Director of Consumer Insights and Product research (present)

Lead all consumer insights and UX research to define consumer target, improve our customer journey, define product strategy, and develop compelling product claims, reporting to the CMO.

Defined the strategy, tested, and optimized creative for a new product differentiation initiative. Ads with new creative saw +15% CTR and almost double CVR, while new site assets saw +43% CVR.

Developed lead claims for the Snow cooling collection and led concept and testing for the Glow Nightlight.

Director of Design Research and Strategy (2016-2020):

Led the design research team to define new products and product roadmap, reporting to the Chief Product Officer.

• Expanded mattress portfolio from "1 perfect mattress," to 3, broadening Casper's customer base and increasing AOV based on insight into people's sleep needs. Translated exploratory research into the design of the award-winning Wave and Essential mattresses.

• Developed initial strategy and concept and validated opportunity for Casper's first connected product, the Glow light. Informed design decisions throughout development across product definition, features, UX. Received utility patent for work on Glow, which received the DNA design award and was named one of Time Magazine's Top 100 Inventions of 2019.

• Led quant and qual research into mattress feature perception and portfolio structure to expand and relaunch Casper's entire mattress collection in 2020.

• Supported the redesign of Casper's retail packaging system to enter new wholesale channels. Dramatically shifted the design direction of the packaging and visual assets across consumer touch points to drive premium perception of brand.

• Built the design research function with a lean 2-person team, collaborating closely with design and engineering. Mentored and nurtured junior and senior research talent. Led a community of practice of UX, Experience, and Consumer Insights to collaborate across projects.

• -Led the discovery and design of new product platforms as part of multi-disciplinary, front-end innovation teams looking for new growth opportunities in core businesses and adjacencies. Chartered $50M platform for Latin America, $25M platform in new adjacency, and 2 $25M charters for home care.

• -Translated consumer insights into design by building imperatives for design and product development based on ethnographic research, creating a clear vision to guide teams from initial discovery through commercialization. Facilitated and trained project teams throughout the organization on human-centered design methods.

• -Led the rapid prototyping and iterative testing of early concepts to explore form, use experience, and benefits, and collaborated with advanced technology to create working prototypes for in-home testing. Used “transactional learning” to sell minimum viable product prototypes to explore positioning, target, and product variables before product launch.

• -Built out the team: Grew demand for design leadership within the organization, increasing our headcount and managing and mentoring interns and new designers.

Grew and developed relationships between this non-profit re-use depot (Scroungers’ Center for Reusable Art Parts) and the business community. Led web site redesign to launch end of April 2010. Diverted over 50 tons of useable material from the landfill annually.