About

I'm a research lead with 10+ years of experience conducting research and designing products across the healthcare, financial, and mobility sectors. Having worked both in-house and as a consultant, I'm familiar with collaborating in a variety of organizational environments. Over the past two years, I have managed and mentored fellow researchers, and assisted companies to enhance their research practice.

👇 Scroll down to learn more about how I approach challenges.

Maria Hock About

My expertise

01/ Uncover human insights using a combination of research methods

I specialize in qualitative research, but have experience with a wide range of research methods throughout the product or service life cycle - from ethnographic research to interviews, surveys, and remote usability testing.

Why mixing methods? - Selecting the right combination of research methods to tackle a challenge  results in well-rounded customer understanding, ultimately leading to more confident decision making.

a participant during a usability test conducting a card sorting exercise
N26-Etnography-deposit-wide
interviewing women in India

02/ Identify opportunities for innovation & product improvement

"Making sense of chaos". Finding connections, filtering, and prioritizing insights is the most valuable moment of all. 

I translate raw research data into tangible artifacts like product principles, diagrams, customer journeys, stories, mockups, or prototypes. These help decipher and identify the most critical pieces of information, and are powerful tools to align stakeholders, support decision making, and communicate insights to the wider organization.

maria hock walking stakeholders through the employee experience map

03/ Design & test digital experiences through an agile approach

I work side by side with business owners, designers, developers, and data analysts to bring new products, services, or features to market, as well as to iterate and improve existing ones. 

My focus lays in conceptualizing solutions grounded in research findings, and iteratively crafting detailed interactions and experiences. 

a participant during a usability test with the app prototype
A compilation of all the screens from CHA online, printed and glued to the wall
stakeholder providing ideas about the dashboard during an ideation workshop

Wow, you made it far!

Reach out if you want to learn more about my work or simply have a chat over coffee.

PS. I am also mentoring at ADP List
maria hock / Made with ❤️ in Berlin DE / 2023