TARA MULLANEY • DESIGN RESEARCH

I have a vested interest in helping design better user experiences.

Over the past 14 years, I have worked within the design industry and academia as a design researcher and UX designer for healthcare clients. I have worked with a wide range of MedTech, PharmaCo, and Health Services clients, as well as working in-house for a major Nordic insurance company, leading user experience research throughout all phases of the design process.

I am a skilled communicator, mentor, and project manager.

As UX Research Lead within If’s Research & Design Center of Excellence, I lead a group of researchers in supporting teams within If to uncover foundational knowledge about our customers and use these insights to improve our digital products and services, develop new offerings, and support strategic business decisions. I also spend time mentoring If's UX design community in best practices for UX Research.

I am comfortable with public speaking and have given talks at international design and healthcare conferences. I also actively educate and advocating on the value of customer research across the entire organization through presentations, talks, and trainings.

I have worked relentlessly the past 3.5 years to strategically grow the internal customer research practices within If. Some of my key accomplishments in this role have been:
• Creating Nordic customer panels,
• Developing a UX Research Playbook to ensure a consistent qualitative research approach within the organization,
• Building an Insights Repository to gather and share knowledge,
• Running the Research Guild in the If UX Design Community,
• Establishing the If Customer-Centricity Bootcamp.

I am comfortable collaborating with individuals across multiple disciplines.

I am currently responsible for driving strategic and tactical qualitative user research studies at If to ensure that user insights are used to shape If’s business and product strategies and decisions. I am used to collaborating closely with stakeholders from across the organization to ensure the success and actionability of our research projects.

I also have significant experience doing this from my previous role as Senior UX Researcher at McKinsey Design where I worked in cross-functional teams including UX and product designers as well as business developers to deliver innovative concepts and services to clients built upon a strong foundation of customer knowledge.

I am able to quickly immerse myself into my research context to generate valuable findings.

I draw on a wide range of human-centered design research methods to study human behaviors, emotions, systems, and processes. My arsenal of research approaches for gathering rich and multi-faceted insights during the discovery phase of the design process includes:

• Ethnographic fieldwork
• Semi-structured and informal interviews
• Contextual inquiry
• Design probes
• Quantitative questionnaires

I believe it is important to consider the potential impact on all individuals involved, not just primary users or clients, when developing design concepts.

I employ a variety of approaches to analyze and translate my research findings into design directions. I work with visual mapping techniques used within Service Design, as well as standard UX design processes, and I specialize in storytelling.

I am fluent in the following methods:
• Personas
• Scenarios
• Journey/experience maps
• Service blueprints
• User stories and use cases

I believe in early and frequent testing of design concepts to ensure that I reach my intended audience.

I have experience evaluating testable prototypes in the field and in dialogue with the intended users and disciplinary experts. I use many of the same methods that I employ when conducting initial field research to understand how the audience engages with the designs. I am also comfortable with more structured research formats for the development and delivery phases of the design process, i.e. focus groups, cognitive walkthroughs, and usability testing.