Thanks for your interest!

Below is a summary of recent work, entrepreneurial ventures, UXR writing, and kind words from those who have worked with me.

Please see Linkedin for more detail. Portfolio available upon request.

What others are saying:

"Laura makes exceptional research look easy...

From start to finish, Laura balances both strategic and tactical thinking to ensure research projects have near-term and long-term impact. This is a rare skill, especially as a contractor coming into an established organization, where learning a product, the business context, and the stakeholders can take a lot of effort. Laura knows exactly how to use her time and resources to get up to speed quickly and immediately help teams prioritize and execute research that drives better user experiences and business outcomes. She's also just a joy to work with, and is thoughtful about her role within research and cross-functional teams. I would love to work with her again!”
Margaret Becker, Director of UX Research
"Laura has been a great UX research partner...

We collaborated on two products and both times were a joy. I appreciated Laura’s attention to detail in the research studies that she drove. She also facilitated some workshops to help our team prioritize a focus and I was impressed by her ability to wrangle 10+ UX/PM/ENG stakeholders to get us there. We also closely collaborated on synthesizing our findings from a heuristic evaluation that I helped lead and a UXR rollup that she put together into a single-narrative presentation that would define the UX vision and action items for our team. That presentation would go on to help inform leadership on which investment decisions they should make.

Overall, everything I’ve worked on with Laura has led to momentum-creation and value-creation. I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to work with and learn from her and I hope I’ll get that opportunity again in the future!”
Nikhil Mehrotra, Product Designer
"Laura is a thorough and trustworthy UX research professional...

She has supported research for three of my teams over the past year and I have come to trust her process, approach, and guidance completely. Laura is highly responsive, detail oriented, efficient, and empathetic. She seeks partnership with cross-functional peers knowing that research is only as good as the other functions it influences. All of her colleagues have come to value her work and are highly engaged with the outcomes of her research. I'm very grateful for the opportunity we've had to work with Laura!”
Kijana Knight, Director of UX Research

Laura Galos

Austin, TX | galos.laura@gmail.com

Skills: UX Research, Qualitative Research, Strategy, Coaching, Facilitation, Stakeholder Engagement, Study Design, Practice-Building, Field Research, Remote Research, Testing

Core domain experience: Small Business, Employer/Employee Experience, Healthcare, Technology, Education & Learning, Personal Development

UXR & Business Experience

Owner & Founder

The Fika Table | Sep 2020 - Present | Austin, TX

The Fika Table is Austin's Nordic-inspired bakery. I founded the company in the midst of the pandemic in 2020 out of my home kitchen, leveraging my family's Finnish heritage and entrepreneurial skills from Austin Center for Design.

Design Research and Creative Leadership Instructor

Austin Center for Design | Oct 2020 - Present | Austin, TX

The learning experience at AC4D positions creative design education in the context of making social impact. Students learn interdisciplinary skills of creative design thinking, and apply these skills towards solving complicated problems of society and culture.
I have been an instructor since 2020, having co-developed and operated the first Remote Studio (12 week Design Research program) for AC4D during the pandemic lockdown.
Since that time I have led several cohorts in Remote Studio, instructed the full-year program students in the in-person foundational Research and Sensemaking class, and taught Creative Leadership to the most recent cohort.

Contract Design Researcher

Indeed.com | Sep 2022 - Mar 2024 | Austin, TX

Indeed helps people get jobs. Our work together centered on improving employers' results in finding and matching with qualified candidates for hire, and interacting with candidates on the journey to the job offer.
Conducted qualitative interviews and concept tests for the Matching Platform and Recommendations team in order to help hiring managers find and hire candidates for specialized and technical roles.
Developed and tested prototypes along with the Qualifications team to help ensure employers only receive candidates they consider 'qualified' without unintentional discrimination toward candidates that do not readily fit their mental profile.
Created and implemented studies for the Interviews team to better map the hiring manager journey from first contact to the hire. Our goal was to create products and services that make that process more efficient without losing the human touch hiring managers wish to impart.
Developed and implemented research for leadership of the newly-formed Interviews & Beyond team to help define the mission and prioritize high-opportunity initiatives.

Design Research and Strategy Lead

Modernist Studio | Jul 2019 - Nov 2020 | Austin, TX

Led discovery, alignment, and innovation engagements for clients in Finance, Tech, Consulting, and Ed Tech fields.

Sr. Experience Design Researcher

O'Reilly Media | Jan 2019 - Jul 2019 | Boston, MA

Joined as the second UXR hire to develop UXR approaches and practices across the Product team from the ground, up.
Developed and implemented practices at the tactical and strategic level to align daily product work and quarterly roadmapping to user needs.
Led generative discovery work to inform strategy for the O'Reilly online learning platform.

Sr. Researcher

Legalzoom | Feb 2018 - Dec 2018 | Austin, TX

Uncovered opportunities for wider and deeper engagement with existing business partners in accounting, banking, and business licenses through generative research and co-creation with partner businesses.
Brought alignment and focus to cross-disciplinary customer experience (CX) team by using understanding of small and medium business to articulate metrics based on actual, research-validated user goals for customer success.
Scaled research practices to product teams across the portfolio of LegalZoom offerings by facilitating workshops, co-creating and co-implementing research engagements, and advising product teams conducting their own studies.Uncovered opportunities for wider and deeper engagement with existing business partners in accounting, banking, and business licenses through generative research and co-creation with partner businesses. Brought alignment and focus to cross-disciplinary customer experience (CX) team by using understanding of small and medium business to articulate metrics based on actual, research-validated user goals for customer success. Scaled research practices to product teams across the portfolio of LegalZoom offerings by facilitating workshops, co-creating and co-implementing research engagements, and advising product teams conducting their own studies.

Design Research Lead

Legalzoom | Jan 2017 - Feb 2018 | Austin, TX

Hired as part of the first innovation design team. Conducted foundational generative and evaluative research to co-create a new offering from scratch within 5 months. Mapped the small business journey beyond business formation to articulate and align cross-disciplinary teams on opportunity areas. New product/service helped small businesses start, run, and grow their businesses, generating 3.5 million in revenue in pilot phase.

Design Researcher

IBM | Nov 2015 - Jan 2017 | Austin, TX

Lead Design Researcher on a project to re-envision a key Power Systems product.
Led generative and evaluative research initiatives for Power Systems across multiple product lines.
Identified and implemented optimal methods for surfacing actionable findings, regularly presented findings to executive stakeholders.
Facilitated understanding and usage of design thinking among different engineering and business units.

Please see Linkedin for prior work experience.

Education

Cornell University, Food and Beverage Management Certificate | Issued Oct 2024
Austin Center for Design, Certification, Interaction Design & Social Entrepreneurship | 2014 - 2015
Cornell University, B.A. English with Distinction in All Subjects | 2007