About Me
I'm a UX Researcher with over 15 years of experience. My background spans informatics engineering, academic geovisualization research, product design, and strategic research in high-growth companies. I've worked from the earliest in product conception through post-release iteration. Why does that matter? Well, I've seen both how good research shapes decisions and how its absence costs them.
I spent years teaching and working in learning. This shaped how I think about explaining things. I believe research only works when people actually understand it and can act on it. So I'm as invested in translating findings for different audiences as I am in gathering them in the first place.
At the end of the day, I genuinely love mentoring and helping people overcome complex challenges. User research is just one of the methods I use for it.
On UX Research and Me
I have many guiding principles when it comes to doing my job, some of them include:
1) Research is NOT a black box. When working with me, stakeholders don't wait in silence for a final readout, people are informed throughout the entire process. This isn't "transparency theatre", it's a pragmatic strategy.
2) Research is collaborative. The best insights come from bringing cross-functional stakeholders together. They understand the whats and so whats,, and enrich findings with context a researcher alone will miss.
3) Research as a long-term investment. My research is rarely a one-and-done endeavor. This doesn't mean spending months to answer simple questions, but rather that whatever time we invest, we do it strategically. Results aren't decorative; they're built into the roadmap.
A brief note on AI: Honestly, it's reshaping what research looks like. I use it to speed-up my processes. However, I'm yet to see it able to replace me. Despite everything, AI tools still require skilled human judgment at the helm. Without that, they can do more harm than good, even without hallucinations. I'd be happy to talk about it.
My Toolkit
As a strong supported of the Design Thinking process, my toolkit is composed of multiple research methods applicable across all stages of the development life-cycle. Depending on the stage of a given project and the questions that we need to answer, I will apply different methods.
UX Research
Usability Testing & Reviews
Concept Testing
A/B & Multivariate Testing
Experimental Design
Heuristic Evaluation
among many others
Interviews
Secondary Research
Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD)
User Journeys
Personas
Value Proposition Studies
Stakeholder Workshops & Co-design
Surveys
Thematic Analysis
Telemetry Analysis
Card Sorting / Tree-testing
MaxDiff Analysis
Affinity Diagramming
Opportunity Matrices (JTBD-based)
Statistical Testing
Design and Strategy
Ideation,
Sketching,
Wireframing,
User Flows,
Information Architecture,
Prototyping,
Content Writing,
Design Systems
Data and Analysis
Descriptive & Inferential Statistics (t-tests, ANOVA, Friedman, Chi-square), Normality Testing (Shapiro-Wilk), Non-parametric Tests (Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney), Correlation & Regression Analysis, Reliability Testing (Cronbach's alpha), Factor Analysis, Hierarchical Clustering, Multivariate Analysis ... among others
Tools
Research: Dovetail, Qualtrics, Great Question, User Interviews;
Analytics: Google Analytics, Data Studio, Looker, Hotjar;
Design & Collaboration: Miro, Zoom Workspace, UXPin, Figma;
Analysis: SPSS, R, MySQL, Python
(among many others)
Technical / Programming
SQL, PL-SQL,
HTML 5, JavaScript, inc. NodeJS, jQuery, and Google App Script
Java, Python, C, C#, C++,
Bash/Shell Script, LSL
(among many others)
Featured Work
In this portfolio you can find references to various previous projects I led or have been a part two. See below some of them:
Besides Work ...
When not researching, you can find me locked at home, avoiding a pandemic... Wait? Is it over?!
... Other than that, I am passionate about video games, both as an entertainment medium and a research subject. While nowhere near a professional level, I also enjoy creating animations, game-related scripts, and, occasionally, building up SFXs on ... old platforms.
... And then I became a parent, so I suppose that this section is now outdated.
© Tiago Gonçalves, 2026