Why Products Stall
Most products don’t fail because the technology is weak.
They stall because the human layer goes misunderstood.
Features ship before teams understand how users interpret them.
AI outputs are technically accurate but emotionally destabilizing.
Collaboration tools assume workflows instead of observing them.
Activation feels unclear, so value takes too long to surface.
Metrics measure activity, but not trust, confidence, retention, or internal advocacy.
Community spaces exist, but advocacy never forms or no internal champion emerges.
Growth compounds when people feel confident, understood, and willing to bring others in.
I work at that layer: where interpretation becomes adoption, and adoption becomes advocacy.
What I Do
I’ve spent 15 years leading research in high-stakes domains like higher education, healthcare systems, financial platforms, and civic tech, where decisions carry weighty consequences. Today I apply that experience to teams building AI products, B2B SaaS platforms, and complex systems.
I'm the person you call when:
You’re building conversational AI and need to define how it should behave
You’re launching AI features and can’t tell whether they create clarity or confusion, or whether users will trust them enough to rely on them
You’re making a significant product bet and need to understand what users need before you commit
Your product spans multiple stakeholders, workflows, or roles, and no one sees the whole system
You have research, but it’s not translating into clear product decisions
Standard UX methods don’t map cleanly to your constraints
“Doesn’t get any better than having one of our key internal stakeholders propose that we replicate the work. Clearly, the value was found. Game changing, actionable insights to drive growth!”
Selected Work
AI Coach Trust & Safety Research
Led multi-phase research program for AI coaching launch: policy landscape analysis, user hacking protocols with students, moderated usability testing for trust and learning confidence.
Outcome: Identified conversation breakdown points and bias risks before launch, shaped responsible AI development principles
AI Products · Higher Education · Trust & Safety
AI Coaching Quality Evaluation
Built evaluation system for AI dialogue coach serving 190K students. Designed golden dataset methodology, coordinated synthetic data generation, established blind grading protocols with engineering team.
Outcome: Systematic quality assessment framework deployed across 6 AI coaching activities; on-time beta and pilot launches
AI Evaluation · Education · Quality Assurance
Real Estate Service Pathway Mapping
Service design research across three siloed real estate entities (Partner Agents, Central Brokerage, For Sale By Owner). Conducted seller interviews, facilitated blueprinting workshops, validated 5-phase seller journey.
Outcome: Identified 10 service breakdowns and cross-sell opportunities across pathways
Service Design · Real Estate · Journey Mapping
Child Care Access Platform Research
Discovery and concept testing for digital platform connecting Detroit families with child care assistance. Conducted journey mapping, listening labs with caregivers, accessibility testing in Spanish/Arabic.
Outcome: Launched with validated scope, language accessibility framework, and user-driven enrollment and quality approaches
Civic Tech · Discovery Research · Accessibility
“
Mary is a legit badass UX Researcher who I'd work with on any project, for any client, on any day. Rarely do you have the privilege to work alongside someone who brings the heavy research and results that she does.
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—Senior Designer
When to Call Me
I work at the layer where human interpretation determines whether products succeed. Teams bring me in when:
You’re building AI features and can’t tell whether they’re actually helping.
The model performs well, but users hesitate, override, or disengage. I surface the gap between technical accuracy and human confidence and translate that into design and product direction.
Adoption is slower than expected.
Usage metrics exist, but trust has not formed. I identify where clarity breaks down, where expectations misalign, and what is preventing users from relying on the system.
Your product has multiple stakeholders and competing realities.
Workflow-heavy systems often assume how people work instead of observing how they navigate constraints. I map lived behavior and surface friction points that stall momentum.
You have research, but no clear direction.
I synthesize fragmented insight into coherent strategic choices that product, design, and engineering can act on.
My work connects qualitative depth to roadmap decisions, especially in AI-enabled, regulated, and high-stakes environments where trust drives adoption.
How I Work
I typically work as a fractional research and product advisor, joining teams at the point where interpretation, trust, and adoption shape roadmap choices.
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Ongoing engagement
When experience decisions influence roadmap, risk, activation, retention, or expansion, I work alongside product leadership as a senior partner.
This often includes:
Clarifying which questions actually require research
Translating research into product tradeoffs and prioritization
Advising on AI evaluation standards and quality thresholds
Identifying adoption risks before they surface as churn
Facilitating cross-functional alignment around user insight
You get senior research leadership without adding permanent headcount.
You also get continuity. I stay close enough to understand context and shape decisions over time. -
4–6 weeks
When adoption stalls, AI behavior feels uncertain, or teams lack clarity on what users are experiencing, we run a targeted diagnostic.
This includes stakeholder interviews, user conversations, and workflow analysis designed to surface the interpretation gaps driving friction.
You leave with:
A clear articulation of what is happening and why
Prioritized recommendations tied to roadmap
A decision framework your team can continue using
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Project or embedded support
When AI features influence real decisions, evaluation must reflect lived use AND technical benchmarks.
I help teams design human-centered evaluation criteria, stress-test failure modes, and define quality standards that product and engineering can operationalize.
“Mary excels at drawing deep insight from any audience. She never loses sight of the broader business challenge. And, she does all this with lots of laughter.”
Sarah Westrom, Independent consultant