Hi there! I'm Cynthia, a UX Researcher. Currently, I’m a Masters candidate at UC Berkeley studying Information Management and Systems with a focus on Human-Computer Interaction, graduating in Spring 2025.
I fell into design research as an undergrad at UC Davis, where I was lucky enough to work with Prof. Susan Verba in tackling community-focused issues — such as food insecurity — through design thinking. There, I learned to ask larger questions and find joy in doing so. I remember loving the process of investigating a problem, seeking sound solutions through observation, and presenting answers through recommendations, so it's no surprise UX Research was the field for me.
Prior to starting grad school, I spent a year and a half as an Associate User Researcher at Salesforce, helping bring to life the integration between Salesforce and Slack post-acquisition. While in undergrad I was a UX Research Intern at HBO Max, Salesforce, and the Exploratorium, where I got to understand problems for users from binge-watchers to Sales Reps.
I spent this past summer as a founding UX Researcher at Milliman, a mid-sized actuarial consulting firm, establishing research processes there for the first time. While in school I contract as a Product Designer & Researcher at FreeWorld, a nonprofit solving recidivism for those formerly incarcerated through technology-first means. Currently, I'm a Graduate Student Researcher at the UC Berkeley School of Information as a Center for Long-term Cybersecurity Grant Fellow conducting research around how to design autonomous AI Agents so that humans are at the helm.
Methods & Tools
📝 Qualitative Methods
Interviews, Diary Studies, Qualitative Surveys, Usability Testing, Concept Testing, Jobs-to-be-Done, Literature Reviews, Journey Mapping, Heuristic Evaluations, Rolling Research, Competitive Analysis
📊 Quantitative Methods
Descriptive Statistics, Inferential Statistics, Sentiment Analysis, Data Visualization, Regression Analysis, Experimental Design, A/B Testing, MaxDiff, Product Analytics, R, Python
👩🏻💻 Research Soft Skills
Stakeholder Management, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Project Management, Workshop Facilitation, Storytelling, Presenting to Executive Sponsors
🛠️ Software and Tools
UserTesting.com, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, iTracks, Miro, Figma, Tableau, Excel, Google Sheet, R, Python, ClickUp, Airtable, Notion, HTML/CSS/JS
Some kind words from
people I've worked with
"In our time working together, Cynthia was my first-choice partner because she excelled at: [1] Getting to a destination, [2] Absorbing and sharing knowledge, [3] Stretching her scope.
Getting to a destination
Our Salesforce-Slack work involved complex and technical subject matter, shifting priorities, 15 primary stakeholders with divergent needs, cross-functional partnerships, and undefined research needs. In an environment where it was easy to lose track of objectives and timelines, top comments from stakeholders and partners in Cynthiaʼs performance reviews centered on her preparedness, organization, and ability to “deliver insights in record time".
Absorbing and sharing knowledge
Cynthia is skilled at finding the information she needs to accomplish a job. I was continually impressed by the quality of Cynthiaʼs questions and her ability to process and retain the answers. In the words of a colleague: “You never have to explain it to Cynthia twice.” Cynthia became the source of knowledge for many of our Salesforce-for-Slack research efforts, as she compiled mission-critical background information, mapped stakeholders and their annual priorities to our project objectives, and kept an ear out for relevant pieces of information in seemingly unrelated forums such as company all-hands calls.
Stretching her scope
Cynthia stands out in her thirst for improvement—she seeks feedback and seizes stretch-opportunities. When I went on maternity leave, Cynthia took the initiative to fill gaps that even her more-senior counterparts were hesitant to fill. She stepped in to manage a research contractor and a vendor, getting them up to speed on an ambiguous project space and workshopping their research deliverables.
The skills that Cynthia demonstrated and the responsibilities that she took on in her time at Salesforce well-exceeded expectations — any team would be better for having Cynthia in it."