I build the function, not just the studies.
Research leader with fifteen years across UX, brand, and digital commerce. Design trained, globally curious, equal parts analytical and intuitive.
I build research that travels: between brands, between borders, and between the finding and the decision.
I built the UX research and insights function at The Estée Lauder Companies from the ground up and led it for eight years, growing it from a single practitioner to a twelve-person organization across two management layers spanning New York, remote US, Romania, and South America. The work spanned nineteen brands in a portfolio sold across roughly 150 countries and territories, with research run across North America, LATAM, South America, the UK, EMEA, and APAC.
Today I lead UX strategy and research for B2B, non-profit, medical, government, and education clients through Sandstorm Design, most recently as research and IA lead on the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer site redesign, on a scope compressed from six months to eight weeks.
I run mixed methods end to end: moderated qualitative and survey design, behavioral analytics, and AI-assisted synthesis with human review written into the protocol. The through-line across all of it is that a finding is only useful if the confidence behind it survives the handoff.
Fifteen years, six organizations, one throughline.
Ticks inside the Estée Lauder bar mark the four role changes: Manager, Senior Manager, Director, Product Director. Eight years and nine months in one place, during which the function grew from one practitioner to twelve people across two management layers.
The full record
Sandstorm Design
Chicago · remoteUX strategy, research, and design end to end for B2B clients across non-profit, medical, government, and education. Research and IA lead on the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer site redesign.
The Estée Lauder Companies
New York · 8 yrs 9 mosQualitative insights strategy for the Digital Experience Activation team across the global portfolio. Built a custom GPT content pipeline and ran Fullstory as the Voice of Consumer program.
Global UX strategy and analytics across Fullstory, Looker, GA4, and BI to optimize digital commerce and inform product roadmaps. At peak led a twelve-person research and design org across two management layers.
Mixed-methods programs spanning usability testing, A/B testing, and segmentation. Established the research operations and analytics frameworks that scaled insights delivery organization-wide.
Built and launched the UX research function from the ground up: methodologies, intake process, team structure. Authored the first design system and component library for global enterprise use.
Earlier
2009 – 2017UX research and design consulting for Estée Lauder Companies and Shiseido. Contributed to award-winning redesigns including Bumble and bumble, a Webby Honoree in 2018.
Professional Practices, senior students. Lecture: The many faces of interfaces.
User research, experience design, and stakeholder engagement on UX programs for enterprise clients in B2B and B2C.
Ecommerce strategy, online brand experience, and integrated campaigns bridging digital and print.
Campaign design across web, email, and print. WMG Rockefeller Holiday Event.
Web, viral, and print advertising campaigns; corporate identity materials.
- Verdicts before recommendations. Every finding carries a decision about what it means before anyone sees a proposal.
- Systems outlast studies. A study answers this quarter. A method library, an intake path, and a taxonomy answer the next five years.
- Provenance survives the readout. Where a finding came from and how strong it is travel with it, or the finding degrades into an opinion.
- The open question gets named. Silence should never read as a yes.
- Moderated qualitative and usability testing
- Large-scale survey design and synthesis
- Segmentation, conjoint, and A/B testing
- Information architecture and navigation research
- Competitive and heuristic audit programs
- Multi-market research across NA, LATAM, EMEA, and APAC
- Voice of Customer program design and operation
- Research operations and analytics frameworks
- Method libraries, taxonomies, and research repositories
- Intake paths, cadences, and prioritisation models
- Measurement plans tied to named owners and KPIs
- AI-assisted synthesis with human review governance
- Synthetic panel calibration protocol design
- Custom GPT and agentic workflow design
- Generative search visibility auditing
- Building research functions from zero
- Managing researchers and designers across two layers
- Translating findings for non-researcher stakeholders
- Design systems and design-literate specification
- Mentoring and internal education programs
Fullstory, Looker, GA4, Google Search Console, Optimizely, Shopify
UserTesting (10+ years), Dovetail, Maze, Lyssna
Bizrate, Talkwalker, Sphere, ICON / Salesforce, Brandlight
Claude, custom GPTs, Gemini, FigmaMake, Sora
Figma, Confluence, Jira, Aha!, SharePoint, Power Apps
- Nielsen Norman Group, UX Research + AI Product Strategy Certification, 2026
- IBM / Coursera, Generative AI: Introduction and Applications, 2026
- Fullstory, Fundamental Product Data Certification, 2024
- Parsons The New School for Design, BFA Communication Design
- School of Visual Arts, Guest Lecturer
- NYC UXPA, Board Member and Director of Volunteers
- America On Tech, Mentor and Speaker
- Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, Mentor and Core Planning Committee
Me
Ugly
I also publish poetry.
Love Me Ugly came out in February 2025 from Vanguard Press, under the byline Caitlin Davis-Ruiz. It follows love the way the moon moves, sliver to full and back to an empty sky, and it refuses to only sing the happy parts. The argument underneath it is that you should not be ashamed of the unlovely half of yourself.
It sits on this page rather than tucked away because it is not a separate life. Research and poetry are the same discipline pointed at different targets: both refuse to paraphrase a person too early. A verbatim and a line both lose their meaning the moment you summarize them, and nearly everything I have built professionally comes from taking that seriously.
Paperback, 126 pages · ISBN 9781837945412
View the collectionThe rest of the team.
Luna and Luca, both rescues, who have sat through more readouts than most stakeholders and have never once asked for the deck.
