# Gabby Hoefer > UX Researcher @ Meta Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/gabbyhoefer Portfolio: https://www.gabbyhoefer.com/ User Experience Researcher with 4 years of academic and industry research experience at an enterprise scale resulting in $1.25M annual revenue savings through trial conversions. Technical background (M.S. in computer science from Brown University) with experience leading three AI engineering teams. Conference speaker at top-tier UX conferences (SxSW, UXPA) that showcase deep understanding of generative AI, and published award-winning design guidelines for generative AI UX at peer-reviewed international UX academic conference (CHI 2024). ## Work Experience ### UX Researcher @ Meta Jan 2025 – Present | Burlingame, California, United States • Wearables Core UX & Inputs team • Led in-depth interviews with early access users of Neural Handwriting, a novel input method, which demonstrated critical pain points and opportunities that informed product engagement strategy and GA launch timeline • Led foundational usability study on notification content and delivery for next-generation smart glasses, informing product strategy and feature prioritization • Led foundational in-lab user research shaping hardware decision for the next-generation of smartglasses ### Business Transformation Consultant @ IBM Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 | Boston, Massachusetts, United States • Led zero-to-one product development for new generative AI assistant, facilitating discovery, roadmap creation, and value testing, resulting in $1.25M annual revenue savings. • Directed two technical teams to build and deploy AI solutions, aligning technical execution with business goals and ethical AI principles. • Developed and executed discovery research sessions, strategic vision and roadmap development for Quote to Cash (Q2C) automation initiative, projected to yield $1M in productivity savings annually. • Led the Explainability team overseeing 11 cross-functional team members in the Design for AI Guild, developing new UX research methods that support AI ethics by improving the explainability, transparency and responsible design for AI product teams across IBM. ### User Researcher @ IBM Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | New York, New York, United States • Led AskIBM, generative AI research initiative to develop and measure key productivity impact metrics for virtual assistant reaching 300,000+ users, in collaboration with design, data science and software development teams. • Developed the first set of generative AI principles for designing responsible AI products in collaboration with the IBM Research HCAI team, published at CHI 2024 and was awarded an IBM Research Accomplishment award. • Led the Explainability team in the Design for AI Guild (overseeing 11 cross-functional team members) to develop new UX research methods that improve the explainability, transparency and responsible design for AI product teams across IBM. • Developed, launched and analyzed a large-scale IBM Workplace Impact Survey to ~35,000 employees showing a 3-point increase in job satisfaction, informing executive-level direction for the CIO internal strategy. • Led UX research for Unity, a key strategic initiative in the CIO to improve Agile ways of working and UX practices across teams, resulting in a 300% increase in user base from product launch to sunset. ### Graduate Lab Manager and Research Assistant @ Brown University Jan 2019 – Jan 2022 | Providence, Rhode Island Area • Managed 16 researchers in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab and mentored junior research assistants, design and software development students, resulting in 3 academic research publications at top human-computer interaction conferences. • Led research team to analyze the impacts of social media on student mental health during COVID-19, developing, monitoring and analyzing a survey that reached over 1200+ participants across 27 universities, published at CSCW 2022. • Developed a technical web app supporting mental health research through private messaging data, collaborating with a cross-functional team of scientists, clinicians, researchers, and software developers. ### UX Research Intern @ Samsung Electronics Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 • Conducted large-scale (1000+ participants) survey to understand general smartphone camera perception, then prepped a qualitative focus group to gain deeper strategic insight into camera user behavior • Based on the research, designed and prototyped interface recommendations to improve camera engagement, impacting 1.38 billion users with Samsung smartphones • Additional details of this project is under NDA and cannot be shared publicly ### Product Design Intern @ Facebook Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 • Designed responsive user experience across mobile, web and virtual reality interfaces to increase user engagement and discovery of newly released applications on the Oculus Store, reaching over 2 billion users. • Collaborated with cross-functional teams, including developers, UX researchers, and product managers, to deliver an effective and visually appealing experience that is feasible and matches the existing design system. • Worked with the research team to user test designs in order to iterate and refine proposed app designs, ensuring alignment with user needs and design library. ### User Experience Design Intern @ Voya Financial Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Windsor, Connecticut • Designed mockups for a web and mobile, reaching 14 million customers • Rapid prototyping, wireframing, human-centered design • Conducted usability tests and user interviews in order to make UX design recommendations • Assisted in developing for accessibility standards ## Education ### Master's degree in Computer Science Brown University ### Graphic Design Rhode Island School of Design ### Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology Samford University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ghoefer - Portfolio: https://www.gabbyhoefer.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/gabbyhoefer JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/gabbyhoefer/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13