Project Responsibilities
As the UX Research Intern responsible for this project, I took lead on all aspects of the project. While I can't disclose details about the project, here are eight of the most important things I was in charge of!
#1 Product team collaboration
I was responsible for collaborating with the product team across PayPal and Venmo. This included: product manager, senior UX researchers, product designers, and software engineers.
#2 Cross-company collaboration
During my internship, I quickly learned how siloed teams at large companies like PayPal can be. I continued to reach out to other department teams (e.g. marketing, finance, etc) that were also working on this new product to better inform our user research study and loop in interested stakeholders.
#3 Scoping out the study, recruiting users, and preparing interview guides
I learned a lot about the in’s and out’s of how what methodologies are most appropriate for a given question. I developed the interview guides for each mini-study from start to finish, iterating to improve the guides by mock interviewing with other employees and interns.
Mock user interviews conducted remotely with PayPal employees
#4 Conducting 14 in-person user interviews in 3 different cities
We set out to different cities with our core product, myself, and a UX research mentor. I conducted 14 interviews in three cities, including Dallas, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.
#5 Facilitating stakeholder workshop and distilling initial insights
In order to keep all stakeholders and team members on the same page regarding our user needs, I held a workshop to distill insights from the user interviews. This included the core product team present at the interviews, as well as other stakeholders.
After this as the starting point, I went on to distill the insights further on my own.
#6 Developing initial concept, creating mockups and storyboards
Based on the insights, I helped develop concepts with the product team and product designer. Utilizing tools like the 2x2 matrix and dot-voting, we distilled which ideas we wanted to move forward with and user test.
Given my background in UI/UX design as well, I worked with the product designer to develop concept mockups and storyboards to user for concept testing.
#7 Concept testing remotely (scoping, recruiting, preparing, conducting, and evaluating)
Utilizing the mockups and storyboards, I prepared and conducted 5 more user interviews to concept test our ideas. I evaluated and distilled the insights for the team.
#8 Presentations to company leadership and stakeholders
I got the opportunity to present my work and in-depth findings on a number of occasions, including: project stakeholder presentation (1 hr), Merchant Design Review (20 min), Consumer State of the Union (15 min), Design Review (15 min), Power Hour (15 min), Intern Showcase (15 min).
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