10+ years making research impossible to ignore
I lead research teams in complex B2B environments, build the systems that carry insight into product decisions, and stay hands-on with the studies and the code. Most research leaders specialize in one of those. I work across all three.
Research that shapes what gets built
I have spent the last decade turning research from a service teams wait on into a function that shapes what gets built. I do that by growing researchers, standing up the systems and tooling that scale research across product and design, and staying close enough to the craft to run studies and build tools myself.
As your research leader, I will:
- Build and grow a research team that operates as a strategic partner to product and design
- Stand up the playbooks, repositories, and tooling that let product and design run rigorous research on their own
- Partner with product and design leadership to ground roadmap decisions in evidence
- Run the studies, the synthesis, and the code myself when that is the fastest path to an answer
A research team is infrastructure too.
I build the competency frameworks, feedback, and visibility that let people see exactly where they stand and where they're headed. Growth becomes a system, not a guess.
Insights don't move organizations. Infrastructure does.
Good findings go nowhere without systems to make them discoverable and durable. I design the infrastructure (taxonomies, synthesis pipelines, automated repositories) so that research reaches the decisions that matter, long after the study closes.
Use AI where it's genuinely strong. Know where it isn't.
Pattern recognition at scale, first-pass tagging, clustering across studies. AI handles these well and faster than any researcher. Knowing where to trust it and where to take over is the actual skill. We still bring the imagination, intuition, inspiration, and insight.
The evolution of the UX Unicorn
In the mid-2010s the most valuable person in a product org could do research, design, and write front-end code. Specialization squeezed that out. AI brought it back, so someone willing to own outcomes across layers can operate credibly across the full stack again.
If you can't measure it, you can't defend it.
I establish baselines before redesigns and track continuously to business outcomes, so I can show the ROI of UX in any executive review. Research without measurement is just storytelling with good slides.
"His leadership was transformative. Almost overnight, he organized the research team into a cohesive, high-performing unit, and introduced research structures that made insights findable and shareable across the organization."
"Xiao-Wen brought a strategic approach to UX research that consistently pushed our thinking and helped us make better decisions. He has a unique ability to connect customer insights to real business impact while earning trust across teams and stakeholders. He built a strong team, developed people well, and created an environment where people genuinely enjoyed working for him."
"He elevated the team with his research skills, even mentoring designers on the proper research methods to use during the product design process. A valuable asset to any team."
"As an inexperienced UX designer, I had the honor of learning from him. I wouldn't be where I am today without his skilled mentorship and thoughtful approach to design."
Systems I've designed, built, and shipped
Let's work on something hard together
Open to Director, Manager, and Principal research roles, plus product-designer-builder work. Particularly interested in teams serious about proving the business value of research.
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