Marsha Lo
Marsha has a deep fascination in the intricate, and sometimes messy, connection between human intention and behavior. With 10+ years of experience, she takes pleasure in observing and distilling people’s behaviors, mental models and belief systems into meaningful and actionable insights. She believes that a deep understanding of human needs and behavior could help solve relevant problems and influence positive change, one offering at a time.
Armed with a Masters degree in Human Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon, Marsha has had the opportunity to work on a breadth of products — from home appliances at Samsung, creative software, mobile apps and hardware at Adobe (i.e., the Adobe Ink and Slide) to enterprise products at Citrix.
It was at Adobe that she met and had the opportunity to collaborate with Heather on Photoshop.
Marsha on why curiosity is fundamental to quality research…
“Curiosity is the mindset that drives us to explore with little or no judgment and preconceived notions. It allows us to ask questions more deeply, to see things differently, and to embrace the affective nuances that define the interactions between people, products and spaces. That understanding is important in crafting product experiences that resonate with people. We don’t simply own products - we form meaningful relationships with them.”
Heather Dolan
Heather enjoys spending time in the spaces where people, problems, and technology meet. Her first career was in engineering before moving to user research over 10 years ago while at Adobe Systems. She’s worked on a variety of technology projects from professional desktop software to consumer apps. She also has experience in the public sector looking at health care and the intersection of policing and public health. She holds a B.S. in Photographic and Imaging Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a Masters from UC Berkeley’s School of Information.
Heather’s thoughts on why qualitative research matters…
“We currently have unprecedented data to not only make product and design decisions, but also to understand their implications.
However, in a world where people are increasingly connected, we run the risk of reducing those connections to mere transactions.
Qualitative research, put simply - the act of talking with people to understand their behavior and the data generated by their actions, remains relevant and even more important to create products, solutions and experiences that transcend transaction.”