UX Researcher & Product Strategist Open to work

Jamie
Park.

Helping teams understand people, then build the right thing.

Six years at the intersection of qualitative research, product strategy, and systems thinking. I turn messy human behaviour into insights that teams can actually act on — and I don't stop until the right thing gets built.

6+
Years research
200+
User interviews
4
Products shipped
01 / About

Research that
moves things

I came to UX research from an unexpected angle — a philosophy degree and a summer job doing ethnographic fieldwork for a public health NGO in Seoul. What I learned there is that the most important things people do, they can't easily explain. You have to watch, ask sideways, and sit with ambiguity.

That instinct has served me well across six years of product work. At Meta I led foundational research for the Groups product, running multi-country studies that reshaped how the team understood why communities form — not just how they use the feature. At two startups since, I've built research practices from scratch and watched them become the thing that kept product from building the wrong thing twice.

Outside work I shoot film (medium format, mostly landscapes) and am slowly learning Korean pottery. Both require the same patience: you can't rush the kiln, and you can't rush a good interview.

35mm · Seoul, 2023
Jamie Park
Based in New York, NY
LinkedIn in/jamieparkux
Also into Film photography, Korean pottery, long walks
02 / Experience

Where I've
worked

2022 — Present
Belong
Series A · Community
Head of Research
  • Built the research practice from zero — established research ops, recruited 4 panel communities, and ran 80+ studies in the first 18 months.
  • Led a generative study on belonging in digital spaces that became the product's north star document; referenced in every design review.
  • Partnered with the growth team to reduce onboarding drop-off by 38% through a series of usability studies and rapid iteration cycles.
2019 — 2022
Meta
Big Tech · Social
UX Researcher, Groups
  • Owned research for the Groups product (1.8B users). Led a 6-country ethnographic study on how communities form online — largest qual study in the product area that year.
  • Findings directly influenced the Groups discovery redesign, shipped to 100% of users in Q3 2021.
  • Co-developed a research toolkit adopted by 12 teams across the Social Experiences org.
2017 — 2019
Figma
Startup · Design Tools
UX Researcher (first research hire)
  • First researcher at Figma. Ran foundational studies on how design teams collaborate — insights that shaped the multiplayer and commenting features.
  • Established early research cadence and interview guide library still in use by the team.
03 / Skills

What I
bring

Research Methods
In-depth interviews Ethnographic fieldwork Usability testing Diary studies Concept testing
Synthesis & Strategy
Thematic analysis Journey mapping Jobs-to-be-done Research ops Roadmap influence
Quantitative
Survey design SQL (working) SPSS A/B test read-outs
Tools
Dovetail Figma Maze UserTesting Notion Miro
04 / Projects

Things I've
made

01
WritingResearch
The Slow Look

A newsletter on research methods and the art of noticing things. 3,400 subscribers, published fortnightly.

Read it ↗
02
Open sourceResearch ops
Fieldnote

An open Notion template for structuring qualitative research projects — from screener to synthesis. 800+ duplications.

Get template ↗
03
SpeakingMethods
ResearchOps NYC

Organiser of a quarterly meetup for researchers in New York. 5 events, 300+ attendees, 0 conference-speak allowed.

View events ↗
05 / Education

Where I
studied

2015 — 2017
M.A. Interaction Design
School of Visual Arts, New York
Thesis: Listening as Method — ethnographic approaches to digital product research
2011 — 2015
B.A. Philosophy & Cognitive Science
University of Michigan
Minor in Linguistics · Phi Beta Kappa

Let's make something
worth understanding.

Open to full-time research leadership and select consulting.