Spotlight: Céline Lenoble

Céline Lenoble

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?

Hey Céline Lenoble, tell us a little about yourself.
Good Day fellow UXers, Céline Lenoble here (she/her), Director of UX research at brainlabs (opinions are my own). It has become kind of cliché, but I am a lifelong learner. Curious about (almost) everything, I see each step as a learning opportunity. Native from France, I now live in Switzerland, ended up here by way of Australia and the US.

What’s your favorite thing about your current job?
I’m building a mixed method team. It’s great when one individual can excel in both qual & quant, but from experience, most researchers have one strong suit, and then picked up a few skills on the other side. Working in pairs in most projects has enabled us to go deeper, deliver more reliable insights, while making the work even more rewarding and fun. And no, it’s not doubling the time spent.

If you had unlimited budget and time for research, what would you do with it?
My personal focus is on the new & intriguing types of experiences brought on by ML-powered products. I believe users’ mental models have not yet caught up to how recommendation engines work for example. This creates immense challenges at all levels, individual, community and society at large. There are so many research directions possible in this domain, but I would search for ways users can have some degree of meaningful control.

What can people reach out to you about and how can they find you?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences about UXR and AI. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn, Twitter @CelineLenoble , or Medium.

Thank you, Céline Lenoble!