Case Studies
Product & Design Research Impact
Check out examples of cross-functional UX research projects I've led which blend mixed-method research methodology and product expertise.
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View Item Verticalization & the Design Sprint Playbook
Throughout 2025 & early 2026, I led research & cross-functional Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) design sprints with rapid concept testing to verticalize eBay's View Item page to better suit the user needs for each Focus Category while still keeping the View Item page feeling familiar and legible across categories. Several launches were directly resulting from these sprints, such as Elevated Specs for Fashion and Price Guidance for Trading Cards in the View Item page--experiences which give buyers easier access to key information they need to make quicker & more informed buying decisions which resulted in higher conversion rates. More significantly, I systematized our approach to theses sprints to create our Design Sprint Playbook which reduced average sprint planning time from two months down to about two weeks.
Auctions Revitalization
Throughout 2025 & early 2026, I led research for eBay’s Auctions Revitalization, a eBay's flagship buying format that drives about 10% of eBay’s GMV (~$8B) and reaches most eBay buyers across billions of visits each quarter. The work covered bidding mechanics (including extended and popcorn bidding), a north star UX experience, and go-to-market strategy. I combined foundational research, concept & usability testing, follow-up surveys, and go-to-market research to show the team how auction mechanics shape buyers’ sense of fairness, excitement, urgency, and strategy, and how those choices affect seller outcomes. I partnered with product leadership and product marketing to turn customer evidence into decisions on positioning, rollout, and adoption, and built a reusable body of evidence for future auction-mechanics decisions. An early extended-bidding pilot with five top Trading Cards sellers (about 515 items) showed buyers engaging with the new experience more actively as intended: about half of auctions extended at least once, with an average of 3.6 extensions and roughly two bidders still competing in the extension window compared to passive participation through proxy bidding.
eBay Seller Capital
eBay Seller Capital allows budding and established businesses on eBay to access the capital they need in order to grow and thrive. As traditional banks often don’t recognize e-commerce sellers as real businesses, driving access to capital directly from eBay and its banking partners unlocks billions of dollars of growth potential for sellers and eBay. I drove foundational research of this 0-to-1 product and resourced concept testing for the launch in 2024, and it generated over $1.27M in direct revenue just in its first week!
Unpaid Items
In 2023, eBay was losing an estimated $4.4B per year in revenue from sold items going unpaid. It’s the biggest problem for GMV, seller CSAT, and growth eBay has ever had. My research helped drive a 56% reduction of unpaid items in 2023, equivalent to about $2.9B in annual GMV impact. Additionally, my research single-handedly identified and slowed a launch which would have resulted in $78M in GMV breakage and costed sellers $22M in additional shipping expenses each year.
Home & Garden Large Furniture Buyer User Journeys: A Diary Study with eBay
I led this research project as a Senior Design Researcher leading all Home & Garden design research at eBay in the Fall of 2021. As the lead, I collaborated with stakeholders from product, design, and business to hone in on the most important unknowns in Home & Garden across the US, DE, and UK markets and prioritize the research roadmap accordingly. This study led to the prioritization of Home & Garden as a focus category in eBay's global 2022 strategy worth over $44M in revenue. Today, while I no longer lead Home & Garden, I still consult with the team and mentor the researcher who took it over.
The Future of Higher Education Classrooms: Reimagining the Post-COVID-19 College Classroom
I led this research project as an Applied Design Research Analyst at the 3rd largest commercial interiors company in the world. In partnership with my undergraduate university, Grand Valley State University, we studied the interactions of college students and professors as they were re-entering the classroom in the Fall of 2020 given new, collaborative, in-class furniture setups. As professors and students we re-learning what activities are best facilitated in the classroom versus online, we were studying how they interacted and how they wanted to interact in their 'new normal' to help understand what college classrooms need to be in order to attract new, in-person students. This research led to the design and production of a new product, the Poppy Chair with Tablet Arm, which won an HiP Award from Interior Design at NeoCon 2022!