5 reasons you should work with me for your product research and design
I have 10 years of industry experience 🤓
I started my research and design career doing UX research and copywriting. As my skillset has grown I’ve improved existing products to make them more user friendly and increased usage and retention. I’ve created product lines in conjunction with design, engineering, and marketing that were both new and profitable. I’ve built and led research teams and served as a design lead to help guide work when we lacked a design director for over a year.
My work produces cash money 💰
When I worked at Clearhead, I helped create a new research product offering that complimented our existing optimization offering that was solely data based. The research offering resulted in client expansion and retention, which ultimately contributed to our company being acquired.
My clients at Clearhead extended and expanded their contracts while working with me – one account that I took over paid in one quarter the equivalent of what they’d paid us the entire year before (went from $120K per year to $183K in one quarter). I then expanded the account again, resulting in an agreement that was 8x of the one made the previous year, when I was not managing the account (expanded to $243K per quarter).
With another client, we increased our testing velocity and I convinced them to prioritize our research-backed testing strategy over their own tests. Before I managed the account, they had an 80/20 split where 80% of the tests were their suggestion. I switched that to a 60/40 split where 60% of the tests were our recommendations based on research I conducted. The new testing strategy had a revenue impact of an additional $3.1 million (10x their original investment), plus increased trust and client retention.
I get stuff done 💪
At Netlify I identified and helped create Collaborative Deploy Previews. Based on my research, I was so sure this was a good idea that when I tried to convince my previous company (a different company but the same industry) to implement it and they didn’t, I took the idea with me to Netlify, showed my research and evidence, got buy-in, and then worked with the product, design, engineering, and marketing teams to create and launch it.
The feature resulted in increased customer satisfaction for our Enterprise customers because it was specifically created to help teams that had multiple people editing content from different teams. The feature basically created one source of truth that only authorized members could edit. Then, they could see the live preview of the webpage for approval prior to launch. The feature was successful enough that our competitors scrambled to launch a similar feature.
Also at Netlify, I had an idea that allowed us to do better feature tracking and testing with actual users. Everyone in the company said it was necessary and would be helpful for their teams to make better choices on what to work on next.
So, I worked with product and engineering to get an initial version live in the app; I did the first iteration of design myself. This feature, called Netlify Labs, allowed us to get real time feedback about beta features through an open comment system. It also allowed us to see when people turned the feature on or off. Having this and the open feedback alerted us to problems and high priority changes for us to make. It also helped us see if adoption was strong enough to move forward with the beta.
At Gatsby, I was the first product manager at the company and I joined prior to the existence of a full-fledged product. I worked with engineering to create a swag store program that was loved by the community and helped Gatsby grow in recognition and adoption.
I also worked with the infrastructure engineering team and design to scope out the first iteration of the product as a whole, designing the software system specification. Gatsby went on to grow their community base and was ultimately acquired.
In each company I’ve worked for, I’ve implemented a research program from the ground up where none existed previously. I’m very effective at understanding needs and constraints, deciding on a vision, setting a plan, and then getting the right people excited and interested in executing that goal.
I always work to democratize research by getting teams across the organization, from sales to marketing to engineering, excited and curious about learning.
People say I’m delightful 😊
People love talking to me. I’m not really sure why, but it’s always been that way. In research calls, I’m able to get deep insights because people want to share with me. In my work I’ve talked to people about their buying habits, their work needs, and even care needs with cancer patients. Being able to connect with people means I’m effective at advocating and convincing teams about what matters most to our customers or clients so we can improve the most impactful areas of our product.
I’m a people person and have a skill for driving consensus and change within teams. I firmly believe that people want to be heard and if you approach someone with genuine curiosity it’s easier to find common ground for both of you.
I also enjoy mentoring and teaching others. In every role I’ve held I’ve taught my co-workers about research and helped expand the research function simply by engaging others in research. This has always resulted in leadership giving me budget to hire more researchers and build out a larger team.
I care deeply ❤️
I’ve been fascinated with nature since I was a child helping my grandmother and great aunt garden. At 5 I asked for “my own” garden and have been watching the magic of nature ever since. One of my main goals in life is to connect people with nature. I do that now through a monthly newsletter about nature and hope. I stay updated on international climate regulations. I even actually read the IPCC reports (and then I go make a cup of tea so I don’t fully panic).
Locally, I volunteer with a group called Weed Warriors, where we remove invasive plants from Mt. Tabor Park. I also volunteer on the Creative Team with 350PDX, a local climate organization. The organization supports local climate policy and community engagement. The Creative Team helps other action teams with communication strategy, story-telling, and community outreach.
When I was at Netlify, I spearheaded the climate sustainability group, getting leadership buy-in and budget to build out our sustainability commitments and start quantifying our carbon footprint as a business.
As I go forward, I want to work on projects that support nature and help us improve and conserve our home. As Mary Heglar says, "Home is always worth it," and I want to be a bigger part of helping our home.
Contact me 📬
If you're interested in working together, feel free to send me an email at hello@marisamorby.com.