Maria Voorhees Maydan/ Senior UX Researcher

Senior UX Research · Mixed methods · Remote

Research that turns
ambiguity into decisions teams can ship.

Senior UX Researcher with 7+ years leading end-to-end, mixed-methods research across enterprise and consumer products — from generative discovery and user interviews to quantitative analysis and usability testing.

Featured work

Mar 2026 – Present

Experience overview

7+ years

Use.AI

Mar 2026 – Present · Remote

Senior UX/UI Researcher

  • Leading end-to-end UX/UI research to inform product design and development decisions.
  • Benchmarking competitor products and reverse-engineering conversion flows.
Read the case study →

OpenAI

Jun 2026 – Present · Remote

Freelance User Experience Consultant

  • User experience consulting on AI product surfaces.

HubSpot

Mar 2025 – Dec 2025 · Remote

User Experience Research Consultant

  • Served as technology advisor and consulted on UXR best practices to optimize qualitative and quantitative research methods.
  • Led end-to-end participant recruiting for UX research projects and architected a scalable research content library in Dovetail.

Microsoft

Aug 2022 – Oct 2024 · Remote

Senior Account Marketing Manager — UX & Digital Experience

  • Embedded as a UX consultant on all digital assets for Microsoft Western Europe Virtual Training Days, ensuring research-informed design across user-facing touchpoints.
  • Applied behavioral insights to improve audience engagement and conversion for campaigns across 14+ countries.

Deloitte

Aug 2019 – Jul 2023 · Washington, D.C.

User Experience Research Lead

  • Led audience research and discovery across federal and commercial clients using 1:1 interviews, group interviews, surveys, card sorting, and focus groups.
  • Acted as SME and user advocate throughout iterative design cycles — shaping prototypes, wireframes, and development decisions based on direct user evidence.
  • Drove quantitative UX research — persona development, site audits via Google Analytics, and behavioral analysis using Hotjar — translating findings into prioritized recommendations.
  • Delivered research operations infrastructure for large-scale UX programs, establishing repeatable research practices and reporting frameworks adopted across project teams.

Methods & tools

Research methods

Qualitative interviews (1:1 & group)Usability testingCard sortingFocus groupsSurveysDiary studiesContextual inquiryUser journey mapping

Quantitative & analytics

Survey design & analysisBehavioral analyticsFunnel analysisPersona developmentA/B testing frameworks

Research operations

Research program designParticipant recruitingInsight repository managementStakeholder communicationCross-functional collaboration

AI & emerging methods

AI product researchLLM usability evaluationAI-assisted synthesisPrompt-based research tooling

Tools

UserTesting.comDovetailQualtricsOptimal WorkshopHotjarFigmaGoogle AnalyticsMixpanel