Sounds like you
“Our digital lead just left and the team is guessing until we hire.”
“We have a new initiative and nobody here has run one like it.”
“We do not know who our customer is yet, and we are building anyway.”
“The product has wandered a long way from what it was supposed to do.”
“We need one study done right, and no permanent hire to do it.”
The problem
When the lead leaves, the team stays busy on the wrong things.
The work keeps moving, but nobody is choosing the problems. The customer stays undefined and the product wanders from what made it worth building. You may not need a permanent hire to fix that. Someone senior can hold the seat for a stretch, or run one study, and then step away.
Who it is for
A team between design or research leads
Product teams building on a hunch
Leaders who need one study with an end date
Agencies that lost their digital lead
What you get
A full-strength research and design practice, on loan.
- Discovery and generative research. Interviews with customers and with your own people, and panels that run over time, so you know what to build before you build it.
- Evaluative research. Usability testing, prototype testing, and a scoring rubric that turns findings into go or no-go calls.
- Journey maps and service blueprints. The whole flow, including where software takes a step and where a person does.
- Qualitative and quantitative together. Moderated sessions and synthesis on one side, surveys, statistics, and A/B tests on the other.
- Taxonomy and information architecture. Card sorting, tree testing, and content structure your team and your search can both navigate.
- A stronger team when I leave. Researchers and product owners coached, and the methods written down.
Where I have done it
I have run these teams from the inside.
- U.S. BankManaged a UX team of six to seven inside the omnichannel mortgage division, and fed lab research straight into planning. Every tracked metric went up 5% to 45%. The case study.
- Principal FinancialSat on the senior leadership team as UX research lead. Ran more than 150 end-user interviews myself and mentored seven people across four workstreams.
- GE DigitalBroke an eight-year innovation stalemate and trained newer researchers on interview method.
- BMWTrained at Cooper School with the company's UX leaders, then led the sessions that put the method into daily practice. The case study.
- Catalyst StudiosGrew it from one person to more than twenty over seven years, running qualitative and quantitative research for enterprise clients.
More than twenty years of this. See also the HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams taxonomy study.
How it works
Step 01
Define the gap
A 30-minute call. Do you need the seat covered while you hire, or one study with an end date?
Step 02
Point the team
Get the team on the right problems: who the customer is, and what the product is supposed to do.
Step 03
Run the work
Interviews, journey maps, usability, taxonomy, whatever the question needs.
Step 04
Hand it back
Methods written down, people coached, findings clear. When the role is filled or the study is done, I step away.
Questions
Is this a permanent role? I only need someone for a stretch.
No. This is temporary work. I cover a design or research lead seat while you hire, or run one study and close it out. When the role is filled or the study is done, I hand it back documented and step away.
Can you do both qualitative and quantitative research?
Yes. Interviews, journey mapping, and synthesis on the qualitative side; surveys, statistics, and A/B tests on the quantitative side. I have run both together for enterprise products since the Catalyst Studios years.
What can you run, start to finish?
Generative discovery, evaluative usability testing, transactional and use-case studies, taxonomy and information architecture, and service blueprinting. Interviews, journey maps, card sorting, tree testing, panel methodology. I have run all of these inside working product teams.
What does an interim UX or research lead cost?
Short, bounded projects are $150 an hour or a fixed scope. Holding the seat as a standing fractional lead is $3,500 a month for about two days a month, $6,500 for about a day a week, or $11,000 for about two days a week.
Do you work alongside our agency or in-house team?
Yes. Most of the time I sit with the team you have, run the work, and coach whoever will hold the seat after me.
Can you help us hire the permanent lead?
Yes. I write the role, sit in on interviews, and hand the seat over with the work documented.
Before you hire this, people ask
- Can my agency bring in a senior person for one pitch?Yes, and it is common. Agencies bring in a senior freelance lead for a pitch, a launch, or a new service line when they do not want to hire for it yet. With me it is $150 an hour or a monthly seat, I can work under your agency's name, and I have done it for Minneapolis agencies since 2001.
- Do I need UX research before I build something?You need a little, almost always. Talk to five people who would use the thing, and watch three of them try a rough version, before you pay for the real build. That takes days, not months, and it catches the expensive mistakes while they are still cheap. Skip it only when you are copying something that already works for the same customers.
- How can my agency add AI services without hiring an AI team?Start by using AI inside your own work, train the team on real client jobs, and bring in a senior AI lead part time for the client work you cannot do yet. Sell one small, clear AI offer first, like an AI audit or a workflow automation, and grow from what clients buy. Hire full time only when the work is steady.
- How much does a UX consultant cost?With me, a review or second opinion is $150 an hour and a one-day working session with your team is $3,500. A senior UX lead on the team for a while is $3,500 a month for about two days a month, $6,500 for about a day a week, or $11,000 for about two days a week. A single usability study is a fixed price quoted before it starts. Most small businesses should start with the hour.
- Interim or fractional executive: what is the difference?An interim executive fills an empty seat close to full time for a set stretch, usually while you hire the permanent person. A fractional executive works part of the week, ongoing, in a seat you may not need full time at all. My fractional seats are $3,500 a month for about two days a month, $6,500 for about a day a week, or $11,000 for about two days a week; interim team leadership is part time at the same three levels.
- What is usability testing, and how do I run one?Usability testing means watching real customers try to do real tasks on your website, app, or form while you stay quiet and take notes. Five people per round is common practice and finds most of the big problems. A one-hour second opinion on what to test is $150, and a full study is quoted as one fixed price.
- Who can train my agency's staff on AI?Someone who has run an agency team and builds with the tools every day. The training should be hands-on, on your own client work, with the creatives and the account people in the same room. A half day is $2,000, a full day $3,500, and it should end with a one-page policy your clients can read.
- What should I ask before hiring a consultant?Ask what exactly you get, who does the work, what it costs and what it does not include, what you own at the end, and how either side gets out. Get every answer in writing. A good consultant can answer all of them on the first call without checking with anyone.
Tell me what your team needs while the seat is open.
Bring who left, what is due, and when. I will tell you if I can cover it.