The stars of the show

Anna Efimenko (she/her) – host

Anna is a Senior UX Researcher and UX Research Ambassador at UXinsight. With 7+ years of UX research experience, she is passionate about designing experiences informed by data and driven by empathy.

Previously, Anna worked at Booking.com and supported multi-disciplinary teams by using qualitative and quantitative data to inform product design, strategy, metrics and data models. She is excited about mixed-methods research and collaborations with other insights disciplines (e.g. data science). Anna loves to learn and to contribute to the research community through mentorship & knowledge sharing.

Sarah Pink

Sarah Pink is Professor and Director of the Emerging Technologies Research Lab at Monash University.

She works internationally as a design anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, across projects developed through partnerships with industry, government and not-for-profit organisations as well as funded by national research agencies.

Sarah’s recent publications include the books Doing Visual Ethnography (4th edition 2021), Emerging Technologies / Life at the Edge of the Future (2022), Design Ethnography (2022) and Everyday Automation (2022) and the documentary films Smart Homes for Seniors (2021) and Digital Energy Futures (2022).

Bo Liu (she/her)

Bo is a mixed-methods researcher with a background in psychology and human-technology interaction. Currently, she is a Senior Researcher working at Miro. where she leads strategic research programs to enrich the experience of visual collaboration in different workflows.

Previously to Miro, she worked at global tech firms such as Booking.com, Philips, and Alcatel, and led mixed methods research studies.   

Steve Bromley (he/him)

Steve Bromley is an experienced games user researcher and educator.  

He teaches people about usability testing, UX and user research for video games, and provide user research consultancy for small and medium games studios.  

Prior to this he was a senior user researcher for PlayStation and worked on many of their top European titles, including Horizon Zero Dawn, SingStar, the LittleBigPlanet series and the PlayStation VR lineup. He started the Games User Research mentoring scheme, which has linked over 150 students with more than fifty industry professionals from top games companies such as Sony, EA, Valve, Ubisoft and Microsoft.  

He recently released the book How To Be A Games User Researcher which summarises many of the lessons for people looking to start a career in games user research. 

Julian Della Mattia (he/him)

Julian is a Facilitator and a UX Researcher based in Barcelona, Spain. On one hand, he’s ramping up the research practice at American petcare company Rover.com and on the other, he’s leading his facilitation agency called the180, through which he’s helping companies and teams collaborate more efficiently and deliver better products.

He has led workshops throughout Europe in countries like Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. 

Yao Adantor

Yao is an innovative UX researcher who continues to be driven by a passion for helping organizations create products and services that deliver best-in-class user experiences.

His background as an industrial psychologist serves him well as he works with companies like KPMG, CapitalOne, Bolt among others. In his day-to-day work at Bolt, he generates mix-method studies where the company vision is to democratize e-commerce for everyone.

In his spare time, he builds the world’s largest UX research archive Research Bookmark.

Amanda Gelb (she/her/hers)

Amanda leads User Research for Lyft’s NYC office. She loves understanding transportation systems and the motivations and use cases of the people they serve. Amanda is currently focused on Mapping and has worked across Rideshare and Micro-mobility (transit, bikes, and scooters).  

She uses her insights to determine ‘what could be’ for product teams. Amanda especially derives joy in researching “future of” scenarios and has done so at Amplify for the EdTech space, at Fuseproject in user-facing connected devices, at Google in dreaming up a new AR/VR app, and at HUGE, a creative agency, where she led a 9-month project on digital fandom around Harry Potter.  

Amanda is a lifelong question-asker and tinkerer. She utilizes her experience with experiential education to run dynamic workshops and act as a research-coach, enabling many teams to conduct their own research under her guidance. Amanda lives in Manhattan with her partner Miki and their two children.  

LinkedIn

Wendi Chiong (she/her)

Wendi Chiong is a Research Manager at Airtable, where she leads UX research for Airtable’s Platform Product teams. Prior to Airtable, Wendi worked at Uber, where she led UX initiatives for Uber Rides and Uber Eats. She has also worked in-house and as a consultant for companies across technology, social media, finance, healthcare, and government. 

Wendi is passionate about pairing research with business strategy. In 2018, she received an Executive M.B.A. from the University of California Haas School of Business. 

LinkedIn

Valentina Salvi (she/her)

Valentina is a UX Research Manager at Glovo leading a team of researchers uncovering actionable insights on people’s needs and behaviours to shape meaningful user experiences. 

Her UX background spans across qualitative research, service design methodologies and creative facilitation, in 6 countries – both working in-house and in consultancy – including ventures for clients such as Shell, Arcadis, KLM, Plan International. 

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Sasha Oseadeyo Ena Ofori

Sasha is a curious person with the drive to understand the world around her. 

Her curiosity led her into a role as a UX researcher at YUX remotely working from Accra, Ghana. As a UX researcher, she gets the opportunity to be a 5-year-old and ask WHY to truly understand the users she is dedicated to serving. 

She studies users to understand the what’s and whys that underlie their behaviour, understanding cultural context and differences in the context where user research is still completely unknown. 

Prior to YUX, Sasha was a Teaching Assistant for the Human Centered Design class at Ashesi University, Ghana, where she sought to impart the knowledge of design thinking to her students. Connect with Sasha on Linkedin

Xenia Avezov (she/her)

Xenia is an applied researcher with a multidisciplinary background in social sciences and 10 years of experience designing and executing research roadmaps and projects.  

She has worked as both a researcher and team leader establishing research teams and conducting research in a variety of industries and domains among them health tech, E-commerce, gaming, and international policy. Her focus is on foundational and strategic research, connecting core human experiences and business perspectives. 

She is a consultant, currently working as a senior user researcher at Spotify’s Core Experience Tribe.  

LinkedIn

Tania Ramos

Tania is a Lead UX Researcher at Springer Nature. She is skilled in both qualitative and quantitative research, as well as in adapting methods to the problem at hand. She has taught several courses on research methods.  

She has expertise in behavioural science and experimental design. She was the Executive Director at a Behavioural Insights Unit, and is a co-author of the book “MUITOS – How can Behavioural Sciences make anti-corruption compliance programs more effective?”.  

An experienced public speaker and writer, Tania has presented in more than 40 meetings and has authored several articles in peer-reviewed journals and blogs.  

An interdisciplinary thinker, Tania excels in connecting ideas across contexts and domains. 

Linkedin | Twitter |

Meltem Naz Kaso Coskun (she/her)

Meltem Naz Kaso Coskun is a UXR Manager at Glovo who teaches bootcamps in Spain, the US, and the Middle East; mentors individual contributors in her field; coordinates qualitative and quantitative research teams and oversees UXR projects.

She is actively involved in the recruitment processes over the years. Whenever she finds time, she enjoys writing mostly UXR-related articles at her Medium account.  

LinkedIn

Penninah Jones (she/her)

Penninah is an American living in Germany and has 10 years of mixed methods UX Research experience that builds upon degrees in Psychology and Human Factors. She has been pursuing the goal of more inclusive UX Research from her start in the automotive industry, through the logistics, banking and now e-commerce sectors. 

Following her diagnoses of ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder in adulthood, she has refocused her efforts on what she is most qualified to discuss: Neurodivergence and Mental Health in UX Research, both from the perspective of UX Professionals and inclusive research design. 

LinkedIn

Jacob Harbord

Jacob Harbord is functional and team lead UX researcher for GXS Bank in Singapore. He’s an expert in insight-led strategy, consumer-centric innovation, and empathic design. He’s previously led ethnographic research around the world, from the streets of Soweto and remote Shan Highlands to the penthouse suites of Shenzen millionaires.

Outside of work, Jacob is a passionate street photographer and documentary filmmaker.

LinkedIn  

Jennifer Ng (she/her)

Jennifer has 15+ years of experience in UX hailing from design consultancies and product companies including Instagram, Fitbit, HP, and Mayo Clinic.

Currently, she mentors women transitioning into user experience and consults with product companies to establish a design and research strategy.  She has deep expertise in designing for behavior change and developing digital experiences for people with health conditions.  She also is writing a novel and personal essays about Asian American identity.

If she was asked about her favorite hobby at the age of 8, she would have answered “observing,” which is still an inspiration for storytelling. 

LinkedIn | Twitter | Website

Ilse Blom (she/her)

After finishing her master’s in Interaction Design, Ilse started a career as a UI/UX designer at a health insurance company and later at funda. When a researcher position opened, it was through participating in candidate interviews and passionately telling candidates about the role that she discovered a secret crush on research. 

She got the role and the opportunity to build the in-house research practice and later the team from scratch. 

September 2021, she joined the UXR team at Backbase – a Fintech company delivering applications to consumer and business banks across the globe. Ilse enjoys working with an amazing team of 7 Researchers on establishing solid research habits and practices across a multitude of product streams and development teams.

LinkedIn

Jennifer Blatz (she/her)

Jen Blatz is a Lead User Experience Researcher and Designer with expertise that lends itself to any industry. Jen’s path to UX started in journalism and graphic design where she learned the importance of aesthetics, organization, and catering content for the consumer. She has worked in a number of fields including finance, mortgage, cloud storage, security and pet health.

Jen loves being active in the UX community to learn and grow while helping others do the same. She is the co-founder and president of the UX Research and Strategy group, a 501c3 organization, with an international presence with thousands of members and followers. She is the organizer of WIAD (World Information Architecture Day) locally, and speaker for several meetup groups and international conferences like UX Australia, Convey UX, IAC (Information Architecture Conference), UX New Zealand, UX Research and Insights Summit and more.

LinkedIn | Website | Dribbble | Twitter | Research and Strategy Group

Markos Grohmann

Markos is a UX Researcher working on strategic efforts across Google Assistant. He has 15 years experience in uncovering insights in different contexts across the globe and prior to joining Google was Principal Director at frog Design where he led the research practice.

Katy Mogal

Katy has spent over 15 years in pursuit of transformative insights, working first in Market Research, and then UXR, at companies and agencies including Lieberman Research Worldwide, Fitbit, and Facebook – and for the past three years as a UX Manager on the Google Assistant team.

Carolyn Hou (she/her)

Carolyn Hou is an applied anthropologist, researcher, and strategist based in New York City. She is the Founder of Arlo Labs, a boutique insight and innovation consultancy, that helps healthcare and tech companies better understand and design for their users. 

Carolyn is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at NYU where she teaches classes on Design Thinking. Carolyn received her Master’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Oxford, where she also served as President of Oxford Women in Business, and her Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Smith College. 

LinkedIn

Maaike Mintjes (she/her)

Maaike started her career as a socio-historical researcher, and by chance moved into the UX field in 2007. She especially loved doing exploratory UX research, but noticed that stakeholders did often not know how to act on the insights. To help them, she began facilitating workshops with stakeholders. Soon she discovered design thinking and cocreation. 

Maaike gained experience at companies in Australia and The Netherlands in UX, Service Design and Design Strategy. She is now a happy freelancer, helping clients with research, facilitation, coaching and training needs. She is passionate about what she does, never wants to stop learning and loves developing others. 

LinkedIn | Website

Sabine Harnau (she/her)

Sabine is passionate about creating ethical digital experiences that truly resonate with their audiences. And she’s convinced that forging a stronger bond between UX research and copywriting will help get us there.  

After starting the first in-house copy team at LEGO Customer Service and writing agency-side for over 70 brands, she started “From Scratch” in 2017 to work exclusively with organisations that do good. Her copy is always based on user research and incorporates UX research results.  

Apart from watching user tests, Sabine takes inspiration from knitting, her 5 rescue pets, growing her own food and being an early adopter of sustainable innovation.  

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