Kristen Althizer

Lead end-to-end UX research across 40+ projects for enterprise and consumer technology clients, spanning AI products, two-sided marketplaces, AR/VR, and enterprise SaaS. Operate as lead or sole researcher on engagements — scoping studies, executing mixed-methods research, and synthesizing findings into strategic frameworks that influence roadmap decisions. Partner with product, design, engineering, data science, and marketing teams across clients including Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft.

• ·Shaped Amazon Rufus product strategy at concept stage for a consumer AI assistant, as measured by findings feeding directly into 12 successive product iterations across 12 consecutive weeks (~90 participants total), by studying how users build trust with AI, navigate conversational interfaces, and form mental models of AI acting on their behalf.
• ·Defined how AI tools can support underserved users in their daily work, as measured by a publicly published white paper as lead author (2026) in partnership with Google, by leading a two-phase study with 27 neurodivergent knowledge workers combining qualitative interviews with a heuristic evaluation of 10 AI productivity tools — surfacing how thoughtful AI design enables new ways of working for populations technology often overlooks.
• ·Improved cross-functional alignment at Google, as measured by active adoption across multiple Google product teams, by synthesizing ~55 research reports to design a foundational user archetype framework for Google Merchant Center — reframing the question from "who are the users?" to "what work needs to get done?" to produce a framework durable enough to model AI agents as distinct user types.
• ·Built Google.org's understanding of their user base, as measured by Google.org returning for two additional research engagements following delivery, by conducting 28 in-depth interviews as sole researcher and developing three user archetypes — including one the client team hadn't anticipated — that gave the organization a clear, evidence-based picture of who they serve.
• ·Studied both sides of a two-sided consumer marketplace for Expedia (Vrbo), by conducting in-depth interviews with travelers and homeowners to map distinct user journeys, surface friction points, and identify opportunities to improve trust and conversion across a consumer platform.
• ·Informed product strategy for Meta Reality Labs across AR/VR hardware and software, by leading evaluative research on how users experience and build intuitions about novel AI-assisted interfaces including early-stage device prototypes.
• ·Identified best-in-class benchmarks across five operating systems — ChromeOS, AndroidOS, iOS, macOS, and iPadOS — by designing a comparative evaluation framework with a three-point scoring rubric to produce actionable, benchmark-grounded product recommendations.

Sole qualitative researcher on a multidisciplinary team building Second Step SEL for Adults and Second Step Elementary — evidence-based learning programs reaching 16.5 million children annually across 34% of U.S. elementary schools, recognized by the White House, U.S. Department of Education, JAMA, and CASEL. Joined the SEL for Adults team at inception and worked through nearly the full arc of development, collaborating with research scientists, developmental psychologists, instructional designers, curriculum designers, PMs, and engineers to build an evidence-based adult learning product from zero to launch.

• ·Translated efficacious intervention research and learning science literature into engaging product experiences for children and adults, as measured by research findings directly shaping design, content, and feature priorities at every development stage, by building evaluation criteria grounded in developmental research, measurement science, and real educator and child behavior observed across multi-site field studies.
• ·Led a team of ten contractor observers across multi-year, multi-site field studies in geographically distributed schools, as measured by maintaining data quality and coverage standards across all sites, by establishing repeatable field protocols, conducting observer training, and building a research repository that supported ongoing team knowledge sharing.
• ·Applied mixed methods rigor across evaluation programs — including deductive coding, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and inferential statistics (T-tests, ANOVAs in SPSS) — with consistent emphasis on reproducibility, inter-rater reliability, and statistical validity.
• ·Co-authored multiple peer-reviewed manuscripts and contributed to an early learning book manuscript, contributing original research to the academic literature on social-emotional learning.