Maral Elliott
Lead User Experience Researcher
Phone:
312-714-7817
Email:
LinkedIn:
Hello
My name is Maral Elliott, and I am a Mixed-Methods User Experience Researcher with over a decade of proven success in fostering cross-functional collaboration and delivering human-centric outcomes.
I am skilled in diverse methodologies ensuring comprehensive research coverage through both traditional research (user-centered) and participatory action research (user-centric) methods.
I am passionate about cultivating an empirical culture through enabling cross functional teams with access to insights and learning opportunities and making empathy contagious.
Work Experience
Arizona State University
May 2009 - May 2010
Graduate Student Researcher
Partnership with the disability resource center at Arizona State University, was a transformative experience. I received mentorship in trauma-informed research and had the privilege of collaborating with ASU students with disabilities through conducting participatory and contextual research regarding deeply personal topics like personal hygiene and accessibility. This experience underscores my dedication to conducting ethical, inclusive, and impactful research.
Achievements:
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Received maximum funding from Graduate Student Research Association
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Gained NIH Certification in Protecting Human Research Participants (PHRP) issued by Office of Extramural Research (OER)
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Proposed a new design for universal bathrooms that meets actual user needs as a part of my thesis submission
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Was accepted to present my research at the 3rd International Conference for Universal Design in HAMAMATSU
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Presented my research at 2009 Southwest Conference on Disability in NM
Google
March 2017 - April 2019
User Experience Researcher
As the first UX Researcher on the ground in Chandler, Arizona, I spearheaded the launch of Google's Autonomous Vehicles Early Rider Program. My contributions spanned from recruiting and onboarding families into the ERP research program, conducting research and running experiments to training Operators, Triage and CSR on Participant Interaction guardrails, data collection, and reporting. This work was instrumental in the successful launch of Waymo One, the world's first Autonomous Taas service, in Arizona.
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Achievements:
Product:
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Helped build Waymo's first Early Rider test program in Arizona by screening, and onboarding over 100 families into Early Rider Program who actively participated in research.
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Contributed to the launch and monetization of WaymoOne, the world's first public Autonomous TaaS, by ensuring that WaymoOne met the needs and expectations of real users.
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Shaped the Pricing strategy of WaymoOne through running experiments on the optimal price point for Waymo Rides across various user segments.
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Informed growth, adoption, monetization and product strategies by studying both early adopters' and churned users' behavior and sentiment.
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Shaped Waymo's product roadmap by frequently triangulating data from a variety of sources (telemetry, rider feedback, etc.) to uncover pain points and areas of opportunity.
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I helped shape Waymo's early strategy for meeting the mobility needs of vulnerable communities like the elderly, people with disabilities, and teenagers through in-depth research. My findings shed light on critical concerns around tailored user experience, parental controls, trust & Safety, and specialized customer service solutions.
Process:
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Played an instrumental role in development of a rider and driver feedback system utilizing the SAM scale used in the experiments to capture participants' emotional reactions.
People:
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Helped grow the Chandler UXR team from 1 to 5 within 1 year
IBM
May 2019 - December 2021
Lead UX Researcher
Led research across 4 IBM organizations, including Future of Computing (FoC), Research CIO office, Cloud Platform Security, and Cloud for Financial Services (FSCloud).
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Achievements:​
Product
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Influenced productization and monetization of emerging technologies in Materials Science, Quantum computing, and AI spaces at IBM Research Future of Computing through leading exploratory and generative research in the 0–1 product space.
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Contributed to IBM Security & Compliance Center launch, earning the IBM Technical Achievement Award.
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Drove strategic investments for IBM Cloud for Financial Services, aligning with industry needs uncovered through extensive stakeholder and foundational research.
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Improved internal tools for IBM Research scientists, increasing NPS by 44 points, recognized with the IBM Research Landmark Award - Copper.
Process:
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Created a participant panel of 100+ Cloud SMEs for strategic research resulting in strengthened partnership with Eng and PM, and improved quality and impact of research.
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Implemented Lean Research and Remote Testing enablement programs for UX Design.
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Implemented Usabilla for continuous feedback on internal tools enabling Design, PM, and Eng. teams to measure the impact of each release and make continuous improvements.
People:
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Mentored and upskilled 10+ Researchers within Research and Cloud organizations.
ServiceNow
December 2021 - July 2022
Lead UX Researcher
Served as a pillar lead, spearheading strategic studies to modernize the user experience of enterprise workflow products and expand the Field Service Management (FSM) Portfolio. This encompassed a wide range of areas, including dispatch, resource and appointment scheduling, schedule and route optimization, vendor engagement, workforce planning, capacity risk management, mobile workforce management, Generative AI use cases, and more. ​
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Achievements:
Product:
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Influenced executive-level roadmaps by leading cross-functional and cross-BU partnerships, conducting large-scale foundational qualitative and quantitative studies.
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Led strategic research initiatives uncovering product opportunities, resulting in new features, FSM Portfolio expansion, and increased adoption measured through metrics like unique feature engagements and completed work order records per month.
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Partnered with solutions consulting teams for direct end-user access, and conducting contextual research investigating usability challenges, leading to improvements reflected in higher UXQ scores in Vancouver Release.
Process:
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Established a unified approach for FSM's operational research practice, logging, analyzing, prioritizing, and measuring the impact of usability insights for maximized impact and leadership visibility.
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Implemented an insights enablement program, significantly increasing stakeholder engagement and research impact through coaching, templates, and ongoing customer engagement programs.
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Led org-wide Research Ops initiatives to investigate and address recruiting and customer engagement issues, significantly improving recruiting speed, quality and time to engagement.
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Initiated org-wide efforts to educate researchers and facilitate the implementation of contextual and participatory research frameworks.
People:
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Grew and transformed the FSM UXR team, expanding from 1 to 3 members.
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Mentored and developed 7 junior and mid-level researchers across the organization, with 4 receiving promotions within a year.
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ATOM
February 2015 - April 2017
​​Design Researcher
Partnered with clients across diverse industries to define research objectives, research plans, and execute multi, and mixed-methods studies.
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Achievements
Product
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Shaped product and pricing strategy, design decisions, and marketing initiatives for clients, by delivering actionable insights that resulting in successful product launches, monetization and adoption of new products, and improved user experiences.
Process
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Built and managed engaged participant panels for longitudinal research studies, ensuring a deep understanding of evolving user needs and behaviors over time.
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Established and maintained strong relationships with third-party organizations to access diverse participants and expand research footprint.
SmartRevenue
February 2015 - April 2017
Ethnographic Researcher
Utilized ethnographic research to understand consumers’ mindset and gain insights into planned and unplanned buys at retail. Studied consumers behavior in retail stores as well as their thinking beforehand and afterwards when shopping for specific products. Outlined shopping process to help clients from various major brands understand the shopping cycle from a holistic perspective using ethnography.
Achievements:
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Conducted over 300 grocery store-intercept surveys in Walmart, Target, Fresh and Easy, Dollar General and more as one of lead researchers in Arizona.
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Trained 15 Ethnographic researchers with interview and intercept skills
Irene Yachbes
Strategic Technical
Product Manager @ IBM
Maral is incredibly thorough while remaining practical and lean. Her empathy for users is deep, and she develops relationships with the user and stakeholder community that continue to benefit the program months after her engagements. Maral blends traditional research methods with the latest ones - she is not afraid to explore and try new approaches and tools. Her ability to understand technical and design considerations made her invaluable as well. As a Product Manager, I considered her to be my right-hand in driving our product roadmap.
Danika Patrick
UX Research Manager @ Waymo
Maral is an outstanding mixed methods researcher. She was our first on the ground UX research team member as we launched the early rider program and scaled it to our public product, Waymo One. She ran a range of complex longitudinal studies as well as scrappy critical surveys independently, always delivering actionable, impactful insights. Waymo's users were lucky to have her on the ground being their advocate and teaching the team to have empathy for their needs and experience.
She was a trusted partner, open to feedback and always brought creativity to research methods and analysis. It's a delight to have the chance to manage and work along side Maral.
Brian Taylor
Director UX Research @ ServiceNow
Maral is an excellent Principal User Researcher who operates with drive and passion to unpack complex product domains and inform direction. Maral worked for me at IBM in our Public Cloud space, where she drove strategic research to inform the customer journey and shape product roadmaps. Maral dives deep into a problem space like no one else, immersing herself as she seeks to understand the user and market. I love working with Maral; any team is lucky to have her.
Anton Aleksandrov
Principal Solutions Architect @ IBM
Maral is a true professional you can depend on with your eyes closed. She's curious, not afraid of digging deep until she understands the problem and can deliver the best UX possible. Maral is a restless advocate of UX first approach - she insists on highest standards, does competitive research, investigates what users think, comes up with proposals for excellent UX, and makes sure that product and engineering teams are involved in the process and understand the outcome. If you're looking for a seasoned Design/UX lead with great personality - search no more! Maral is the one you're looking for!