Research doesn’t enable products; it enables people.
When the path forward feels uncertain, stagnant, or just uninspired, my work provides the high-fidelity insights people need to move with confidence and purpose.
I’ve worked with…
Moving organizations from assumptions to evidence.
I’m Edward. For the last decade, I’ve been enmeshing research into organization’s product-making to enable better, evidence-based decisions & strategy.
Case Study: Microsoft Teams Meetings
Restoring Metric Integrity to the Meeting Join Flow
A funnel analysis revealed a key dropoff step. The Meeting Join team was diving headfirst into a “fix the number” strategy, without understanding why it was happening or what it really meant for our customers and business.
The hidden problem: Leadership was operating on a metric that was mischaracterizing user behavior and they didn’t know it!
What I did:
Uncovered the root-cause of drop-off in the funnel
Re-defined the team’s metrics and OKR
Repaired the organizations foundational understanding of our customers’ and our businesses real needs
Identified, conceptualized, and prioritized new features into the roadmap
Case Study: Bolt OU
New Demand for Ridehailing
I was the sole researcher for Bolt’s most business-critical vertical: ride-hailing. Operating within a high-velocity, low-margin, global mobility ecosystem and two-sided marketplace, my scope covered a roadmap for millions of users across diverse international markets. I lead research that bridged the gap between digital interface, the real-world operational service quality, and our customer’s lives.
Case Study: Best Buy
The Future of the Employee Experience
90,000 store employees (sales associates, warehouse staff, Geek Squad agents) were using a fragmented ecosystem with over 15 different digital tools combined with manual processes.
How might we create a more cohesive tooling system across digital and paper systems to make their work easier and better?
My work:
Centered the tooling strategy on employee needs vs. headquarter assumptions
Redirected a flawed paper-to-digital strategy that would have impeded in-store sales
Built a user-first communication strategy for notifications/alerts, ensuring employees opted-in to an employee app they needed to download on their personal phones
“The shortest distance between two people is a story.”
-- Patti Digh
Data informs but stories move organizations.
As a trained storyteller, I bring the voice of your user to the center of decision making.
My experience presenting on large stages, conference halls, and board rooms, enables me to weave data into narratives that stick. I’ve spent my career enmeshing complex, evidence-backed, durable narratives and artifacts into foundational truths that spread throughout organizations.
Research as lesson plan.
As a former educator, I coach teams through the process for down-to-earth, deep comprehension.
I’ve heard it many times, “stakeholders don’t need to know X, Y, Z”. But it’s that exact depth of understanding that moves people from “taking in information” into ownership of the knowledge.
Would you rather your students remember the specific date of a historical event? Or, the lesson it taught humanity? Does the exact date matter or is it really about the context around that date?
I use this mindset to ensure we’re focusing on what really matters.
How we make determines what we make.
I employ my research and interdisciplinary collaboration experience not only into my studies, but to improve how we work together; retrospectives, interactive working sessions, investigating our own processes to make everyone’s day-to-day and output better.
Professional References
“Ed is an excellent communicator helping the business see a complete picture in order to address major breakdowns in the customer journey. He is smart, dependable and does not hesitate to go the extra mile.”
Aishwarya Pesala
Senior UX Designer, Thomson Reuters
“Ed is one of the most creative, out-of-box thinkers I know and brought much inspiration to our team. He carries with him a contagious positive energy that knit our team together.”
Esther Jeong
Senior UX Design Researcher, 3M
“He brought so much to the table on both our research & strategy team and broader business & design team. Ed has a distinct point of view paired with an open mind. He will listen to you fully, but then surprise you with connecting dots that you had never considered yourself.”
Miranda Lapour
Senior UX Strategist & Designer, 3M
“Ed’s strategy and research work is creative, collaborative, and thorough.
Creative - I could also always count on Ed to spark a new idea. He’s the person to call if you need inspiration when designing a research study.
Collaborative - Ed consistently did his due diligence to get everyone onboard. I was very impressed by his cross-functional collaboration. He went above and beyond with clear communication.
Thorough - Ed was extremely thorough in research preparation and communicating results. Ask him to walk you through a findings deck and you will see what I mean. Ed’s background in education is apparent as he coaches stakeholders through the design process.”
Jalen Even
Lead Product Researcher, 3M
“Ed is one of those people who you instantly feel comfortable around and who makes you feel like you're the most important person he's ever talked to. He is so kind, understanding, and full of radiant energy.”
Robin Savela
Lead Design Researcher, Thomson Reuters