Project Outcomes at a Glance

66% Faster

Reduced Time-to-Insight from 6 weeks to 10 days, enabling weekly iteration cycles.

$150k Saved

Prevented engineering rework by identifying payment flow flaws pre-code.

200% Capacity

Automated recruitment allowed us to run 6 concurrent studies per month.

15% Retention

Data-driven onboarding redesign directly lifted Day-7 user retention.

Project Details

My Role

Senior UX Researcher
UX Architect
Ops Lead
Service Designer

Timeline

Seven Months (2022)

Tools & Methods

Qualtrics
EnjoyHQ
Calendly
Jira

The Challenge: A Mountain of Ambition, No Map

First Command Bank’s traditional product lifecycle was too slow for the modern market. Critical insights were lost in siloed drives, and every research effort was a fire drill that wasted weeks on manual logistics. Without a fundamental change, the high-stakes ‘Digital First’ MVP was at risk of budget overruns and market failure.

My Role: Systems Architect

As the Senior Researcher and UX Architect, I didn’t just execute studies; I designed the system for how we learn. My goal was to build a scalable “ResOps Engine” that integrated participant management, data governance, and insight repository tools into a seamless internal workflow. I secured the $50k budget, selected the vendors, and drove adoption across Engineering and Product leadership.

Building the Engine: 4 Pillars Strategy

Building the Engine: The 4 Pillars

From Ad-Hoc Chaos to Automated Precision

Standardize the Intake

No clear goals

Created a Standardized Research Plan Template as the single source of truth, forcing teams to define hypotheses upfront.

Result Defined Hypotheses

Scale Participants

Spreadsheet Chaos

Automated the pipeline using Qualtrics for screening and Calendly for scheduling to remove bottlenecks.

Recruitment Time 2 Weeks ➔ 48 Hours

Single Source of Truth

Insights lost in inbox

Implemented EnjoyHQ as a central repository with a global taxonomy and a "48-hour rule" for logging data.

Adoption 70% PRD Citations

Hybrid Insight Model

Admin overload

Trained assistants to leverage AI-powered analysis for initial tagging, freeing seniors for strategy.

Admin Load Reduced by 50%

The Result: A Culture of Evidence

The ResOps engine didn’t just save time; it changed how the bank built products. By providing a reliable, on-demand pipeline of insights, we enabled product pods to run weekly test-and-iterate cycles.

De-Risked Investment: Early feedback identified a critical flaw in the MVP’s payment flow. We pivoted before writing code, saving an estimated $150,000.
Strategic Partnership: Research shifted from a reactive service to a proactive partner. Within six months, Marketing and Data Science teams adopted our repository, creating a shared, cross-functional understanding of our users.

Key Takeaways

This initiative proved that in a high-velocity environment, the biggest barrier to user-centricity isn’t a lack of empathy, but a lack of efficiency. By treating Research Operations as a product itself, we removed the friction that made research feel “expensive” and slow.

“We didn’t just build a process; we built a path of least resistance. Once it became easier for the team to get insights than to guess, the culture shifted from opinion-based to evidence-based almost overnight.”