Open to opportunities

Suzanne Hillman

@suzannehillman

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Highly technical Linux-QA-turned-UX Researcher

United States

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What I'm looking for

I'm looking for a company where I can leverage my technical background and expertise to understand developer needs and support improvements in the developer experience. My ideal workplace values environmental and social responsibility while empowering employees by fostering employee diversity and psychological safety. I appreciate continuous learning and sharing my knowledge with others.

I'm a highly technical Linux-QA-turned-UX Researcher and designer with 10 years of experience bridging human needs and complex systems through mixed-methods research and human factors expertise. With a rare combination of computer science, psychology, and human factors training, I excel at quickly understanding technical environments to conduct effective research on complex developer tools and workflows.

My technical background is my superpower. I am excellent at rapidly internalizing developer workflows to create intuitive interfaces for complex challenges. I also excel at facilitating cross-functional collaboration while bridging communication gaps between technical and business teams.

Key Accomplishments
* Bridge Between Technical and Non-technical individuals - Applying unique combination of technical expertise and UX principles to excel in developer-heavy environments where understanding complex systems was essential
* Improve Complex Products - Identifying critical friction points and proposed enhancements for sophisticated multi-environment products, contributing valuable UX perspective to development processes
* Enhance Team Collaboration - Asking thought-provoking questions during research sessions and team meetings that expanded thinking and advanced product development conversations

Currently seeking opportunities to apply my decade of technical expertise in UX research to optimize developer tools and complex systems.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

UX Researcher

Current

Indeed

Apr 2025 - Present (1 month)

Started a month ago, have worked on a project in which I ran a study through UserTesting.com and incorporated LLM to speed up creating my discussion guide, as well as my analysis and synthesis. Readout pending.

Analysis Synthesis Figma

Associate UX Researcher

Indeed

Nov 2021 - Aug 2023 (1 year 9 months)

Supported over 20 teams by creating and running 50 generative and evaluative studies through UserTesting.com and internal ResOps team; 20 of these were rapid research iteration sessions with responsibility shared with another rapid research team member

Moderated meetings for research needs; provided interview highlights and presented PPT readouts to stakeholders

Miro Cross Functional Communication UX Research Product Research User Research Communication Skills Data Analysis User Interviews Dovetail Affinity Mapping Analysis Synthesis Presentation Skills Moderation Experience

User Experience Consultant

Ancillary Services Management

Sep 2019 - Sep 2021 (2 years)

Conducted stakeholder interviews and led participatory design sessions that effectively bridged communication between developers and business users, resulting in collaborative prototypes for transforming an internal tool.

Miro Cross Functional Collaboration Cross Functional Communication Balsamiq UX Research Product Research User Research Communication Skills Data Analysis User Interviews UX Design

User Experience Researcher

GitLab

Oct 2018 - Dec 2018 (2 months)

Supported GitLab in accessibility review by reviewing and categorizing 92 accessibility issues using section 508 VPAT categories; creating and prioritizing 50 accessibility issues using AXE plugin for Firefox and Chrome

VPATs Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)Section 508)AxeDevTools Axe Gitlab

UX Researcher and Designer

Fedora Project

Dec 2016 - Mar 2017 (3 months)

Enhanced community tools for community member communication with location-based functionality, creating intuitive interfaces for complex technical challenges.

Survey Miro Balsamiq Contextual Inquiries Linux Analysis Synthesis Presentation Skills Developer Experience Usability Testing User Interviews Competitive Analysis UX Design Data Analysis User Experience Research User Research Cross Functional Collaboration Cross Functional Communication Affinity Mapping

Education

Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework

Bentley University

Master's degree, Human factors in information design

2022 - 2024

Activities and societies: User Experience Graduate Association, VP of Strategy & Insight, Fall 2024

Conducted extensive user experience research, including Optimal Workshop open card sorts and tree tests, analyzing data with R, JASP, and Excel. Performed stakeholder interviews and generative retrospective interviews, utilizing affinity mapping and IT ticket analysis to identify major themes in undergraduate onboarding experiences. Provided slide readouts and long-form reports to stakeholders.

Tufts University

Psychology - cognitive science (HRI), Psychology - cognitive science (HRI)

2013 - 2015

Activities and societies: Graduate Student Committee.

Brandeis University

Master of Arts (M.A.), Social Psychology

2011 - 2012

Activities and societies: Psi Chi

Completed a Master's thesis titled 'Do Older Adults Differ From Younger Adults in Their Trait Impressions and Appearance Stereotypes?'. This research explored age-related differences in trait impressions and appearance stereotypes, contributing to the field of social psychology.