Hello. I’m Marisa.
I am a Product Manager, User Experience (UX) Researcher, Designer, and Strategist. I focus my work on renewable energy, urban planning, and new technologies.
We should work together if you need:
- Help creating, sharing, and/or adopting new processes across teams.
- Help managing the resources, direction, and optimization of your product or service.
My Mission
I strive to understand and provide customers with the information they need to make better, more sustainable decisions and help businesses focus on systems and processes that will streamline their business through thoughtful research, design, and business strategy.
I’ve developed & managed processes, products, and people
- Created and led cross-functional teams
- Managed a service as a product
- Created and drove internal adoption of new processes and systems
- Led projects with Fortune 500 clients from the initial sale to the final deliverable
In each of these projects, I have made clients hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in additional revenue through A/B testing, research, and design changes and adoption.
My Superpowers
- I have mastered the art (science?) of getting people who disagree to come together and work toward a common goal.
- I’m a master of identifying how to spot the highest-impact problems and solutions to get my clients great results.
I love writing about what I’ve learned
I write about projects, process, and skills that I’ve gained over the years in an effort to help teach others. See my writing here.
How I Work
My process is based on a framework that allows me to collaborate closely with my clients while also identifying the areas of biggest impact for their business.
Goal
Identify the top goals I can help the client accomplish in our project.
Problem
Discuss potential problems and blockers standing in the way of the goals. I use analytics data and on-the-ground research to identify and validate which problems are stopping the client from achieving their goals.
Solution
Create an actionable, detailed process for overcoming the problems and achieving the goal.
This process typically involves varying levels of research, working cross-functionally to get all teams on board, and executing the solutions we’ve agreed on to reach those goals.
What People Say About Me
Marisa helped us set our goals as a team for growing our practices and led our strategy for how to best demonstrate value to our internal stakeholders. To say Marisa was effective would be a massive understatement! Within three months, our research team introduced four new methods, and entirely new product offering, and began to be included in the formative strategy for client engagements.
– Catherine Chiodo (former team member)
Marisa is someone who is confident in her abilities in Digital Optimization and user Experience Research while also being open to hearing ideas from other team members. She is also an extremely thoughtful human being which makes her an excellent colleague. The combination of Marisa being knowledgeable, transparent, and people-focused is what makes her a phenomenal leader!
– Quincy Louis DeShaun (former coworker)
While working with Marisa, she showed extreme breadth and depth with her skill. She is a naturally talented researcher, thinks strategically and seems to always be able to parse the forest through the trees, is someone naturally trusting for her colleagues and clients, and always delivers.
– Sarah Kettles (former coworker)
Speaking
I speak about incorporating research into all phases of product creation and development to increase adoption and optimization, how to create and lead high-performing cross-functional teams, and how the intersection of data and research impacts our lives.
Upcoming Talks
Some of My Previous Talks
- DevIt
- Generate NYC
- JazzCon
- Women’s Leadership Group — Weight Watchers
You can also see a full list of my talks or check out mycurrent presentations on GitHub.