John Nicholson
Principal
Washington, DC
John Nicholson
Principal
Washington, DC Area
Prior to starting Marketade, I was a big-data digital marketer and analyst. I saw what worked and what failed with digital products but rarely understood why. Then I discovered the power of observing and interviewing customers 1-on-1.
From our start, helping teams use qualitative user research to innovate has been a driving force behind Marketade. I’m now lucky to be surrounded by a team of passionate researchers and to help a wide range of organizations use recurring UX research to drive business results.
Recent Work
- Mixed-Methods Research Program for a Mid-Sized Company — For 7 years, I teamed up with Nora and other teammates to run recurring research for a 4,000-person company with over 15 brands. We developed a repeatable 4-step qual/quant research cycle unique to their business goals and development cycle. One of our wins: research-driven design changes helped increase leads by 2000% for one business unit.
- Continuous UX Research for GEICO’s Enterprise Service Application — Over a 10-year period, we partnered with GEICO’s digital experience team to lead hundreds of research studies. We also built and ran 5 recurring research programs. My favorite: a program to improve the UX of internal software used by GEICO’s customer service reps. We built a research panel of over 1,000 participants and designed a 2- to 3-week testing cycle. This allowed us to run over 50 studies, most of which focused on a single application feature or flow.
Past Experience
- Launched and led the digital marketing team for a Fortune 100 financial services company. I helped them achieve 50% year-over-year growth in online sales for 4 straight years.
- Ran online consumer marketing for a Virginia-based online education company that’s now part of Gartner. I also built the company’s voice-of-customer program.
- Launched an online reviews startup and worked at an economic policy think tank at George Mason University.
Education
- B.A. from Brown University, in political science
Outside the Office
- I live in Bethesda, Maryland with my wife, our 2 young kids, and our dog Luna.
- I played competitive tennis through college and still play as much as I can.
- I also love surfing and trying out different exercise programs. Current interests include the Egoscue Method, Knees Over Toes Guy, and Overtime Athletes.
John’s Toolbox
- Ongoing UX Research Programs
- Usability Testing
- Qualitative Market Research
- IA & Navigation Research
- Web Form & Application Usability Testing
- KPI Strategy & Web Analytics
- A/B Testing
- Content Strategy
- Design Thinking
- Live Intercept Testing
- UX Audits & Heuristic Evaluations
- Recruiting Enterprise Professionals for User Research
- Financial Services UX Research
- Health Care UX Research
- Nonprofit UX Research
- Government UX Research