I spent a year working with Consumer Reports as the research director on a consultancy basis with a focus on accelerating digital ventures in financial advice and home maintenance. My goal in the year was to accelerate Consumer Reports’ research capabilities. During this time, Consumer Reports needed to expand its digital offerings while maintaining its gold standard for consumer-focused research. This meant transforming traditional research approaches into agile, data-driven processes without compromising the thorough, reliable consumer research that built the company’s reputation. I led research initiatives and supported six research and design teams, which operated through a matrix structure, embedding research units within product teams while maintaining centralized standards. By implementing standardized methodologies and automated frameworks, I helped the broader research and design teams transform product development. This work successfully accelerated the launches of Upkept and CRInvest.