Maria D. Perez
Maria
D. Perez
SENIOR UX RESEARCHER
Ph.D. Political Science and International Relations
M.S. Applied Economics and Econometrics
University of Southern California
About Me
Welcome! I hold a Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Southern California. I also hold a Master of Science in Applied Economics and Econometrics (MS AEE). I have a strong mixed methods background through my experience working with survey data, A/B testing, survey experiments, interviews, focus groups, text analysis, vector autoregressions (VAR), time series data, and multilevel-regression analysis with postratification frames (MRP).
Currently, I pursue my career as a mixed methods UX Researcher. I lead both qualitative and quantitative research initiatives, supporting product development and shaping business strategy. I have a track record of running rapid product research cycles, enabling fast and iterative product development. One of my key strengths is my ability to build and scale robust research practices in new domains and teams.
Prior to my doctoral education and career in UX, I worked as a public affairs and strategic communications consultant and analyst for international private firms from the pharmaceutical, technological, luxury retail, financial, and investment sectors.
Professional Experience
Senior UX Researcher
The Trade Desk
April 2024 - Till Date
Develop and execute research strategies incorporating qualitative and quantitative methods to address product and design challenges.
Develop the methodological framework to implement the company’s first A/B testing system.
Craft research studies, including A/B testing, survey creation, interview guides, and usability test scenarios.
Employ qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques to interpret research data, identify patterns, and extract actionable insights.
Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to integrate user research into product development.
Effectively communicate research findings and recommendations to stakeholders through reports, presentations, and workshops.
Mixed Methods UX Researcher II
The Trade Desk
January 2023 - April 2024
Executing research to inform early strategic direction through post-release measurement.
Define and track UX health metrics so that we are constantly improving the user experience for our customers.
Identify common journeys and patterns in user behavior bringing together data from analytics tools with qualitative insights.
Generate insights that influence product and design strategy -- both tactical and long-term decisions, using a variety of quantitative methods.
Help shape the use of analytics within UX and work with partner teams to integrate data into product dashboards.
Collaborate cross-functionally with product management, UX design, data science, engineering, and marketing, involving stakeholders in every stage of your research.
Quantitative UX Researcher
The Trade Desk
05/2022 - 08/2022
Designed and executed a mixed method research project to improve users' acceptance of the platform ad campaign recommendations.
Conducted in-depth interviews with platform users to understand their behaviour and preferences around ad campaigns.
Implemented and analyized a cross-country conjoint survey experiment to identify and test the MVP for ad campaigns recommendations.
Collaborated with UX Designers and Engineers to generate product recommendations on the platform's ad campaign recommendations system.
Quantitative Researcher, Graduate Research Assistant
University of Southern California
08/2020 - 05/2022
Designed and executed a cross-country A/B test that increased the subscription of local politicians to a NGO’s newsletter.
Developed the statistical analysis of public opinion estimates by running hierarchical multilevel models with the R package lme4 using complex survey and demographic data.
Matched, cleaned and managed sensitive data from the cross-national European Value Survey database and web scraped contact details other official European statistical data sources to feed into the hierarchical multilevel models.
Generated small-area poststratification frames (weights) using census data and the R package anesrake.
Designed and implemented a cross-national survey on political elites’ attitudes towards environmental policies with embedded experiments in Qualtrics.
UX Researcher & Consumer Insights
Ableton, Inc
May 2021 - August 2021
Designed and executed a research project to enhance the reach of Ableton’s software by identifying points of market entry, and identified customer pain points to enhance user experience.
Informed the advertising product strategy after completing a competitive analysis and benchmarking report and identified how increase the performance and traffic of Ableton’s website.
Collaborated with the design and product team in creating a mix method research framework to improve users’ engagement with the product. This included defining questions for a survey methodology and in-depth interviews, and developing quantitative measurements for usability testing. quantitative measurements for usability testing.
Executive Associate Public Affairs and
Strategic Corporate Communications
Estudio de Comunicación, Spain
10/2017 – 06/2018
Lead consultant in the development of the firm’s new public affairs department.
Defined and implemented corporate political strategies through key stakeholder mapping and corporate political engagement tactics.
Coordinated local grassroots activity and grassroots mobilization as part of political campaigns
Designed and analyzed surveys, interviews and focus groups with clients’ stakeholders (i.e. consumers and employees).
Associate Public Affairs
KREAB Worldwide, Spain
12/2014 – 09/2017
Political strategy consultant for international clients from private and non-profit sectors.
Planned and implemented public affairs strategies to increase awareness of key areas of the client's business to its socio-political stakeholders.
Researcher at the KREAB Research Unit for socio-economic studies on trade and business growth in Spain.
Designing, implementing and analyzing corporate reputation and perception studies.
Teaching Experience
2019
International Relations
University of Southern California
Undergraduate Course
2020
Political
Economy
University of Southern California
Undergraduate Course
2021
Advanced Business Strategy
USC Marshall School of Business
MBA
2022
Political Institutions
University of Southern California
Undergraduate Course
Educational Background
2022
PhD, Political Science and International Relations
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
2021
MS, Economics and Applied Econometrics
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
2017
Postgraduate Degree, Public Affairs Management
Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Spain
2015
MA, Political and Corporate Communication
Universidad Camilo José Cela, Spain
2014
BA, International Relations
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
2015
BA, English Studies and Linguistics
UNED, Spain
Publications and Working Papers
What Drives Politicians to Act on Climate?: A Field Experiment with Local Officials in Six Countries
2020
(with Miguel Pereira, Kaya Axelsson and Nathalie Giger)
2022
(with Nan Jia)
Values Over Money: The Effect of Corporate Activism on Political Stakeholders' Attitudes Towards The Firm
2021