SEGMENTATION STUDIES

Cruise Customer Segmentation Study for World’s Largest Travel Company
· Partnered with McKinsey as the brand insights SME on the industry’s largest cruise segmentation study (15,000 respondents) across four North American brands.
· Guided survey design, analytical interpretation, and definition of attitudinal and behavioral segments.
· Produced executive-ready summaries, customer personas, and activation guidance.
· Enabled clearer brand differentiation and more targeted marketing and product strategies to differentiate the portfolio.

Video Game Player Segmentation Study for Leading Game Publisher
· Led a player segmentation study (4,500 respondents) to inform game development and marketing.
· Led the survey design, fielding, analysis and reporting.
· Developed final report, executive ready summaries, and customer personas.
· Developed an abbreviated typing tool (question set) for use in other ad hoc surveys to quickly identify segment membership in ongoing research.

DISCRETE CHOICE (CBC) STUDIES

Cruise Line Value-Add Offer Study
· Designed a customer preference study to identify value-add incentives that drive incremental cruise bookings.
· Led the survey design including choice rotation and base case scenarios.
· Selected and guided external vendor in survey design, sample frame, and reporting.
· Enabled optimized value-add hierarchy used for multiple limited-time offer sales.

Major Brand Partnership Study
· Partnered with marketing leaders to design and execute a customer preference study evaluating premium onboard experiences tied to a major media brand.
· Quantified customer willingness to pay and revenue upside for partnership-driven experiences.
· Demonstrated up to a $150 increase per booking, representing $30–$70M in annual incremental revenue potential.
· Supported approval of a multi-year partnership agreement (costing estimated $1M per year).

AAA Video Game Launch Package Pricing
· Guided go-to-market pricing for a new AAA video game release at a major home entertainment company.
· Evaluated customer preferences and willingness to pay across launch bundle options (game only, game plus annual pass, game plus premium digital content plus annual pass).
· Designed a choice-based pricing study to identify three optimal launch packages.
· Supported a highly successful launch, ranking among the fastest-selling original console games of 2021.

Cruise Line Cabin Pricing Hierarchy Study
· Partnered with the commercial leadership to evaluate customer willingness to pay for combinations of cabin types and cabin locations on cruise ships.
· Led vendor selection and study design for a choice-based pricing analysis.
· Quantified value differences by cabin category and location.
· Findings informed a full redesign of cabin pricing strategy across 17 ships.

ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH & CUSTOMER JORNEY MAPS

Ethnographic Research to Uncover Cruise Shopping Behavior and Pain Points
· Led vendor selection and guided ethnographic research into cruise shopping needs, motivations, and pain points.
· Identified value perception as a primary purchase driver, informing a shift to a more retail-oriented website with transparent pricing and promotions.
· Synthesized ethnographic research into a map of the shopping and purchase decision journey, addressing goals, actions, questions, pain points, and emotions.
· Confirmed the continued importance of printed brochures in the customer shopping journey.

FOCUS GROUPS AND IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS

Kids & Teens Focus Groups | Onboard Experience Redesign
· Conducted focus groups to determine how kids and teens wanted onboard youth spaces to look, feel, and function.
· Led end-to-end qualitative research, including discussion guide design, moderator selection, and execution.
· Identified age-specific preferences for space names, designs, and activities.
· Findings informed redesigned kids and teens centers implemented fleetwide across 17 ships.

Ship Redesign In-Depth Interviews | Capital Investment Decision
· Conducted in-depth guest interviews to determine whether concerns about ship aging were driven by interior design choices.
· Led a team of researchers through study design, execution, and insight synthesis.
· Found that dissatisfaction was driven by maintenance issues rather than aesthetics.
· Recommended a shift from interior redesign to targeted maintenance investments, avoiding $9M in redesign costs.

Japan Homeport Focus Groups | Market Entry Strategy
· Led end-to-end qualitative research to understand Japanese guest expectations, including discussion guide design, moderator selection, and onboard focus group execution.
· Explored preferences across accommodations, dining, entertainment, activities, and service.
· Informed onboard features and experience design supporting a successful entry into the Japanese homeport cruise market.

Marketing Message Evaluation | AAA Video Game Launch
· Conducted focus groups to assess player reaction to a proposed marketing concept for a new AAA game.
· Led end-to-end qualitative research, including discussion guide design, moderator selection, and execution.
· Revealed negative player response indicating the concept risked offending the audience, leading to the concept being rejected.

Buffet Experience Evaluation | Guest Satisfaction Improvement
· Led team of researchers to conduct focus groups to uncover drivers of guest satisfaction with the buffet experience.
· Found that unclear food and category signage was a significant source of navigation friction.
· Findings & recommendations informed a new signage strategy implemented fleetwide across 17 ships.

NPS DRIVERS MODELS

NPS Driver Analysis | Experience Investment Prioritization
· Conducted driver analysis to determine which guest experiences have the greatest influence on NPS.
· Partnered with data science team to use shapely regression models to identify key NPS drivers for three geographic regions.|
· Models supported capital investments in new dining experiences.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (CX) MEASUREMENT & TRACKING

Syndicated Research Product Development | Practice Growth
· Developed new syndicated customer satisfaction research studies to expand real estate and construction offerings for a leading market research agency (e.g., appliances, home improvement stores, paint)
· Led end-to-end creation of six studies, including questionnaire design, vendor management, reporting, and budget oversight.
· Generated approximately $1.5M in annual revenue through new syndicated products.

Guest Satisfaction Survey Program | Operational Performance Measurement
· Led the design, build, and ongoing management of the enterprise guest satisfaction survey program.
· Designed and delivered Tableau dashboards used by 700+ stakeholders across the organization.
· Partnered with a survey vendor, 13 experience teams, and IT to automate data collection, design data warehouse model, and deliver reporting.
· Established NPS and related satisfaction metrics as core KPIs for operational teams.

USABILITY TESTING

E-commerce Booking Flow Redesign | Conversion Growth
· Conducted multi-phase usability research to evaluate and refine a redesigned website booking flow.
· Led research design and execution, including task guide design, vendor management, and review and communication of findings and recommendations.
· Shifted approximately $63M in bookings to the online channel (100% increase) and reduced travel-agent incentive costs by $8M within 12 months post implementation.

Printed Brochure Testing | Product Communication Optimization
· Conducted usability research to evaluate how effectively printed cruise brochures communicated a complex vacation offering across three cruise brands.
· Led research design and execution, including task guide design, vendor management, and review and communication of findings and recommendations.
· Informed a brochure redesign that improved clarity and presentation of a multi-modal vacation experience combining cruise, rail, and land-based components.

CONCEPT TESTING

Cruise Add-On Bundle Research | Revenue Growth
· Conducted research to determine guest interest in bundled add-on offerings and how best to position the value proposition.
· Led end-to-end study design and execution, including questionnaire design, fielding, analysis, and reporting.
· Confirmed strong appeal for bundled offers and identified effective messaging to drive adoption.
· Supported launch of the first ever cruise add-on bundle, achieving projected take rates and generating approximately $70M in annual incremental revenue, later adopted by competitors as an industry standard.

Menu Testing for Cruise Dining | Cost & Waste Reduction
· Tested if a redesigned main dining room menu could reduce over-ordering, food waste, and associated costs.
· Led A/B menu test design and execution, including questionnaire design, fielding, analysis, and reporting.
· Found that regrouping menu items from five sections to three (with same item count) reduced over-ordering.
· Informed a menu redesign that delivered approximately $1M in annual cost savings per ship.

Cross-Brand Experience Blending Study | Brand Trust & Cost Risk
· Evaluated whether guests and travel agents would accept portions of a cruise vacation being delivered by a different brand to reduce delivery costs.
· Led end-to-end study design and execution, including questionnaire design, fielding, analysis, and reporting.
· Found that guests place trust in a single brand to deliver the full experience and that blending brands would erode trust and weaken a key travel agent selling point.
· Advised leadership to avoid cross-brand experience delivery to protect brand equity and customer expectations.

Port and Itinerary Interest Tests | Deployment Optimization
· Evaluated guest interest in ports, regions, and itinerary combinations to guide cruise ship deployment decisions.
· Led end-to-end study design and execution, including questionnaire design, fielding, analysis, and reporting.
· Provided ongoing recommendations used by commercial, market planning, and marketing teams to build and promote itinerary offerings.

Video Game Features Interest Test | Launch Risk Assessment
· Evaluated whether excluding a planned feature tied to a major IP would negatively impact player appeal.
· Led research design and execution, including questionnaire design, vendor management, and communication of results.
· Found that excluding the feature from the initial release would have minimal impact on player interest.
· Recommended proceeding without the feature at launch; the game became the publisher’s largest release, selling 34M+ units and generating $1B+ in revenue within two years.

AD & Messaging Testing

New Technology Feature Video Testing | Demand Generation
· Evaluated which video vignettes most effectively generated guest interest in a new onboard technology and related experiences.
· Led end-to-end study design and execution, including questionnaire design, fielding, analysis, and reporting.
· Recommended priority videos for use across the website, social media, and television advertising to drive awareness and interest.

TV Ad Testing | Media Optimization
· Evaluated which television ad variations most effectively drove interest in booking a cruise vacation among past guests and prospective customers (~900 respondents).
· Led end-to-end study design and execution, including questionnaire design, fielding, analysis, and reporting.
· Recommended the winning ad for use in national and local TV campaigns during peak booking season.

MYSTERY SHOPPING

Mystery Shopping of Booking & Onboard Experience | Competitive Benchmarking
· Conducted recurring mystery shopping studies across three cruise brands to benchmark booking and onboard experience delivery against competitors.
· Led end-to-end study design and execution, including criteria development, vendor management, analysis, and reporting.
· Found the brand outperformed competitors across most experience dimensions, while identifying improvement opportunities in contact center and customer service.

Travel Agent Mystery Shopping | Commission Bias Assessment
· Conducted mystery shopping across three cruise brands to assess whether travel agents favored higher-commission offerings when recommending cruises.
· Led end-to-end study design and execution, including criteria development, vendor management, analysis, and reporting.
· Found little evidence of commission-driven bias; agents primarily focused on matching customer needs or following customer-led preferences.
· Reduced pressure to match competitor commission increases by confirming limited impact on agent recommendations.

NLP/Text Analytics/Topic Model Design & Creation

Cruise Experience Text Analytics | CX Insight at Scale
· Analyzed approximately 800K open-ended guest comments annually to uncover drivers behind satisfaction ratings and identify experience improvement opportunities for both the cruise experience and land based lodge experience.
· Led the design and implementation of Qualtrics XM Discover text analytics topic models, sentiment models, and dashboards.
· Enabled self-service insight access for 700+ shoreside users and shipboard leadership across 17 ships to act on guest feedback.

Journey Experience Text Analytics | CX Improvement
· Analyzed approximately 300K open-ended survey comments across multiple customer journey surveys to identify pain points and improvement opportunities.
· Led the design and implementation of Qualtrics XM Discover topic models, sentiment models, and dashboards.
· Enabled self-service access to journey insights for 60+ operations users.