call of duty + Activision franchises

Senior Researcher / UX Designer • Activision

2024-2025

Establishing Research-Driven Product Discovery for Lifecycle Marketing Experiences

Role

◈

UX Design

User Research

Stakeholder Alignment

Discovery Planning

Team

◉◌◉

Lifecycle Marketing

Analytics

Insights

Player Support

Brand

Development Partners

Platforms

▣

Web

Mobile

Player-Facing Digital Experiences

Impact snapshot

Research Operations

Established the team's first structured research practice

Product Discovery

Introduced discovery processes for new initiatives

Cross-functional Alignment

Connected insights across Analytics, Brand, Support, and Product stakeholders

User Experience

Improved discoverability and player understanding across web experiences

Strategic Influence

Informed product and content decisions through player research

the challenge

Zombies are always a Challenge.

The Lifecycle Marketing and Digital Technology teams supported player-facing experiences across multiple Activision franchises.

While teams had access to large amounts of behavioral data, there was limited direct understanding of:

Player motivations
Friction points
Content discoverability issues
User needs across digital touchpoints

Research activities were often conducted on an ad hoc basis, making it difficult to consistently validate assumptions or identify emerging player needs across web and out-of-game experiences.

The opportunity was to introduce a repeatable discovery process that could help teams make more informed product decisions.

understanding the landscape

Landscape…or playground?

My first objective was to understand how decisions were currently being made and where knowledge gaps existed.

I partnered with stakeholders across:

Analytics
Player Support
Brand Teams
Product Stakeholders
External Partners

to understand:

Existing decision-making processes
Available data sources
Recurring player pain points
Opportunities for deeper player understanding

This work revealed that valuable information existed across multiple teams but was often disconnected.

Discovery framework

Validating Interactions with Data

Rather than treating each request as an isolated project, I established a repeatable discovery approach.

Research Inputs

Behavioral Analytics
User Interviews
Surveys
Usability Testing
Player Support Data
Stakeholder Workshops

Objectives

Validate assumptions
Reduce decision risk
Identify unmet player needs
Prioritize opportunities based on evidence

This created a foundation for more consistent product discovery and evaluation.

Key Insights

Knowledge is power.

Several themes emerged across studies.

Insight 1

Players frequently struggled to discover relevant information during seasonal content releases.

Important content often existed but was not easily surfaced.

Insight 2

Different player segments approached digital experiences with different goals.

New players often sought guidance and clarity, while experienced players prioritized speed and efficiency.

Insight 3

Support-related friction often appeared long before players contacted support teams.

By reviewing support trends alongside research findings, we could identify opportunities to improve self-service experiences.

Insight 4

Analytics explained what players were doing.

Research helped explain why.

Combining both perspectives produced stronger recommendations than either source alone.

from insights to action

Research findings informed improvements across multiple initiatives.

Examples included:

Information Architecture Improvements

Reorganized content structures to improve discoverability and reduce navigation friction.

User Guidance

Clarified pathways for players seeking game information, support resources, and seasonal content.

New Initiative Discovery

Conducted early-stage research to evaluate concepts before implementation.

Design Recommendations

Provided evidence-based recommendations to stakeholders responsible for roadmap and experience decisions.

Example Project: Seasonal Content Discovery

Research guided the creation of a new Seasonal page

Problem

Players were not consistently discovering seasonal content and related experiences.

Goal

Increase visibility of relevant content while minimizing cognitive load.

Approach

Evaluated existing information hierarchy
Reviewed player expectations
Tested alternative content structures

Outcome

Established recommendations that improved content visibility and navigation clarity.

Featured content, hierarchy, and appearance based user insights

Differences between Battle Passes & Blackcell were a point of confusion for players

Collaboration

One of the most valuable aspects of this work was connecting teams that each held part of the player story.

Key Partners

Analytics
Player Support
Brand
Marketing
Product Stakeholders
Development Teams

My Contributions

Facilitated discovery efforts
Synthesized data from multiple sources
Identified recurring themes
Created research artifacts
Presented findings and recommendations
Aligned stakeholders around evidence-based decisions
Set up Seasonal web content and designed new web pages

This work helped create a shared understanding of player needs across teams.

Documenting flows for Beta Code Redemption

Hero image creation, banners, and copy edits

Outcomes

Organizational Impact

Introduced a structured research process
Increased stakeholder access to player insights
Created repeatable discovery practices
Improved collaboration between previously siloed teams

Product Impact

Informed design and content decisions
Improved understanding of player behaviors and motivations
Reduced uncertainty during early-stage product exploration

Team Impact

Established stronger evidence-based decision-making practices
Created reusable research frameworks for future initiatives

reflection

This project fundamentally changed how I think about product discovery.

The most valuable outcome wasn't a redesigned page or a new feature—it was creating a system that helped teams better understand players before making decisions.

By combining qualitative research, behavioral analytics, support data, and stakeholder knowledge, we were able to move beyond assumptions and create a more informed approach to product development.

The experience strengthened my ability to lead discovery efforts, align cross-functional teams, and translate research into actionable product decisions.