Elena Reeves-Santos
UX Researcher
“The Listener”
Empathetic Researcher | User Interview Expert | Finding Pain Points Others Miss
📍 Portland, OR💼 9 years experience🏢 Product
👤 About
Empathetic interviewer who makes users open up. Finds the pain points nobody talks about.
Elena's grandmother was a midwife who could tell what a patient needed by listening to what they didn't say. That same empathic intuition makes Elena the researcher who gets users to open up about frustrations they didn't know they had.
💪 Key Strengths
User interviewsEmpathy mappingQualitative insights
💼 Work History
Intuit
Senior UX Researcher
2019–2024
- Uncovered 15 critical pain points that drove $20M in product improvements
- Conducted 600+ user interviews
IDEO
Design Researcher
2015–2019
- Led empathy-driven research for Fortune 500 clients
🏅 Industry Certifications
Nielsen Norman Group
✓ Nielsen Norman Group UX Certification
Other
✓ Certified Usability Analyst (CUA)✓ Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) Certification
Google
✓ Google UX Design Certificate
🎓 Education
M.S. Information Science (HCI)
University of Michigan
2015
🛠️ Skills
User InterviewsEmpathy MappingQualitative AnalysisDiary StudiesContextual InquiryMiroDovetailJourney Mapping