Laura Richardson is a multi-disciplinary design leader who loves the work.
Product, service, experience design and development. Design and business strategy. Research and insights.
Masters in Computer Science | Human Technology Interaction
Tech Forward, Growth Focused, and Hands-On
Business Development; Project Planning and Execution; Product Design and Development; KPI and Business Metrics Enablement; Mixed Methods Customer and User Research Design, Planning, and Execution; Insights and Innovation Reporting; Value Strategy; Growth and Competitive Opportunity Identification; Behavior Archetype, Persona, and Voice of the Customer Creation; Customer Journeys and Orchestration; Mixed Reality (physical/digital, AI, AR, VR) Scenario Envisioning; Innovation Pipeline Creation and Management; Value Driven Product and Experience Auditing; New Interaction Model Creation; Detailed Product Design; Value Resonance and Usability Testing Recommendations; Workshop Design and Facilitation; Teaching and Training (innovation).
Increase funnel conversion of 6M tax users through new interaction models, data, and AI considerations
Financial Services | Tax Preparation
Hands-On Work: Kickoff workshop creation, facilitation, and reporting; internal and external research audit; competitive audit; customer journey audit and creation; infield research; qualitative research; stakeholder interviews (including product development, data, and AI owners); KPI and metrics tracking; business and design strategy; new interaction model creation and design; AI considerations; creative direction; value resonance testing; feature prioritization; product design.
Released Product: https://www.hrblock.com/tax-calculator/
AI-enabled digital transformation for internal tools, partner offerings, and customer experience
Industrial | HVAC
Hands-On Work: Infield research, secondary research, competitive research; articulation and conceptualization of deployable AI solutions that offer demonstrable value to the company, partners, and customers; creative direction; product design; client partner support; BD.
Technology | Artificial Intelligence
Humanizing Artificial Intelligence for Business and Consumer Value
Hands-On Work: Co-wrote Humanizing AI Report, which leveraged expertise on human experience values, kansei (emotion) engineering, and AI experience (since 2016).
Download PDF: Humanizing AI (FALL 2024)
Real Estate | Rental and Leasing
AI-enabled self-guided rental property tour customer experience
Sound On: Contains audio (Human-AI interaction)
Note: Ideas of “tour mode”, AI listening transparency, AI enabled voice conversation, and building up a chat with requested documents leading to conclusion of AR personalized moment and the beginning of the rental application process.
Hands-On Work: Infield research, secondary research, insights translated to product features, business and design strategy, product and scenario envisioning, product design, creative direction; client partner support; BD.
Service, experience, and product design across physical and digital from first touch to conversion
Healthcare | Hyperwellness
Hands-On Work: Co-creation workshop to define project; business development and project proposal collaboration; kickoff workshop creation and facilitation; creative direction for design team; client partnership; infield research to inform mental model and customer journey audit; existing research audit; competitive audit; brand audit; qualitative research; ideal journey creation; third party recommendations for sound design; scenario walkthrough; value strategy and signature moment conversion moments defined; service design playbook and journey map created — including front stage, and backstage moments to activate across the customer journey; value resonance research; research reporting and recommendations; final playbook readout; recommended prioritization.
Business and experience strategy in AI-enabled mixed reality scenario for business development
Consumer Products | Cabinets
Timeframe: (BD) 11 days from research to vision scenario; skipped RFP process entirely and signed within three days of the client presentation.
Hands-On Work: (BD) Primary infield and secondary research; customer journey audit; ideal customer journey creation; mixed reality envisioning; technology partner; creative direction; product design; client partner collaboration; business development; (Actual project) project planning, creative direction across parallel work streams, client partnership, qualitative research, research reporting.
AI-enabled CSR of the future strategy to unify organizational efforts and inform data and technology inputs
Financial Services | Insurance
Hands-On Work: Stakeholder alignment; Research design, planning, and execution; existing research audit; stakeholder interviews (including data, and technology); CSR training; new interaction model creation across three screens (call intake, client profile, “working the call” - choose your own adventure model); data types definition (e.g. insights, life events); integration of knowledge management platform; CSR performance metrics; KPI and business metrics enablement; scenario walkthroughs; creative direction; product design.
Consumer Products | Beauty
AI-enabled value pool opportunities to increase CLV and other KPIs
Hands-On Work: In-store and secondary research; competitive research; customer journey audit; technology mapping; connected commerce trends identified; conceptualization and design of potential CLV (customer lifetime value) opportunities; collaboration with client partners and business strategy to determine value pools; size of the prize analysis; BD.
Training | Workshop Creation
Workshop training creation, workshop toolkit, and cross-studio deployment
Hands-On Work: Audit of 50 prior workshops and secondary/best in class workshops; new eight-phased process framework created; workshop creation kit created including workshop training presentation; workshop creation canvas, client briefs to design against, and 100 method cards.
AI-enabled value-driven experience strategy to increase CLV/KPIs for consumer healthcare product
Consumer Products | Healthcare
Hands-On Work: Primary and secondary research; competitive research; customer journey audit; value strategy; ideal journey experience scenario walkthrough; conceptualization and design of potential CLV (customer lifetime value) opportunities; creative direction; product design.
Technology | Development Environment
User research, and interaction model creation to support dev environment design
Date: 2019 [including because it shows strategic understanding of AI over time]
Note: Thinci became Blaize
Hands-On Work: Research creation, facilitation, and reporting; cognitive walkthrough of proposed development environment; value resonance and usability research informing iterative development; new interaction model creation; feature prioritization.
Business strategy, experience strategy, and innovation management to improve the cost of plane turning
Travel | Airline
Hands-On Work: Kickoff workshop creation and facilitation, stakeholder interviews, infield research; audit of existing innovation efforts; audit of available plane turning data; plane turning journey articulation; new concept ideation to test and learn; innovation pipeline creation; innovation process articulation for organizational change.
AI and data enabled business strategy playbook toward a unified platform across fleet, people, and jobsites
Industrial | Equipment Rental
Hands-On Work: Kickoff workshop creation and facilitation; stakeholder interviews; infield research; audit of existing innovation efforts; business strategy report; KPI enablement; data strategy; technology architecture; innovation framework; roadmap to realization; value strategy; scenario envisioning to assist with organizational buy-in and change; partner recommendations; CMO support.
Technology | AI-Enabled Financial Services
AI and data enabled scenario development for an AIML platform to showcase its technical capabilities
Date: 2016 [including because it shows strategic understanding of AI over time]
ROI: 300% THREE YEAR GROWTH; sold to Tecnotree in 2022
Hands-On Work: Kickoff workshop creation and facilitation; stakeholder interviews; ongoing workshops to transfer knowledge to design team; conceptual development of agnostic solutions that could be tweaked for industry (e.g. fin services, healthcare) such as Cyrano (shown “listening” in primary screen).