Emily Kobroff — Resume, Senior UX Researcher

Senior UX Researcher with 9+ years leading strategic, AI-enabled research across complex, data-driven products. I specialize in both generative and evaluative research, translating qualitative and quantitative findings into clear, executive-ready insights that shape product roadmap and go-to-market strategy — most recently informing 2026 roadmap priorities for Cox Automotive's vAuto platform. I collaborate closely with Product, Design, Data Science, and Engineering, responsibly using AI tools like Claude to accelerate synthesis without sacrificing rigor. I'm dedicated to mentoring teams, facilitating stakeholder engagement, and ensuring research findings translate directly into better user experiences.

COX AUTOMOTIVE | DEALER SOLUTIONS

SENIOR USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCHER 

4/2025 – Present

Led strategic UX research across complex, data-driven automotive products, partnering closely with Product, Design, Data Science, and Engineering to shape AI-enabled, workflow-critical experiences for dealers and internal teams. Known for translating qualitative and quantitative findings into clear, executive-ready insights, and for using AI responsibly to accelerate synthesis, strengthen storytelling, and enable confident, informed decision-making across teams.

• Led an end-to-end research program to determine where AI should be added to a suite of pricing and inventory products, combining a review of 45 prior internal studies, 19 interviews with stakeholders ranging from senior leadership to individual contributors, and interviews with 6 customers analyzed alongside over 3,000 survey responses.

• The research identified trust in underlying data accuracy as the top barrier to AI adoption — a finding now driving active product development across multiple teams.

• Created a four-part framework — covering transparency, efficiency, data completeness, and reliability — that became the standard used company-wide to evaluate any new AI feature before it ships.

• Presented findings to three separate audiences over several months, each session independently requested by leadership after seeing the results, culminating in an invitation to a standing seat on the leadership team's recurring product-planning meetings.

• Built a set of rules and an AI-assisted tool to standardize how research findings get verified and reported, reducing the risk of misread data — now the required standard for a major multi-team research initiative.

• Own quarterly reporting on user experience and customer satisfaction metrics across three products for company leadership; redesigned the reporting format based on stakeholder feedback, which led to the product team being permanently added to the review process.

• Independently designed and ran a customer study across multiple business segments to evaluate a proposed change to a core pricing algorithm, building leadership consensus ahead of a major product decision.

• Use AI tools, including Claude and Microsoft Copilot, to accelerate research synthesis, while maintaining a human review step on every AI-assisted finding to ensure accuracy.

• Mentor researchers and cross-functional partners on research craft and evidence-based decision-making.

HP | DIGITAL EXPERIENCES AND TOUCHPOINTS

SENIOR USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCHER 

3/2021 – 11/2024

Successfully integrated UX research into the digital design process by fostering strong cross-functional relationships, leading to the development of user-centered solutions that significantly improved project outcomes and user satisfaction.

• Led generative and evaluative research efforts, including participant coordination and research planning.

• Educated teams on best UX practices and emphasized the power of — and need for — storytelling when delivering key user insights and needs.

• Managed and facilitated qualitative studies, including unmoderated and moderated remote research, in-person lab studies, click tests, surveys, tree tests, card sorts, interviews, walkthroughs, and prototype testing.

• Owned end-to-end vendor management for large-scale research studies — statements of work, screener design, facilitator quality control — including training an external agency on archetype methodology when their initial deliverable wasn't rigorous enough to use.

• Collaborated with strategy and design partners to create journey maps, user archetypes, and other key deliverables conveying the customer's experience.

• Mentored colleagues on workshop facilitation and developing strategic partnerships with stakeholders to drive user-centered decision making and solutions.

AT&T | DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

UX RESEARCHER

8/2018 – 2/2021

Owned a major archetype research initiative for AT&T's field-technician platform, partnering closely with design and mentoring fellow researchers, while also leading broader generative and evaluative research across multiple projects and teams.

• Owned the tech-archetype research initiative for AT&T's internal field-technician software platform, leading a small team of researchers to build three data-backed archetypes now used to guide design and product decisions for a 40,000+ person field workforce.

• Built the archetypes from a large-scale research base — ride-alongs, subject-matter-expert interviews, survey responses, and usability testing sessions — over a 21-month research program.

• Mentored and onboarded a fellow researcher, and partnered closely with design, including mentoring junior designers on translating archetype research into product decisions.

• Reported to the program's Research Lead on a large, multi-pronged research effort spanning AT&T's field-service organization.

• Performed generative research utilizing user interviews, contextual inquiry, and research audits across multiple projects and teams.

• Completed evaluative research and benchmarking using remote moderated and unmoderated testing, interviews, surveys, and the System Usability Scale.

CUBIC | INTIFIC

UX RESEARCHER

3/2017 – 8/2018

Advanced the organization's UX maturity, evolving from simple usability testing to ethnographic methodologies, and fully integrated UX research into an agile framework.

• Successfully implemented UX Research into an agile landscape and worked with teammates to determine how to best implement UX research as a resource.

• Facilitated usability testing and user research remotely and in person, including international and national travel.

• Utilized guerrilla ethnographic and contextual inquiry research methods with users.

• Cultivated relationships with subject matter experts to gain buy-in and access to niche users.

• Performed rapid analysis and synthesis to produce deliverables for stakeholders.

THERESA NEIL STRATEGY + DESIGN

GRADUATE UX RESEARCH INTERN

8/2016 – 12/2016

• Performed stakeholder and user interviews, remotely and in-person

• Created affinity diagrams and empathy maps in preparation of the creation of personas

• Analyzed data from 60 group interviews for themes and insights to inform user scenarios for existing software

• Prioritized user needs to create a feature list for a yet-to-be created MVP

• Sourced competitors for competitive analysis in niche markets

SPRINGBOX

GRADUATE UX + CONTENT STRATEGY INTERN

6/2016 – 8/2016

• Facilitated user testing on website redesign, serving as a baseline for future benchmarking

• Designed website wireframes with a focus on content strategy and information architecture

• Created and utilized heuristic guidelines to audit client and competitor websites

• Performed competitive analysis on website design, content, and layout to glean insights for clients