Matching exceptional talent with companies that value substance over stories.
U.B.
UX Researcher and Product Strategy
PhD research leader turned AI founder who transforms complex data into compelling business narratives, currently building AI automation tools whilst seeking fractional research roles
🧠 How they think
• We felt that she thinks like a detective combined with a storyteller. Throughout our conversation, she consistently demonstrated how she doesn't just collect data but transforms it into compelling narratives that drive decisions. When she described the FoodPanda single-user problem, she didn't start with the data - she started with understanding the human behaviour behind the numbers.
• Her approach to problems without existing data revealed someone who thinks in layers: first understanding the problem statement itself, then finding proxies and signals from unconventional sources like social media and ground-level business development teams. She thinks systematically but remains flexible, showing a rare ability to zoom out to see patterns whilst staying grounded in practical execution.
⚡️ Fast facts
EDUCATION
PhD Information Systems from National University of Singapore, Masters Computer Technology from Delhi Technological University
INDUSTRY EXPERTISE
Fintech, Financial Services, Artificial Intelligence, Analytics
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
10.5+
EXPERIENCE WITH TOOLS
UserTesting, Lookback, Qualtrics, LangGraph, Supabase, Zep, RAG, Vector DB, LLM Evals
NOTICE PERIOD
Available immediately
PRIORITIES FOR NEXT ROLE
Impactful work, Work-life balance, Meaningful benefits & allowances
HEAR THEM IN ACTION
💪 What drives them
• She is fundamentally driven by the moment when insight becomes action. During our conversation, her energy was most palpable when describing how she helped create the 'meal for one' offering at FoodPanda - not because of the data she collected, but because she successfully influenced stakeholders to act on it.
• She's motivated by problems at critical inflection points, which explains her attraction to pre-seed and seed-stage startups where research directly shapes foundational decisions.
• Her passion for child development and mental health isn't separate from her professional drive - it reflects someone who cares deeply about creating better futures. She's energised by the intersection of human understanding and technological possibility, which is evident in her current AI startup focusing on automation that genuinely helps people rather than just replacing them.
😇 Understanding of self
• She demonstrated genuine self-awareness when discussing her journey from being a people pleaser to someone comfortable with disagreement and conflict. Rather than offering surface-level answers, she provided specific examples of how this tendency affected her professionally and described concrete steps she's taken to change.
• Her mention of creating a team prioritisation framework at her last company showed someone who channels personal growth into systemic improvements.
• What struck us was her honesty about this being an ongoing process rather than claiming complete transformation.
📣 Communication style
• She communicates with the precision of a researcher but the warmth of someone who genuinely cares about the people behind the data. During our conversation, she used real examples consistently, saying 'I bring real stories because that's the easiest for me to kind of catch.'
• She has a natural ability to make complex concepts accessible - when explaining her approach to problems without data, she walked through her thought process step by step without sounding condescending.
• She's comfortable acknowledging when she doesn't have complete answers and shows respect for context by asking clarifying questions.
• Overall, her communication felt conversational yet structured, suggesting someone who could effectively present to both technical teams and senior stakeholders.
⚠️ Potential risks
• Our main concern centres around her current life stage priorities and how they might affect long-term commitment to traditional full-time roles. She's explicitly stated that flexibility is non-negotiable and that she's actively avoided roles requiring long working hours or extensive organizational change initiatives. While this clarity is refreshing, it might limit opportunities with companies needing deep, sustained engagement. Additionally, her preference for early-stage problems (pre-seed to seed) over complex, long-term challenges could be limiting in larger organizations.
• There's also the question of how her current AI startup will evolve - if it gains traction, it might compete with any contractual arrangements.
🧑🎨 Life beyond work
• Beyond her AI startup focused on automation for businesses (currently targeting short-term rental hosts), she's deeply engaged in researching modern parenting approaches, particularly exploring how gentle parenting methods differ from traditional approaches. She spends significant time connecting with other parents and staying current with child development research.
• Her passion for healthcare and mental well-being for teens and children isn't just academic interest - it represents potential future career direction.
• She's actively exploring how to adapt her research skills to help startups with validation and insights, showing entrepreneurial thinking even in her side interests.
🥵 Toughest problem solved
The FoodPanda single-user segment challenge revealed someone who understands that the hardest problems aren't always technical - they're often about influence and change management. She identified that single users were underserved not through advanced analytics, but by recognising behavioral patterns and economic realities: a single person expecting to pay $10 for home delivery versus $25.
What impressed us most was her systematic approach to building a compelling case - combining NPS scores, CSAT data, CRM signals, qualitative research, and surveys into a narrative that convinced stakeholders to create an entirely separate offering.
The outcome spoke volumes: 1000 orders in under 2 hours upon launch. Her approach shows someone who thinks beyond immediate solutions to long-term market positioning, evidenced by how the offering became and remained the number one service for single users.