/web research, and international research
- Established systems, processes, and communities
- Trained & mentored over 500 junior researchers, career transitioners, and peers
- Leader of 2 UX communities & multiple social/co-working groups