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Your users are telling you something. Let’s make sense of it.

Ten years as UX Research Lead at Google on Gmail, Calendar and Tasks, products used by over a billion people. Now independent: I run research that changes product decisions, and build research teams that keep it going after I leave.

Get in touch

Independent UX research consulting, based in Zürich and working with teams anywhere.

Lalida Sritanyaratana

What teams tell me, sorted into what I can do about it

Illustrative notes, overheard in kickoff interviews.

Our problem isn’t any of these.

Doesn’t fit? Tell me anyway

  1. Hands-on research

    • We’re about to build it, and nobody has watched a user try.
    • The survey said yes. Usage says no.
    • No researcher on the team, and we need answers this quarter.

  2. Research team enablement

    • We hired fast. Now we need one shared quality bar.
    • Every researcher writes findings up differently.
    • Our juniors interview well but can’t push back on a PM.

  3. ResearchOps & templates

    • PMs run their own interviews. Nobody knows what we already learned.
    • We have forty research decks and nobody reads them.
    • Recruiting participants takes three weeks, every time.

  4. Workshops & strategy

    • Design, product and engineering each carry a different roadmap.
    • The VP wants a vision by next month.
    • We keep re-debating the same decision.

Four ways to work together

Pick one, or combine them. Every engagement leaves something behind that your team keeps using.

Hands-on research

For product teams without a researcher, or with more questions than researchers.

  • We’re about to build it, and nobody has watched a user try.
  • The survey said yes. Usage says no.
  • No researcher on the team, and we need answers this quarter.

End-to-end studies, from the question to the recommendation: interviews, usability and concept tests, diary studies, surveys and step-by-step walkthroughs of key flows. I pick the method that fits the decision you have to make and the time you have.

I focus on qualitative research. For quantitative work I can cover the basics, or introduce you to an experienced quantitative researcher.

What you keep Findings your team can act on, the evidence behind them, and a readout that lands with leadership.

Research team enablement

For Heads of UX and Research whose team is growing faster than its shared practice.

  • We hired fast. Now we need one shared quality bar.
  • Every researcher writes findings up differently.
  • Our juniors interview well but can’t push back on a PM.

A training and coaching program for your UX research team, designed and run by me: a common quality bar, training in running sessions and making sense of what you hear, regular critiques, and coaching for researchers who need to hold their ground with product leadership.

I did this at Google for years: mentoring researchers, co-teaching a course on moderating research sessions, and running a program with 10 external researchers across 5 product teams.

What you keep A curriculum, playbooks and a team that runs it without me.

ResearchOps & templates

For organisations where research happens everywhere, and gets lost everywhere.

  • We have forty research decks and nobody reads them.
  • PMs run their own interviews. Nobody knows what we already learned.
  • Recruiting participants takes three weeks, every time.

The setup behind the studies, often called ResearchOps: how requests come in, how participants are recruited, consent, and where findings are stored and shared. I design one that fits how your company works, with ready-to-use templates that designers, PMs and engineers can use on their own without lowering the bar.

What you keep A documented process, a template set, and a place where past insight can be found again.

Workshops & strategy

For leadership teams that need to agree on what to build next, and why.

  • We keep re-debating the same decision.
  • Design, product and engineering each carry a different roadmap.
  • The VP wants a vision by next month.

Design sprints, executive and customer workshops, research roadmaps and stakeholder alignment. I bring design, product and engineering together, on site or remotely, and leave with decisions rather than sticky notes.

What you keep A shared direction, a prioritised roadmap and the reasoning behind it.

Our problem isn’t any of these.

Doesn’t fit? Tell me anyway

Where the experience comes from

For more than ten years I led UX research at Google on Gmail, Calendar and Tasks, shaping product strategy for products used by over a billion people.

I owned research roadmaps and executive readouts for teams of 20+ engineers and designers. I ran a rapid research program with 10 external researchers across 5 product teams, and facilitated a design sprint where ~25 cross-functional partners set a three-year strategy.

With enterprise customers I ran workshops alongside executives and IT admins. I’ve spoken at 20+ internal conferences and panels, and co-taught a course on moderating research sessions.

  1. 2015 to 2026

    UX Research Lead, Google

    Mountain View and Zürich

    Gmail, Calendar, Tasks and Google Workspace. Led a cross-product initiative on how AI should work across Calendar, Gmail and Chat. Brought research into the hybrid-work launches that followed COVID-19.

  2. 2013 to 2015

    UX Researcher, Google X / Waymo

    Mountain View

    Human-factors and ergonomics research on prototype self-driving vehicles, and usability studies for the rider app. Included ride-alongs with visually and mobility-impaired participants.

How an engagement runs

  1. Listen

    Short interviews with the people around the problem: product, design, engineering, leadership, and sometimes customers. Before anything is proposed, I find out what the real question is.

  2. Make sense of it

    I sort what I hear into a small number of problems worth solving and agree with you which one matters most. That scope sets the plan.

  3. Work with your team

    Studies, programs, templates or workshops, run alongside your people rather than behind a curtain. Mentoring and coaching are part of every engagement.

  4. Leave it behind

    A clear handover: the findings, the materials and the habits. Success is a team that no longer needs me for this.

Hi, I’m Lalida

I came to UX research through psychology, and I still start from the same place: how people actually behave, not how we assume they do. Whether it’s office workers, executives or IT admins, the job is to turn that behaviour into products that fit their lives.

I care about research that gets used. That means clear, well-structured work and readouts that leadership acts on. It also means investing in the people doing the research: I have mentored and coached researchers throughout my career, and it’s the part of the work I enjoy most.

  • Based in Zürich, Switzerland
  • Works With teams anywhere, remotely or on site
  • Languages English, Thai, German (B1)
  • Methods Interviews, usability and concept studies, diary studies, surveys, cognitive walkthroughs, workshops

Tell me what your users are telling you.

A few lines about what you’re trying to learn are enough.

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overheardresearch.com

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