UXR Spotlight: Carleá Jean

I'm Carleá Jean, UX Research Intern at Buildertrend, a construction project management software company, and the Founder of the Omaha Chapter of The Black In Technology Foundation.

Carleá Jean

This spotlight was part of USERWEEKLY - a weekly email to understand what is happening in user research. It's the best way to keep up on trends, methodologies, insights across the industry, and meet new researchers. Each week, the newsletter captures the pulse of our community and answers a simple question: What mattered in User Research this week?

Hi Carleá, tell us a little about yourself.
Hello everyone! I'm Carleá Jean, UX Research Intern at Buildertrend, a construction project management software company, and the Founder of the Omaha Chapter of The Black In Technology Foundation. My background is in Psychology, Clinical Counseling, and Applied Behavior Analysis (Board Registered). My favorite things to do are things I've never done before, I've been everything from a Chef to a Stand-Up Comedian!

What’s the best career decision you’ve made?
The best career decision I’ve ever made was transitioning into tech. My work as a Behavior Analyst consisted of, for the most part, in-home therapeutic services. Due to COVID, I lost my job, but I recognized this loss as an opportunity to gain skills and knowledge in an industry that I have always found interesting, technology. I honestly did not know that UX Research was a career path until I took the Google UX Design Professional Certification course and was mind-blown that the field encompassed all of my interests and previously obtained skills!

If you could only use one method for the rest of your career, what would it be?
As a behavior nerd, if I could only use one method it would definitely be Natural Language Processing (NLP) utilizing the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) in Python! As a neurodiverse woman, I don’t always understand the ambiguities of human language. The availability of algorithms that can contextually mine text to understand nuances, such as sarcasm and metaphors, amazes me! Accessibility in all forms is also very important to me and NLP artificial intelligence (AI) can do anything from language translation to asking my Google assistant to remind me to take out the trash!

How can people learn more about you and your work?
Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram (@CarleaJean), and follow Blacks In Technology Omaha to keep up with all of the amazing programs they offer to help you upskill, network, transition, and more (@BlackInTechOMA)! If you are looking for more comedy-based UX Research/Tech tips and tricks, follow me on TikTok (@itscarleajean)!

Thank you, Carleá!