Hi, I'm
Melanie Gierszal

Problem & Motivation

Develop a repeatable, centralized process for hypothesis generation, prioritization, and testing so conversion initiatives rely on user research and data rather than intuition.

Teams lacked a shared process to turn ideas into testable hypotheses, leading to scattered experiments and duplicated efforts.

Leadership recognised that despite ad-hoc tests, the organisation lacked a clear workflow and dedicated conversion team.

My Role

As UX Lead Researcher, I designed and managed the practice: defined processes for idea generation, hypothesis framing, and prioritization; maintained the research backlog; oversaw study design and KPI alignment; synthesized insights into recommendations and decisions.

UX Researchers, Designers, Product Managers, Business, Marketing, Senior Leadership

Outcome

A structured, research-driven practice increased experiment volume and quality, with improvements in user journeys and business KPIs.

Oversaw over 90 projects in 2 years, including: AI product page recommendations (+2% basket increase); Markov Chains tool for on-site behaviour mapping; Checkout upsell removal (+0.5 p.p. conversion lift); other tests validated status quo or refined strategies.

Over 90 projects; wins (e.g. +2% baskets, +0.5% conversion) prevented misguided changes.

Afterthought

A continuous feedback loop across research, product, and business enabled iterative improvements and data-informed decisions.

Clarify ownership in select projects; prioritise fewer, higher-impact initiatives over volume.

Gained experience in Design Thinking workshop facilitation to align stakeholders and generate hypotheses. Developed cross-functional project coordination, managing backlogs and timelines. Learned to synthesise insights from multiple projects into strategic decisions.

Problem & Motivation

Maintain revenue while removing the upsell and improving pricing transparency at checkout.

Users reported confusion and unexpected total changes at checkout due to unclear pricing.

User feedback pointed to the upsell as a conversion barrier.

My Role

As research project manager, I defined hypotheses, selected methodology and KPIs (e.g., conversion rate, revenue per order), conducted analysis, prepared financial reports, and delivered recommendations. Developed a multivariate testing system integrated with the database for real-time metric tracking.

General Manager, Legal, Marketing, PM, BI, IT

Outcome

Transparent pricing—with fees shown in totals—maintained KPIs and improved conversion by 1 p.p.

Removed upsell; introduced tiered fees, shown in totals.

Conversion rate increased by 1 p.p.

Afterthought

Custom multivariate testing system enabled real-time tracking. Cross-team alignment supported implementation.

Earlier stakeholder alignment and clearer task delegation (e.g. IT monitoring) could have shortened the timeline.

Gained experience in a combined PM–UX researcher role, handling technical and legal aspects. Reinforced the value of researcher-led project management for data-driven decisions.

Problem & Motivation

Ground strategic decisions in current customer profiles, not assumptions or outdated research.

No unified, regularly updated view of users—leading to fragmented decisions.

Not tracking user changes over time meant missing opportunities.

My Role

As creator and lead, I managed the end-to-end process: defined research goals for sociodemographics, gaming behaviors, and purchase patterns; analyzed data for correlations; integrated with internal analytics and prior-year benchmarks; produced visual reports and actionable presentations.

Management, Business, Marketing, Data Analysts

Outcome

The report revealed shifts in profiles, preferences, and behaviour—exposing unnoticed segments and contradictions between assumed and actual behaviour.

Management adopted for targeting; marketing refined offers; product adjusted messaging and priorities based on trends.

Globally representative sample; defined 3–4 segments; surfaced significant shifts.

Afterthought

Repeatable yearly rhythm closed the gap between one-off analytics and long-term strategic understanding.

Integrate earlier into planning cycles; add workshops for broader adoption.

Combined surveys with analytics for insights beyond individual methods. Repeatable reports build organisational memory and reinforce user-centred decisions.

Problem & Motivation

Remove the unnecessary step; sustain or improve conversion and revenue.

A redundant step repeated information, fostering confusion and abandonment near purchase completion.

Analytics showed that extra steps duplicating data increased exit rates.

My Role

Sole UX Researcher: defined goals and KPIs, configured and monitored the A/B test, analyzed data, delivered recommendations.

IT, Business Intelligence

Outcome

The additional step elevated drop-off rates and failed to retain users at journey end.

Removed the redundant step; consolidated into a single checkout in the payment gateway.

Increased cart conversion rate by 5 percentage points, directly improving purchase completion and revenue.

Afterthought

Close KPI monitoring and stakeholder alignment enabled rapid decisions.

Address technical debt earlier to accelerate implementation.

Success depended on upstream alignment with dev, business, and shared goals.

Problem & Motivation

Launch competitive challenger bank for personal and business users in Europe.

Young users and small business owners lacked seamless banking apps with intuitive experiences.

Rapid emergence of challenger banks across Europe signaled market opportunity.

My Role

As UX Researcher in R&D, I led the discovery phase: desk research, competitive analysis, user interviews, surveys, and moderated usability tests. Delivered research summary with feature lists, wireframes, monetization strategies, niches, personas, and USPs.

CEO, Product Owner, UX Designer, Market Researcher, Business Analyst

Outcome

Two viable niches (young users and SME) emerged with tailored USPs, feature priorities, wireframes, and monetization models.

Advanced to planning phase; initiative spun out as ZEN.COM.

Discovery research propelled project from ideation to structured planning and commercialization.

Afterthought

Fast-paced, in-person cross-functional collaboration accelerated insights and alignment.

Clearer role definitions and aligned visions upfront.

Bridged UX research with strategic product decisions in fintech. Led high-uncertainty discovery from ideation to commercialization.

Problem & Motivation

Introduce onboarding; test redesigned purchase flow (search, filters, offers) ahead of launch.

New users faced confusion in first impressions, search, filters, and pricing—fostering distrust.

User feedback prompted redesign; research brought in pre-release for validation.

My Role

Designed and ran moderated usability tests under tight constraints; analyzed findings, recommended blocks, advocated for follow-up on pricing flow.

Product Owner (Mobile App), UX Designer, IT team

Outcome

Onboarding induced confusion and distrust; purchase flow obscured pricing transparency via unexpected changes.

Scrapped onboarding from release; deferred pricing flow redesign for deeper research.

Testing with 5 users surfaced critical issues (per Nielsen's 5-user rule), saving weeks of post-launch fixes.

Afterthought

Agile, 'quick & dirty' approach delivered actionable insights under tight constraints.

Embed UX research from project kickoff, not end-stage.

Agile adaptation trumps perfection in fast-paced environments. Quick validation under constraints delivered actionable insights and prevented a flawed launch.