https://www.laurendstern.com/experience daily 0.75 2026-04-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/b6fa5499-0547-436d-9ed9-ca4d0615f545/IMG_8571.PNG Experience - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1583853394765-BE1KZS658FZUHZWMQILU/LaurenStern-21+copy.png Experience https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/b5a4d49d-f6aa-4f1b-92f5-681f11594f32/DSC02839.jpg Experience - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/139857d0-eb83-4c78-a7bf-03ad3f16dc94/IMG_6309.jpg Experience - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/25a9537c-24ef-42e7-92c2-b6949862a7a3/IMG_4891+%281%29.jpg Experience - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.laurendstern.com/about daily 0.75 2025-07-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/7e7e4fb4-60f1-4942-bb93-8c4bd2298c16/IMG_6319.jpg My Research Approach - Make it stand out North Shore, MA. I love my work with Beverly Girls in STEM! Some of my favorite moments are watching kids light up when they get the robot to do something new. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/b372db33-a1dc-46aa-8155-2f5f6ed99592/IMG_6540.PNG My Research Approach Boston, MA. As a research leader I want to stay connected to the work - which means I spend a lot of time as a participant! Featured here getting ready to run a VO2 Max test as part of an algorithm development study at WHOOP Labs. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1583854415807-CRFS8Q0GW8GCQMCHEDG4/IMG_0761.jpg My Research Approach Tartu, Estonia. Meeting with military leaders from across Europe and the US was a unique experience, and it has stuck with me for a decade. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/0d28074c-ae3e-42ee-b800-d25b69c22cb8/IMG_3256.jpg My Research Approach Toronto, Ontario CAN. I am always excited to share my work and talk about research as a discipline. UXR Conf 2023 was my first time recording a presentation, and the Learners team was so lovely to work with! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1583855938919-LY5DQ2NEVXBIJQHD5J3S/2020-03-02+06.58.15.jpg My Research Approach Berlin, Germany. Working with other researchers is always a privilege, but walking Berlin with a native on the way to our home visit was a unique way to hear stories of the city and how history is still felt by its inhabitants. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1583932016294-097HY7WTHDGMWM2DGGIS/devops-summit-2.jpg My Research Approach Boston, MA & Hilversum, NDL. Organizing XebiaLabs’s first user round table was an incredible experience, but perhaps the most fun was premiering our user panel logo on stickers. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/8e87f4a3-c86c-4056-a998-792881e3b4dd/Screen+Shot+2023-09-13+at+4.40.12+PM.png My Research Approach - Make it stand out New Orleans, LA. In 2023 I was honored to support an iRobot initiative exploring how home robotics could support people living with ALS and their families. We worked closely with The Gleason Foundation on field interviews for a week near their headquarters in LA. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1583855921677-O0Y8DBUQ28EJYDA2V9U4/2019-06-13+19.43.23.jpg My Research Approach Paris, France. I don't know if my high school French teacher would be pleased or horrified, but Paris was the first time I was able [attempt] to ask users questions in a different language (although still with help from our translator). https://www.laurendstern.com/publications daily 0.75 2025-10-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1631148916383-A8NGRH25VXI7IT0A5MAA/stem+video.png Outreach, Publications, & Talks https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/f8856863-f2d4-44ac-a8f5-6e49153c3aab/LinkedIn_UXRConf2023-Announcement_LaurenStern.png Outreach, Publications, & Talks https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/c866d006-eca7-4f51-9d42-5a28a8002ba6/UX-Webinar-Image-7.png Outreach, Publications, & Talks https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/005ad485-0f3a-4fa9-aca1-b973555f09ee/Screenshot+2024-10-22+at+10.26.49+AM.png Outreach, Publications, & Talks https://www.laurendstern.com/home daily 1.0 2026-03-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/96e9c803-88ff-46d2-bc10-0a583e710521/shop+talk+announcement.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1583848203693-Q602M5M7VUY9PPTVQ4MP/LaurenStern-46.jpg Home https://www.laurendstern.com/home/irobot-halloween monthly 0.5 2022-05-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1604101140653-DZOC5Y0NFOC2J4OK4H1Y/Photo+Oct+30%2C+11+43+52+AM.jpg Home - Time to go to Space: Designing a Virtual Halloween Adventure https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1604101141471-GLBR3QZNH94KY1L8K0WD/Photo+Oct+30%2C+5+22+28+PM.jpg Home - Time to go to Space: Designing a Virtual Halloween Adventure https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1604107086744-C7NM9Y1UMMJE1IQASBXO/Halloween2019-155.jpg Home - Time to go to Space: Designing a Virtual Halloween Adventure Halloween 2019 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1604101137876-TV712NNAXZ7UPXBGCECU/Photo+Oct+30%2C+5+22+34+PM.jpg Home - Time to go to Space: Designing a Virtual Halloween Adventure https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1604107086644-X22WN406G2BGI9UO1CNJ/InkedScreen+Shot+2020-10-30+at+5.14.50+PM_LI.jpg Home - Time to go to Space: Designing a Virtual Halloween Adventure Halloween 2020 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1604103244269-PWERW5DOVHZTLQUTFUN0/Photo+Oct+30%2C+11+44+12+AM.jpg Home - Time to go to Space: Designing a Virtual Halloween Adventure https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1604103244615-UTH3DW62CRBRS2KNUU8V/Photo+Oct+30%2C+11+44+18+AM.jpg Home - Time to go to Space: Designing a Virtual Halloween Adventure https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1604102806640-J4SY0EQWLF6GO5VUGA4H/astronaut+pen+in+action Home - Time to go to Space: Designing a Virtual Halloween Adventure https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1604106785069-MYJY7OH8T5BVJY9HL26L/MC-short.gif Home - Time to go to Space: Designing a Virtual Halloween Adventure https://www.laurendstern.com/home/xl-impact monthly 0.5 2020-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1584053528719-FFAM2JIJUXRD5XNON1C7/xli+sketch+1.jpg Home - Designing and Launching XL Impact https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1584053539769-PJVXFOXZG5SRQXIU0A3N/dashboard.png Home - Designing and Launching XL Impact https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1584053528532-471T3CYPTQ0WNK1XZX51/xli+sketch+2.jpg Home - Designing and Launching XL Impact https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1584052561915-HWW432RLX4XLQGQB7VR8/xli+persona.png Home - Designing and Launching XL Impact example research deliverable: primary persona https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1584053302587-STCRIIZXIQHA6GY3Z82F/proof+of+concept.png Home - Designing and Launching XL Impact screenshot from the proof of concept implementation https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1584053951752-82MOXDOIEQ6VEIRGDVPJ/virtual+working+session.png Home - Designing and Launching XL Impact virtual working session: BOS-NDL https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1584054236021-IKC3SDH5G0ABP4VE6EAD/improve-quality-board-v2-for-1-0.png Home - Designing and Launching XL Impact photoshop mockup for the final design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1584054308328-TUEF88RBJ97ULQM5D9Y5/KPIs-screen.png Home - Designing and Launching XL Impact image of KPI tracking from XebiaLabs website https://www.laurendstern.com/home/p-a-s-t monthly 0.5 2020-03-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1583848890546-95CU5HTFWSI7TEO4XEHM/PAST+workflow+diagram.JPG Home - Persuasive Appeal Support Tool https://www.laurendstern.com/home/risk-pipeline monthly 0.5 2020-03-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1583850171498-ZRDNKCA6YEXLANX8CV46/affinity+postits.jpg Home - XL Release Risk Aware View - What do users need to succeed? Soon after I joined XebiaLabs in December 2016, I participated in a design sprint looking to address the problem “finding potential problems in a release early.” The outcome of the week was a re-design of the existing XL Release overview screen that introduced the concept of risk to running releases. Each release would have a risk score that would change based on the current release status. We focused on some big release concerns we heard during our research day, when we spoke with user representatives including task due dates, failures, and impact to other releases. We validated the prototype with both internal user representatives and two local customers (Netherlands). After the design sprint week ended, my colleague Nadia and I collaborated across the Atlantic to carry the re-design through to reality. The MVP feature was released in March 2017 as part of XL Release v6.2. Click here to read the official announcement, and here for the feature overview in our product documentation. After the release, as I was working on building our research program, we spoke to more current users upgrading to the new version and using the risk feature to get feedback on how risk worked in practice. The response was quite positive, with novice users happy to have some guidance on what needed attention, and expert users excited about the possibilities for integrating risk into their conversations around release management. We also discussed the risk feature in depth during the User Roundtable in June 2017. All of the feedback we gathered from these fed into a two day design workshop to expand on the initial feature, which I ran with my colleague in August 2017. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1583850598585-SCFTUJPB9QIJYFSKQBAW/risk+pipeline+illustration.png Home - XL Release Risk Aware View - What does risk mean to users? Once the MVP launched, we knew there was a lot of room to expand the automated risk identification capability, tailoring it to the specific ways our users define risk in their development pipelines. In August 2017 I worked with my Nadia to conduct a two-day design intensive focused on expanding the concept of risk in XL Release. In the month before the design sprint, I reached out to our User Panel and coordinated several research sessions relating to the risk feature: some before the design workshop to support our understanding of how risk is used, and some after to validate the workshop outcome. As this workshop was shorter than a traditional Google design sprint, we were unable to have the time dedicated to research that would typically be included. Instead, I gathered risk feedback from the last few months and presented it to the workshop participants during common ground building on the morning of day one. After the workshop I ran sessions with users to get their feedback on our design plan.The overall design was positively received, but I noted during validation sessions that users were confused about how risk was calculated, and unsure exactly how their changes would impact the overall risk score. After discussion of my findings, my colleague worked to refine the visual design, clarifying the relationship between each individual risk factor and the overall score thresholds. I conducted a second round of validation internally as a “usability party” where members of our Customer Success, Sales, and Implementation teams were invited to sign up for short slots with me throughout a day and test the design. This generated enough data to feel confident that the final designs would work for our expert users (the target audience for this feature), and be learnable for less experienced users. The flexible, customizable v2.0 of the tool was released as part of XL Release 7.5, and is still a highly valued component of the product. You can read more at the XebiaLabs website. https://www.laurendstern.com/home/humanintheloop-experiences-and-roomba-j7 monthly 0.5 2022-05-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/8d78926d-0711-4e75-8bb3-b34a59adb964/youtube+review.png Home - Human-in-the-loop Experiences and Roomba j7 still from review video showing the side of the robot and a finger pointing to a sensor on the bottom https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/d87aa40f-e712-4b24-b354-027cb1accf34/onboarding+2.png Home - Human-in-the-loop Experiences and Roomba j7 screenshot from irobot app showing onboarding image of robot next to a chair https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/3d2193c1-6df3-4b52-9e17-2f670ea4f33d/unboxing+youtube.png Home - Human-in-the-loop Experiences and Roomba j7 video still of a woman sitting on the floor with a large robot box https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/1ae616ce-f1bd-4d69-99ce-cc9b108c4497/onboarding+1.png Home - Human-in-the-loop Experiences and Roomba j7 screenshot from irobot app showing onboarding image of robot avoiding a surge protector with cables https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/0c5279c9-d548-4202-977b-e97bfdec90a1/camera+close+up.jpg Home - Human-in-the-loop Experiences and Roomba j7 close-up of the roomba j7 camera https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/e46706fc-a47d-44d1-89ef-147e10581b30/privacy+promise.png Home - Human-in-the-loop Experiences and Roomba j7 screenshot of the irobot website. On the left is a marketing image of two children in a play tent. On the right is a message that reads "keep your home clean and your data safe". https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/b7668593-554f-4667-8d03-cc7414dd704c/ODOA+flow.png Home - Human-in-the-loop Experiences and Roomba j7 screenshot from irobot app showing image review process at product launch. There is a popup message on the screen that says "roomba is learning". https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/397709e0-799a-436b-9dd8-7c1ccf21b2a1/odoa+marketing+image.jpg Home - Human-in-the-loop Experiences and Roomba j7 marketing image of the robot avoiding a pair for corded headphones on the floor. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/af9143cd-c851-440b-be32-93ac9afb5af6/poop+promise.jpg Home - Human-in-the-loop Experiences and Roomba j7 marketing image of roomba j7 with illustrated arrows showing the robot avoiding dog poop and the logo for the irobot "poop promise" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/f43b8f5f-5e52-4c4e-abc8-5790fe656251/cloth+avoidance.jpg Home - Human-in-the-loop Experiences and Roomba j7 marketing image of the robot avoiding socks on the floor https://www.laurendstern.com/home/we-all-make-research-happen monthly 0.5 2023-07-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/b022be60-c060-4f58-b740-178b8dd19352/Screen+Shot+2023-07-26+at+6.20.33+PM.png Home - We all make research happen: coaching non-researchers A screenshot of two template cards in the usertesting.com platform. One is called "Mobile Design Comparison" and the other is called "Card Sort in Optimal Workshop" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/2aa22742-6ba9-4992-993f-ad4671fea048/Screen+Shot+2023-07-26+at+7.09.00+PM.png Home - We all make research happen: coaching non-researchers a screenshot of a slide from the Talking to Users workshop, which includes a picture of a team member petting a dog and bullet points about building trust and rapport https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/80e5e894-2651-479a-8380-ec7e1581ed82/Screen+Shot+2023-07-26+at+7.09.36+PM.png Home - We all make research happen: coaching non-researchers A second slide from the Talking to Users workshop, which includes instructions for a practice exercise where groups of three practice moderating, being the participant, and giving feedback https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/782bebb2-5761-4a12-abce-8db4dbe10f7d/Screen+Shot+2023-07-26+at+6.22.38+PM.png Home - We all make research happen: coaching non-researchers a screenshot of the usertesting.com platform that shows a preview of the "Mobile Design Comparison" template with instructions visible. The instructions say "set the scene: what is happening when this screen is viewed?" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e679836a2f88f1157914c6a/a3b81b9b-bf09-49c6-81cc-d8a4f41f4839/Design+Research+Quick+Reference+Guide_2023-07-26_18-56-07.png Home - We all make research happen: coaching non-researchers an infographic that outlines 4 different types of research goals and the most common methods for addressing them.