I am the Vice President of Research & Design at Amplinate. In that role I partner with a set of world-class researchers and designers fulfilling the company mission to promote cross-cultural understanding for our clients. Our work is about enabling authentic human connection and amplifying what resonates for people. We apply Design Thinking and Inclusive Design practices along with creative research approaches to help our clients think globally and in particular to attend to marginalized, underheard voices.

Prior to Amplinate I worked in Silicon Valley before joining Microsoft. Within various incarnations of Office, Office 365, and Microsoft 365 - including client, web, and mobile software and services - I took on various roles in product research as an individual contributor and as a team leader. I also worked as a Program Manager in Excel, a Product Planner for Microsoft Office, a Market Researcher on technical products/audiences, and led a number of cross-company initiatives.

A few Microsoft projects of note:

  • Running the Office research team when we developed and shipped ribbon UI, and managing a combined research and design team for our first post-ribbon release of Office

  • Tracking commercial and consumer audiences’ perceptions of and satisfaction with Office versus Google, while also working on the core team implementing a common net promoter score (NPS) framework that was adopted company-wide

  • Researching usage of and satisfaction with Microsoft product development tools versus competitor offerings

  • Working on the Customer-Driven initiative to bring “customer obsession” to life for 20,000+ employees across Windows, Office, Surface, and other product teams

  • Building a Customer-Driven team at Microsoft’s India Development Centre, and leading the efforts there to create customer connections, customize workshops and provide other offerings

  • Collaborating with Program Management, Design, Data Science, and Marketing (and with wonderful Research colleagues) to reimagine Microsoft 365 offerings for very small business customers

  • Helping to define how to make product research at Microsoft more inclusive

Originally from the Midwest United States, I love to travel, read eclectically, follow Formula 1 racing, and travel on twisty roads by motorcycle.