Shannon Bator
Verified Expert in Design
UX Researcher and Designer
Boston, MA, United States
Toptal member since November 16, 2021
A user researcher with over 20 years of experience, Shannon helps clients solve a variety of problems by answering questions about their users and their needs. She uses various research methods, including interviews, surveys, and usability testing, to collect meaningful and thoughtful feedback from users. Shannon then shares the results in an easily digestible and actionable way.
Portfolio
Work Experience
Founder and User Researcher
Bator Research
- Founded Bator Research, a user research consulting practice specializing in qualitative research.
- Consulted for 75+ companies, developing user research strategies and conducting hands-on research to deliver actionable insights and recommendations.
- Executed research studies across 20+ industries, including AI, healthcare, gaming, social networking, eCommerce, cybersecurity, dating, education, renewable energy, travel, and fintech.
- Delivered strategic recommendations from generative and evaluative studies, resulting in 30%-70% conversions within four weeks, facilitating the launch of revenue-generating products for over 10 companies, and increasing active users by more than 50%.
- Demonstrated strong leadership and initiative by independently driving user research projects while fostering collaboration with clients to integrate actionable insights into their product development processes.
Co-founder
Engaging Users
- Co-founded a user experience design consulting service specializing in startups and new product development.
- Led the user research side of the agency, conducting user interviews, usability testing, personas, user scenarios, and journeys to help inform and prioritize product development.
- Conducted online user interviews in collaboration with clients to help them rapidly test their ideas with real customers and give them actionable findings.
Mentor
Techstars
- Worked at Techstars, a 13-week global accelerator program that supports startups with mentorship, funding, and resources to help them grow and succeed in their early stages.
- Mentored 10+ startups in user research and user-centered design methodologies, delivering workshops on the user research process to help them conduct hands-on research and understand their target personas, user needs, pain points, and goals.
- Collaborated with and guided teams in synthesizing research findings to inform product decisions.
- Enabled teams to leverage user research insights in their final presentations to investors, enhancing their efforts to secure funding.
Director, Design and User Experience
Backupify
- Worked at Backupify, a company that provides cloud-based backup services for software-as-a-service and social media data from products, including Salesforce, Google Apps, and Twitter.
- Directed user research, user experience, usability, and information architecture for the Backupify applications.
- Pioneered and established a user-centered product development process within the organization, ensuring that customer input is an upfront and cyclical part of the process.
- Revamped both the marketing website and Backupify applications to target our consumer audience better. The redesigns were driven by research, including customer interviews and persona development.
- Led user research that shaped key design decisions, playing a crucial role in Backupify's successful acquisition by Datto.
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Design
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
- Worked at Olin College of Engineering, an undergraduate college known for its unique and innovative approach to engineering education, emphasizing hands-on learning, collaboration, and entrepreneurship.
- Educated students on a user-centered design process to enhance their understanding of ideation, user research, analysis, design, and usability testing.
- Worked as a professor in the areas of mobile application development, user-oriented collaborative design, and human factors and interface design.
User Experience Designer
Microsoft
- Directed and implemented user-centered design methodologies (task analysis, usability testing, personas/profiles, and contextual interviews) into an agile development process.
- Developed new mobile and web products using design thinking methodologies.
- Designed in an agile and development process to deliver applications in two-to-four week cycles.
Education
Master of Science Degree in Human Factors and Information Design
Bentley University - Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Graphic Design
Northeastern University - Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Skills
Tools
Zoom, Affinity Diagrams
Platforms
Figma, Web, Mobile
Industry Expertise
Insurance
Other
User Research, Usability Testing, Heuristic Review, User Journeys, Personas, Google Drive, User Personas, UX Workshops, Design Thinking, Heuristic Analysis, Remote User Testing, Focus Groups, Usability, Workshops, UX Research, Web Usability, UX Review, Web Research, User Interviews, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Quantitative User Research, User Surveys, Strategy, SaaS, Early-stage Startups, B2B, Design Research, Competitive Analysis, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Customer Journeys, User Experience Strategy, Research, User Journey Maps, UX Strategy, User Experience (UX), eCommerce UX, User Testing, Quantitative Analysis, Customer Research, Customer Experience, Customer Insights, Ideation, Ideation Workshops, Usability Heuristics, UX Audits, Design Strategy, Market Research, Innovation, Innovation Strategy, Research Synthesis, Product Discovery, Concept Testing, Tablets & Smartphones, User Retention, Journey Mapping, Analytics, UI Research, Mobile App Design, UI Design, UX Design, Surveys, Graphic Design, eCommerce, A/B Testing, Mobile UI, Mobile UX, Web UX Design, Web UI, Dating Apps, K-12 Education, Testing, Watch Industry, Internet of Things (IoT), Data Analysis
Experience
- User Research - 20 years
- Usability Testing - 20 years
- UX Research - 20 years
- Quantitative Research - 20 years
- User Interviews - 20 years
- Remote User Testing - 10 years
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