UX Research Services
I help you make better decisions, no matter where you are in the process.
Each engagement is built around a different kind of decision. Every service below names who it’s typically for, so you can see where you fit before you read further.
Discovery Research
A clear picture of who you're building for and where the real opportunity is, before the roadmap.
Product teams and founders entering a new market or direction.
Journey Mapping
A research-based map of the end-to-end experience showing where it breaks and what to fix first.
Operations leaders and agencies fixing an experience that’s already breaking down.
Market Validation
Validated assumptions and the confidence to move forward or pivot before you commit the budget.
Founders about to bet real time and money on a new direction.
Research Lead
25 years of senior research leadership, embedded part-time, shaping the roadmap as it's built.
Product teams and agencies that need embedded research leadership.
How the work gets done
The methods behind every engagement
Every service on this page draws from the same core set of methods, sharpened over 25 years.
Contextual Inquiry & Field Research
Watching how people actually work, in repair shops, break rooms, and living rooms, not just in a conference room.
Customer & Stakeholder Interviews
Structured conversations that surface what people actually need, not what they say they need.
Usability & Concept Testing
Putting a real idea in front of real people before you've spent real money building it.
Journey Mapping & Service Design
Connecting what customers experience to what your teams and systems actually do behind the scenes.
Synthesis & Research Operations
Turning a stack of interviews into a small number of decisions your team can actually act on.
Embedded Research Leadership
Sitting inside your team long enough to make research part of how you work, not an outside report that shows up once.
Where this work happens
Deep experience in a few specific places
Some industries I’ve worked in occasionally. A few, I’ve worked in enough times to actually know the terrain.
Automotive & Mobility
Years of ecosystem research across motorists, repair shops, and parts distributors, including a nine-month, three-phase engagement for a national auto parts supplier that became the foundation of a multi-year digital transformation program.
Read the case study →Small Business-Serving Products
Twelve years on Sage's small business accounting software, plus product work for a marketing platform and an auto parts distributor's independent repair shop network.
Enterprise SaaS & B2B Software
Engagements with Mailchimp, Cox Communications, and HP.
Healthcare
Research experience with Mayo Clinic.
Other industries I’ve worked in: financial services, consumer products, and workforce development. If your industry isn’t listed here, that’s worth a conversation, not a disqualifier.
Proof it works
A three-sided ecosystem, and no one had the full picture
A national auto parts supplier needed to understand a three-sided ecosystem: motorists, repair shops, and parts stores. Nobody had a clear picture of where the friction was or who felt it most, before committing to a multi-year transformation plan. Over nine months, I rode along with delivery drivers, interviewed technicians on shop floors, and visited parts stores and distribution centers across three states. That research became the foundation of the company’s multi-year digital transformation program.
“He digs until he finds the underlying insight that can genuinely shift a project's direction, and more often than not, it does.”
FAQ
How engagements work
How do engagements typically work?
Most start with a conversation about what you're trying to figure out. From there I scope an approach that fits your timeline and budget.
How is Discovery Research different from Journey Mapping?
Discovery Research is for something that doesn't exist yet: who are we building for and what do they need. Journey Mapping is for something live that isn't working: where is the experience breaking down and why. Teams often use both in sequence.
How does fractional research leadership differ from project work?
Project research delivers findings and hands them off. Fractional leadership is embedded and ongoing, with strategic oversight week over week, so research shapes the roadmap instead of just informing it.
Do you work with teams outside Atlanta?
Yes. Many clients are distributed across the US; I work remotely or on-site depending on what the engagement calls for.
How do I know if this is the right fit?
Usually one of three things: a major decision that needs a foundation of customer insight, research that isn't consistently influencing decisions, or the need to build a research practice without a full-time hire.
Let’s scope it
Ready to scope an engagement?
Most start with a short conversation about what you’re trying to figure out. From there I scope an approach that fits.