Upleveling Research

“Through strategy and coaching, Sam has helped me maintain my ability to make major findings while greatly amplifying my impact by helping me communicate and partner effectively, getting buy-in from a wide range of stakeholders. I have watched Sam do the same with all of her other reports —I'm not sure how she is able to be so successful at this, I only know that she has far more talent in this area than I'll ever have.” - IC Feedback

“Sam regularly demonstrates, in both conversation and in her actions, that she sees great value and importance in the research of our team. She is well connected to leads, and both encourages and creates opportunities for us to share important findings with those at the leads level. Sam does an excellent job leveraging the knowledge and relationships she's built in her career at Facebook to support and plug in our work to the right audiences. She also is incredibly helpful in providing context for why certain stakeholders will be interested and provides feedback on how we can communicate most effectively.” - IC Feedback

Leading from the Side

With a team spanning multiple junior and senior levels, I realized quickly that one leadership or management style could not apply to all relationships. I often stated that it was not my job to lead exclusively from the front or behind, but find the right balance of when which was necessary. My intention was to demonstrate support to both my team and my XFN, while still allowing ICs to grow into their own and take leadership roles of their own.

“In the last year I have grown so much as UXR and even gained a confidence that I sometimes don't even recognize on myself and I honestly owe this to Sam. She has really mastered finding the balance between pushing me to do crazy things while giving me the exact amount of support I need, nothing less so I can keep moving, but nothing more either so I can learn.” - IC Feedback

“I'm appreciative of how carefully Sam calibrates feedback and guidance. When we meet and discuss research ideas and projects she is always mindful of how to land impact consistent with the expectations of my level. This lets me prioritize projects accordingly and spend my time efficiently working on the most important research.” - IC Feedback

People First

As a manager, I work closely with my team as individuals and as a group to ensure they feel heard and respected throughout the year, but in particular in times of hardship. This extends both to ensuring they feel like I am aware of their projects and their spaces, able to provide robust feedback (internalizing and addressing their feedback for me), direction and support, but also providing emotional support and encouragement, as well as any resources or tools they may need as well.

“Sam consistently creates a psychologically safe environment for her reports, despite multiple disruptions and added responsibilities throughout the year, Sam leads are team with honesty, transparency, and clear direction for success.” - IC Feedback

Sam has a great barometer for team health and morale and takes very proactive measures to address these issues and hold our leadership groups accountable for making tangible improvements. On a personal level, I know Sam has my back and I know all her reports feel the same. I've heard from more than one of them something along the lines of "Yeah Integrity is a pretty hard space, but I just feel like I won the lottery because Sam is my manager." - XFN Leader

Impactful Prioritization

She always has a highly articulated map of our priorities and long-term goals in research, what gaps may exist, and directs the ICs to properly prioritize and divvy up work to land each insight needed by the team. I am quite grateful for her role over the year in bringing the UXR team more central to the overall function of the team, through fostering broader impact of UX research and stronger relationships with XFN and team leads. - IC Feedback

“Sam commands the respect of all of our XFN partners through her expertise and intimate understanding of their role and goals. She is seen and respected as a leader on the team as she holds an immense amount of foundational knowledge and expertise, has insight into what our XFN partners are doing and what's happening across orgs. She proactively makes connections on work streams and is always tapped to bring more clarity and strategy to our working models. Without her expertise and insight, our team direction would not be as clear and our working models would not be as efficient.” - XFN Feedback