Résumé

 

Experience

Sr Manager, UX Research

February 2021 to present

Cardinal Health, Dublin, Ohio

For a $120B annual Pharmaceutical B2B distributor, I lead a UX Research team whose customer insights help reimagine the customer e-commerce experience. The 5-year funded roadmap takes the current disparate state to a unified, personalized, responsive system including iOS and Android mobile and tablet apps. My team and I have accomplished the following, which was possible with the continuous trust and autonomy extended by leadership.

  • Managed a comprehensive generative research effort, partnering with internal Sales to recruit over 100 volunteer participants and an external research agency to conduct, analyze, and synthesize the research insights.

  • Based on the generative research insights, the UXR team developed an experience metrics strategy to measure site features and functionality enhancements against thematic customer pain points.

  • Established a formative research approach that integrates into the design and product development processes, delivering actionable insights to cross-functional teams within Agile sprint cycles.

  • Hired and developed a diverse research team conducting generative and evaluative research within an agile environment—guiding their initiatives to mature UXR capabilities and business value.

  • Built a database of 1,000+ research participants through email, ad campaigns, and Sales team presentations, persuading B2B customers to participate in research for a better ordering experience.

  • Established a research operations team to recruit, coordinate, and track customer research participants. Additionally, we collaborated with a Data Scientist to build an in-house app to pull relevant past research data.

  • Partnered with compliance, legal, and finance teams to establish enterprise contracts for access to remote research tools and worked to develop a fair incentivizing structure for research participation.

  • Evangelize within the enterprise by promoting the business benefits of UX Research, shared findings, and the resulting actionable insights.

 

Senior UX Researcher

June 2020 to February 2021

Cardinal Health, Dublin, Ohio

  • Lead primary user research studies with business stakeholders and customers to gain user insights.

  • Conduct secondary research efforts using analytics, survey results, and customer service call logs.

  • Translate research data into actionable insights, clearly communicating the relevant findings.

  • Partner with digital product teams working in an iterative, Agile work setting alongside UX, UI, product, customer support, sales, marketing, analytics, and other internal business partners.

  • Deliver insights and recommendations to business leaders in compelling presentations.

  • Drive and promote building a research database of user behaviors, triggers, and other data points.

  • Evangelize human-centric design and the benefits of integrating research in all phases of development.

 

UX Researcher

2018 to 2020

Huntington National Bank, Columbus, Ohio

  • Lead research initiatives using different methodologies including, remote and in-person moderated interviews and usability testing, ethnographic studies, unmoderated tree tests and card sorts, competitive analysis, and secondary research.

  • Understand user-centered design and research principles, including hypothesis generation and experimental design.

  • Create persona journeys through user research and data.

  • Collect and synthesize qualitative and quantitative findings to inform design decision- making.

  • Interpret user behavior and data from user experience research, into insights and recommendations.

  • Create work artifacts including research plans, screeners, and discussion guides. Produce project deliverables, including journey maps, competitive analysis visualizations, and final reports.

  • Present findings and recommendations to a wide variety of internal stakeholders and workgroups.

 

Senior UI/UX Designer

2013 to 2018

Huntington National Bank, Columbus, Ohio

  • Understand interface design principles, such as navigation, architecture, typography, and color.

  • Proven visual design skills, and expertise in designing for the web/digital experiences.

  • Strong knowledge of usability principles and techniques preferring simplistic solutions that align to brand.

  • Create design concepts, high-fidelity designs, and production graphics that make interfaces more compelling, and easy to use.

  • Collaborate with developers and understand technical processes, possibilities, and constraints.

  • Understand basic web design, including HTML/CSS.

  • Collaborate with ideation teams to bring relationship-deepening concepts to life for internal pitches and presentations.

  • Collaborate with team members in defining and establishing design patterns.

  • Cross-team collaboration in waterfall/agile environment.

 

Digital Design Consultant

2012 to 2013

Fahlgren Mortine Agency, Columbus, Ohio

  • Provided digital design support for clients such as McDonald’s, Colfax, St. Elizabeth’s, Landmark Earth Solutions, Columbus Region and Summa Health.

 

Design Manager – Marketing/Advertising

2007 to 2012

McGraw-Hill School Education Group, Columbus, Ohio

  • Provided design direction and branding for promotional collateral, interactive digital initiatives, exhibit materials, and catalogs that supported $2.6 billion in product sales.

  • Managed Design staff including hiring, training, mentoring, and job performance evaluations.

  • Determined the implementation of design requirements, branding guides, and department processes.

  • Raised process efficiencies and staff productivity by 24%, and saved company $683K by implementing redesign and production of 14 catalogs in-house.

 

Design Manager – Technology

2004 to 2007

McGraw-Hill School Education Group, Columbus, Ohio

  • Reinforced visual design direction and market-appropriate vision for all SEG K-12 interactive digital and e-commerce initiatives.

  • Managed Creative Services staff /external resources including hiring, training, coaching, and job performance issues/evaluations.

  • Established design requirements, production processes, schedules, and budgets.

 

Lead Designer – Technology

2000 to 2004

Electronic Publishing Group New Media, Worthington, Ohio

  • Conceptualized and executed aesthetic, functional design solutions for divisional web sites.

  • Coordinated multiple projects and tracked competitors’ web design.

  • Introduced a communication improvement between the interactive design team and the web developers that minimized rework and allowed for the faster release of sites to market.

Rachel Laskowski
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rlaskow3@gmail.com
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Skill Set

  • customer-centric

  • qualitative & quantitative

  • moderated & unmoderated

  • data analysis

  • journey maps & blueprints

  • user personas

  • actionable insights delivery

  • agile methodologies

  • information architecture

  • responsive web design

  • research repository

  • B2B customer outreach

  • team leadership

  • cross-team collaboration

  • project prioritization skills

  • growth mindset

  • strong listener & communicator

  • strategic planning & remain detail-focused

  • balance customer advocacy & business needs

 

Methodologies

  • mixed methods research

  • ethnographic studies

  • contextual inquiry

  • open & closed card sorts

  • tree tests

  • co-creations

  • participatory design

  • competitive analysis

 

Education

B.A. Illustration with a minor in Advertising Design
Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, Ohio Graduated Magna Cum Laude

M.S. Information Architecture and Knowledge Management - User Experience Design
Kent State University, Kent, Ohio