In the world of technology where products are created for and scaled to billions of people, considering the human experience is not a luxury or diversion, it is a necessity. Ann Hsieh is a highly regarded and emergent user researcher who has catalyzed and developed human-centered design practice at technology companies like Facebook, Google, and Nokia. She is known for having deep experience in mixed-methods research and the ability to provide research-informed recommendations in fast paced environments for more than 15 years.
This profile examines Hsieh’s career, approach to research, and her overall contributions to the design of technology products. If you are UX, design, technology or product manager, Ann Hsieh’s trajectory is a masterclass in how research can matter and impact the design of technology products.
Who is Ann Hsieh?
Ann Hsieh is a User Experience (UX) Research Manager who has worked for many years in technology. She is concerned with learning how people interact with technology so she can leverage those lessons to inform the design of better products that improve user experiences.She is known for her ability to develop and adapt research techniques to help understand users’ complicated behaviors and experiences in diverse cultural contexts across the globe. At the moment, she is leading the research team for Community products within Meta (Facebook). Her research helps guide product teams in building new features for billions of users in Facebook Groups.
Her career is centered around the ability to connect a deep understanding of users, to a practical releasable product strategy with the specific goal of applying her research to help develop better products that are more inclusive and meaningful.
Education and Early Influences
Ann Hsieh’s upbringing in both upstate New York and Taiwan has resulted in exposure to a pull of blended cultural experiences and this perspective has benefitted her in her international and global research career. Ann went to Cornell University where she obtained a strong background in design and design thinking. She then went on to Stanford University for a master’s in human-computer interaction and user-centered design. With her eclectic background, top-notch education and enthusiasm for designing with people as her baseline, Ann was inspired and empowered to design technology products for clients internationally.
A Career at the Forefront of Technology
Ann Hsieh’s career path mirrors the evolution of UX research itself, moving from a supporting role to a strategic function at the heart of product development.
Foundational Roles at Nokia and Yahoo
Hsieh entered the tech industry at a time when user research was gaining momentum.Her previous positions with Nokia and Yahoo gave her a wealth of training ground to experience. While at Nokia she learned the complexities of working in markets across the world while adapting methodological research techniques to fit different cultural contexts. While at Yahoo, she worked on a variety of products with very different user bases which complicated the kinds of research needed for each product, honing her ability to conduct research for the intended audiences.
Trailblazing the Research Space at Google
One of Hsieh’s most impactful experiences was as the first researcher for Google Music. With this skillset, she worked on a high-profile product with a lot at stake and limited timeframes. She learned how to balance the need for deep, qualitative insights with the demands of a rapidly developing engineering/development team. This need to operate under high-stakes situations led her to become the first researcher to introduce very fast, iterative research cycles that offered practical feedback while developing quickly. Combining qualitative interviews with quantitative data, she provided the engineering team a holistic understanding of users’ needs that have since been a standard practice for conducting research within the cycles of agile development.
Leading Community Research at Facebook (Meta)
During her time at Facebook, Ann Hsieh occupied a leadership role for one of the company’s most complex and critical products, Facebook Groups. With billions of users congregating in communities built around every conceivable interest, the research challenges are large. Her work involves understanding:
- How do online communities form and maintain engagement?
- What do community leaders (admins and moderators) need?
- How do we create tools/elevate the Facebook experience to support safe and healthy interactions?
In her role, Hsieh will run several large-scale research projects in the Facebook Groups environment, creating products that influence product strategy for various elements of Groups like moderation tools, recommendations, and privacy features. Hsieh’s experience in cross-cultural meaning making is essential to ensure the features can be effectively used by communities around the world.
Ann Hsieh’s Philosophy and Methods
Ann Hsieh’s approach to research is pragmatic, fluid, and collaborative. Hsieh argues that researchers should create studies that address the unique problem, rather than follow a single design to a study of the same research method.
Guiding Research with Mixed-Methods
Hsieh is particularly adept at infusing qualitative research and quantitative research in order to tell the complete story. For example, a research project may begin with a large-scale survey aimed at generating broad patterns in user behaviors (the “what”) and then follow that up with in-depth one-on-one interviews or ethnographic studies to understand the motivations, context, and emotions behind the behavior (the “why”). This type of model gives teams both quantitative evidence and human storytelling evidence.
Stakeholder Collaboration as a Tenent
An important principle of Hsieh’s philosophy is that research is most effective when it is collaborative. She invites product managers, designers, and engineers to be part of the research process at every stage, including:
- Collaboration on the first research questions.
- Inviting audience members to observe user sessions.
- Workshops together to analyze or synthesize findings.
One of the advantages of collaborating in this way is that it creates a sense of shared ownership of the findings, and it is far more likely to lead to action by a team because they are the ones who are connected with the most pressing issues of an organization.
Planning Strategies in Action-Driven Contexts
Living in tech is often associated with pressure to move quickly.Hsieh has developed creative approaches to producing quality research in those contexts. She frequently breaks research down into smaller iterative studies which aren’t as time consuming. She is also phenomenal at “scrappy” research, using existing data sources, like analytics dashboards, previous research, and customer support logs to help answer questions without always needing to do a traditional research study.
Impact and Key Lessons from Her Career
Ann Hsieh’s work has had a lasting impact on how product teams at some of the world’s largest tech companies approach user-centered design.Her career has some important lessons for folks in this field.
- Your Superpower is Adaptability: Don’t be dogmatic about method. The best researchers adapt and are able to select or invent the right method for the problem, timeline, and resources.
- Research is Collaborative: Get rid of the wall between research and the product team. Your research will become their research if stakeholders engage early in the process.
- Cultural Context is Not an Add-On to Your Research: We live in a global society, and to design products for use in an unknown cultural context without exploring into cultures first is in error. From the outset of your research, you should build cross-cultural awareness into your research.
- Embrace Iteration: In the world of agile practice, a number of small, lean studies are often more useful than a large, slow-moving study.
Conclusion
Ann Hsieh’s career exemplifies the power of user research for elevating human-centered innovation and technology. She occupies a place of prominence in this field for her analytical rigor, focused on getting to evidence-based solutions; pragmatic approach to problem solutions; commitment to generative approaches and engaging stakeholders; and focus on global context. As a result of her work, user voices are heard and activated at the highest levels of technology and beyond. She continues to influence products used by billions and the next generation of UX researchers.
