Case studies
Increasing Non-Subscriber Engagement Across News Organizations
The challenge: A major news conglomerate needed to increase engagement among non-subscribers across 29 local news markets, so they could better understand non-subscriber audiences, drive increased pageviews per session, and increase revenue.
My approach: I developed and executed a comprehensive engagement strategy, partnering with marketing, engineering and editorial. I launched features to retain users showing intent to leave, and managed the execution of the experimentation and testing strategy, including analytics dashboards, KPIs and regular check-ins.
Key results: Successfully increased average number of non-subscriber pageviews per session across all markets ~40% after one month, leading to an increase in advertising revenue. A major feature built to retain users averaged a 38% CTR. Several experiments drove positive gains towards KPIs.
Understanding AI Sentiment Among News Consumers
The challenge: I worked with a news organization who wanted to understand audience sentiment around AI. Through research, we informed the evolution of the company’s AI policies and product decisions while maintaining the trust and transparency that their audience has come to respect.
My approach: I designed and executed a multi-pronged research initiative combining quantitative and qualitative methods. I developed a comprehensive AI survey distributed across all markets and conducted in-depth subscriber interviews to explore nuanced AI concerns and preferences.
Key results: Findings from this research directly influenced the company’s AI policies and editorial guidelines. Leadership continues to reference these data-driven insights as they iterate on strategic AI decisions.
Process as a product: Scaling research to accelerate product development
The challenge: At multiple organizations, my teams wanted to do more research to answer key questions about our audience, but we didn’t have the ability to hire more researchers. Using a documentation system I developed, I trained colleagues in research best practices, scaled projects across multiple teams, and significantly increased research output while maintaining quality and centralizing findings into an easy-to-access database.
My approach: I established and documented research processes, built templates to be used as starting points, and supported colleagues new to research as we built out strategic research roadmaps and dug into major questions. I guided editorial, marketing, and business teams on user research methodologies and established regular research cadences and feedback loops across organizations.
Key results: Grew company user research outputs while maintaining quality standards, successfully democratizing research capabilities across multiple departments. Built and implemented user research roadmaps that ensure sustainable and impactful output by linking research priorities directly to business, editorial, marketing, and product goals. Supported research projects that delivered clear, measurable results and contributed to key product decisions that have driven revenue and engagement.
Growth Through User Research at Local Media Startup
The challenge: At a local media startup, we wanted to understand our audience behavior to optimize key product experiences and drive increased revenue. Areas of focus included membership conversion and newsletter engagement.
My approach: I scoped and executed research studies with the goal of understanding more about our audience and why they choose to engage. I conducted in-depth user research to uncover key insights about why subscribers open newsletters and become paid members, then applied these findings to redesign membership onboarding and branding, and inform newsletter editorial strategy.
Key results: An overhaul of membership onboarding and messaging led to a 28% increase in conversion. And a shift to the editorial strategy for newsletter subject lines drove an 18% increase in open rate.