Research that survives
the handoff.
Independent UX research, experience strategy, and research operations, on contract or fixed scope. Most of what I am hired for is one of two things: a decision that needs evidence behind it, or a team that needs the capability to get that evidence themselves.
Experience audit
An expert review of an existing product or site against research-backed usability principles, competitive convention, and whatever behavioral data you already have. No new participants. This is the fastest way to find out what is wrong.
- Heuristic review of up to 5 core flows
- Competitive pattern analysis, 8 to 12 comparators
- Analytics review if Fullstory, GA4, or similar is in place
- Findings prioritized by severity and level of effort
- Readout deck plus a 60-minute working session
- You suspect a problem but cannot name it
- You need to justify a redesign internally
- Budget or timeline rules out primary research
- The question is why users behave a certain way. That needs people, not an expert opinion.
Usability testing round
Moderated testing against a prototype or a live product. Eight to ten participants, screened to your actual audience rather than whoever is available. Ten-plus years on UserTesting, plus Lyssna, Maze, and Dovetail.
- Research plan with explicit hypotheses
- Screener and recruitment management
- 8 to 10 moderated sessions, 45 to 60 minutes
- Session recordings and a tagged highlight reel
- Findings deck with severity ratings and recommendations
- Readout session with your team
- Participant incentives billed at cost, typically $75 to $150 per session depending on audience
- Specialist or clinical audiences add recruitment time and cost
- Unmoderated instead of moderated reduces the range by roughly a third
Discovery sprint
Foundational research when you are about to rebuild something and cannot afford to rebuild it wrong. Mixed methods: survey at scale, interviews for depth, analytics for what people actually do, and an information architecture recommendation that all three support.
- Stakeholder alignment on what the research must answer
- Survey design, fielding, and synthesis
- 8 to 12 depth interviews across audience segments
- Analytics synthesis and a Keep / Verify / Change navigation analysis
- Proposed site architecture with evidence tiers on every decision
- Full readout, plus templates your team can run without me
Every recommendation carries its evidence level, so your team can defend the decisions after I am gone. Unvalidated assumptions get flagged as IF/THEN rather than buried.
Research function build
For teams that keep commissioning one-off studies and want the capability in-house instead. I built this from zero at Estée Lauder and scaled it to twelve people across two management layers and nine brands.
- Audit of existing research, tooling, and where insight currently dies
- Method library and taxonomy your team can actually follow
- Intake path, prioritization model, and cadence
- Repository setup and governance
- Measurement plan tied to named owners and KPIs
- Enablement sessions and role-specific guides
A Voice of Customer program synthesizing your existing data sources into a recurring readout with an action tracker. Adds 3 to 4 weeks and $8,000 to $12,000.
Fractional research leadership
Senior research leadership without a senior research salary. For teams with designers or PMs doing research who need direction, review, and someone who can carry findings into an executive room. Scoped to your cadence rather than a fixed number of days.
- Research roadmap and quarterly prioritization
- Study design review and methodology guidance
- Mentoring for researchers or research-adjacent staff
- Synthesis support and stakeholder readouts
- Standing weekly working session
Research leadership compounds. The first month is spent learning your product, your data, and your stakeholders, and the value shows up in months two and three. A one-month engagement buys the ramp and none of the return.
Advisory session
A single working session on a specific problem. Study design review, a second opinion on findings you are unsure about, AI-assisted synthesis governance, or how to structure a research practice you are about to start. Includes a written summary afterwards.
- Reading a Receipts Check result and deciding what to fix first
- Pressure-testing a research plan before fielding
- Deciding whether a question needs research at all
- Setting up synthetic panel guardrails and calibration
- Reviewing a repository or taxonomy structure
Four sessions for $1,600, used within six months. Most useful for a team standing something up over a quarter and wanting a check-in at each stage rather than one long conversation.
Embedded contract
Sitting inside your team as a researcher or research lead for a defined stretch: parental or medical leave coverage, a funded project without a permanent headcount, or a gap between hires. Remote, contract or W-2 through an agency, with commitment set by what the engagement needs.
- Your rituals, your tools, your backlog
- Study design through synthesis and readout
- Mentoring whoever inherits the work
- Documentation built so the role survives my exit
- Standard hours 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Central, and I work across time zones when a team needs overlap
- Available through staffing agencies as well as direct
- Lower end of the range applies to agency-brokered and non-profit engagements
- Contract-to-hire is welcome, not a dealbreaker either way
Not every question needs an engagement. These are priced individually, turn around fast, and are the same artifacts I produce inside larger projects. Two or more together take 15% off.
How these work: fixed price, one revision round included, delivered in your format or mine. No recruitment, fielding, or participant costs are included, since those depend entirely on audience. If a deliverable turns out to need primary research to be worth anything, I will say so before you pay rather than after.
Everything above is a fixed fee for a defined scope. You know the number before we start, and I carry the risk if a study takes longer than I estimated. Hourly billing makes efficiency a penalty, which is the wrong incentive for both of us.
Where an engagement lands inside its range depends on audience difficulty, number of flows or segments, and how much existing research and data there is to build on. I quote a single number after a scoping call, and that number is what you pay.
Embedded contracts, staff augmentation, and work that genuinely cannot be scoped in advance bill hourly: $165 direct, $135 through staffing agencies and for non-profits, since those carry a broker margin or a mission discount. Retainers over three months are quoted monthly.
What is not included anywhere above: participant incentives, panel or recruitment vendor fees, software licences you do not already hold, and travel. These are billed at cost with receipts, and estimated in the proposal so there are no surprises.
Terms: 40% on signature, balance on delivery. Engagements over $20,000 can be split into three payments. Revision rounds beyond the first are scoped separately, which keeps the fixed price honest.
Start with a scoping call
Thirty minutes, no charge. Bring the problem rather than a spec, and I will tell you if it does not need research.
Mon–Fri, 10–7 Central. Other time zones on request.
Email me directly