United States

UX Research

Customer Experience (CX)

Business Transformation

Master of Arts - MA

Doctor of Philosophy - PhD

Michelle Handy, PhD

Research Lead, Behavioral Scientist

Relationship management

Public Speaking

Communication

Problem-solving

Critical-thinking

Empathy

Team player

Presentation skills

Stakeholder management

Leadership

Qualtrics

Figma

Mural

Collaboration

Introduce yourself, define mentoring expectations and goals. Learn and grow together.

General mentorship

Talk to people who have learned to manage their imposter syndrome.

Dealing with imposter syndrome

Navigating micro-aggression, getting paid what you are worth and finding a community.

Being a woman in tech

Strategies for maximizing your design internship or co-op program.

Getting the most out of my internship

Tips for transitioning into a new role or company.

Changing roles

How to successfully prepare and position yourself for a job promotion?

How to get promoted

How to ask for a promotion and negotiate for salary raise?

Negotiating a job offer

Get actionable feedback on your resume or portfolio.

Resume and portfolio review

Practice HR, technical and behavioural interviews with mentors.

Practice mock interviews

Talk to people who've broken into the tech industry and learn their stories.

Breaking into tech

How to create a positive workplace culture that drives collaboration and productivity?

Fostering a good team culture

Learn the tips to successfully manage a team in a remote environment.

Managing a remote team

How to maintain trust, commitment, accountability deliver results while handling conflict

Avoiding common dysfunctions

How to determine what is a good balance of skill sets for your organization's needs

Building balanced teams

Manage team expectations and get the most out of your meetings.

Running effective meetings

Identify and define potential product problems and generating possible solutions.

Identifying problems vs solutions

Learn how to properly present your work and share ideas and opinions.

Presenting your work with impact

How to work with team members with different skill sets but towards a common goal?

Working cross-functionally

Explore different generative and evaluative research techniques. User research synthesis and presentation.

Conducting good user research

Ways and resources to improve your design skills.

Improving design skills

Ways to provide constructive feedback to team members.

Giving effective feedback

What is a successful user onboarding flow and how to achieve it?

Onboarding new users

• Spearhead the development and execution of UX research projects to inform product development and strategy, resulting in improved employee and client experience & business efficiency
• Successfully advocated for the creation of a new product data analytics team, and identified critical gaps in the current analytics framework to inform this decision 
• Manage a high-performing team of UX researchers, providing regular feedback, coaching, and professional development opportunities to support their growth and drive results 
• Develop and deliver a range of training workshops to upskill team members on critical topics such as behavior science, change management, and stakeholder management, driving a culture of continuous learning and improvement 
• Establish strategic relationships with key stakeholders across the organization, including solution architects, observability engineers, analysts working in engineering ops, and business process improvement consultants, to drive alignment with company goals and objectives 
• Streamline team operations by generating onboarding materials for new team members and ensuring the delivery of high-quality research proposals, workplans, final reports, and presentations 
• Assign projects based on team members' expertise and strengths, identify new research opportunities based on broader context and executive concerns, and keep the team informed of the big picture to drive alignment with company goals and objectives.

As FM Global’s first Applied Behavioral Scientist, I impact the Product Organization in three ways: (1) laying the foundation for quantitative behavioral research on a wholly qualitative user research team, (2) infusing Behavioral Design into the product development process, and (3) educating and training UX and Product to apply key behavioral science principles in their work.

• Building the foundation for measurement of usage behavior & quantitative research at FM Global 
• Leading the effort to define a framework of UX metrics and KPIs across FM Global’s digital products by facilitating Product Owners and Senior Leaders to articulate which behavioral patterns signify “adoption” and “engagement” across products and user types
• Introduced Behavioral Mapping to Design Thinking, to guide senior leaders as they set vision and make plans for strategic direction of key areas by gathering a key behavioral outcome statement during project kickoff to guide insights gathering
• Develop workshops to educate and train stakeholders across FM Global about key behavioral science principles (e.g., default bias, loss aversion) and processes (COM-B, focusing on behavioral outcomes vs. abstract goals) to drive technology adoption

As an Applied Behavioral Scientist at WW, I leveraged a depth of expertise in research methods, statistical data analysis, and social psychology while collaborating on a breadth of projects with cross-functional teammates, embedding behavioral science into a work streams throughout the organization. My day-to-day responsibilities demanded excellent communication skills, enabling me to explain abstract scientific principles to teammates in ways that felt accessible and actionable.

• Led and executed research to establish evidence for WW's community offerings on health behaviors and weight loss outcomes across virtual and in-person workshops
• Conducted surveys and experiments to investigate high priority questions around barriers to behavior change and potential solution strategies
• Partnered with Product, Design, and Content teams to integrate evidence-based practices into product development and leverage research insights to inform user experiences
•Recruited, hired, and managed 2 research analysts, helping them navigate stakeholder relationships and prioritize projects
•Built relationships with VP/Director+ level XFN leadership across WW teams: Consumer Insights, UX Research, Data Science, Growth & User Acquisition
•Produced frameworks to ground WW in the science surrounding behavioral constructs like habit formation, mindset, and motivation
•Embraced role as Organizational Educator and Communicator, in ways including: educating cross-functional collaborators on behavioral principles and frameworks through embedded, consultative working; communicating Applied Behavioral Science’s scope and function to leadership and various teams; and teaching a Masterclass to the entire Product organization on the role of behavioral science

As a Research Associate at See Change Institute, I leveraged behavioral science insights to increase people's enrollment in clean energy sources. In my role, I conducted empirical research, analyzed data and created visualizations, conducted behavioral audits, and wrote professional reports to provide insights which supported San Diego Community Power's community choice aggregation (CCA) rollout strategy.

As a Quantitative Researcher at PBS, I provided data-driven insights to practitioners who were working to develop an interactive digital program that would educate adolescents about climate change. For my role, I analyzed quantitative data using advanced statistical methodology including factor analysis, A/B testing, difference in proportion testing, univariate and multivariate testing, moderation and mediation, analysis of variance, linear regression, power analysis, and structural equation modeling. I also assisted with developing and programming survey instruments into Qualtrics, and prepared biweekly technical reports of research deliverables for PBS stakeholders.

As a Teaching Assistant at UC Santa Barbara, I taught and mentored undergraduate students in both psychology courses and more informal settings. 

My responsibilities included: teaching basic experimental, research, and statistical skills to undergraduates by developing lectures, presenting course material, overseeing small student groups conducting independent research projects, and grading homework, papers, and exams. I have been the teaching assistant for courses such as Advanced Research Methods and Addressing Social Problems with Psychological Science, as well as a variety of other social psychology content courses. I have consistently received highly positive feedback from student evaluations in areas including: knowledge of subject matter, clarity and helpfulness in answering questions, and establishing rapport.

My role as an undergraduate supervisor has involved training, hiring, and mentoring a team of research assistants. I have mentored a team of 5 research assistants as well as an honors student. I have fostered diversity and inclusion in the UCSB community by acting as a mentor to undergraduates interested in STEM careers through the Women in Stem (WiSTEM) program, as well as a mentor to a first-generation student who conducted an independent research project through the McNair Summer Scholars Program.

As a Researcher and Analyst at UCSB, I designed and produced research on the motivators of climate change behavior. I employed advanced statistical methods to interpret data gathered from surveys, experiments, and large datasets. These methods included A/B testing, logistic and linear regressions,  univariate and multivariate analysis, and multi-level modeling using statistical software packages such as R, SPSS, MPlus, and Excel. I maintained a robust and reproducible workflow using .Rmd reports and version-controlled projects with Github.

In my psychological research, I studied the ways that having personal, concrete experiences with climate change (such as extreme weather) influences people's climate change beliefs, pro-environmental policy support, and sustainable behavior. I investigated this question through a series of projects using a variety of methods. These methods included analyzing extreme weather search patterns on Google Trends, conducting a survey with a large online sample selected to be representative of the U.S. population on key demographics, conducting a field experiment in Montecito, California after the debris flows occurred, and conducting a field experiment with citizen climate lobbyists in Washington, D.C.

I have presented peer reviewed work to a diverse audience of research scientists and academics at four conference presentations.

As a Research Assistant at the Higgins Laboratory, I designed and executed field experiments on social influence and message framing. I created experimental stimuli, primed participants into different experimental conditions, and collected field data on individuals in the flu vaccination context.

As a Researcher and Analyst at CAPER, I conducted original research studying the influence of mindset (abstract vs. concrete thinking) on motivation, self-efficacy, and persistence. For this thesis, I prepared the project proposal and IRB materials, managed a team of 4 student research assistants, scheduled 120 participants for appointments, created surveys and behavioral assessments, collected and managed data, analyzed data using SPSS.

As a Research Assistant at Center for Addictions, Personality, and Emotion Research (CAPER), I studied the effects of cognitive improvement training among disadvantaged midlife individuals in
Baltimore and contributed to various research projects exploring decision-making, impulsivity, and addiction. My responsibilities included administering the working memory training to participants, writing up IRB submissions, coding open-ended data, and completing literature reviews.

Michelle Handy, PhD🇺🇸

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