Linnea Marks

A bit about me_

I help businesses bridge the gap between products + people —

> Strategic research to inform decisions
> Tactical research to inform design
> Design to craft useful, effortless, human-centered experiences

I’m a UX Specialist with the inquisitive mind of a researcher and the creative core of a designer.

Hailing from a background in experimental psychology and information science, I leverage my interdisciplinary experience to understand users and stakeholders, synthesize data into insights, communicate findings, craft innovative solutions, and collaborate seamlessly.

I'm passionate about collaborative diversity, constructive debate, and learning for learning's sake.

As a consultant these last few years, I've enjoyed engaging with diverse client teams — from global enterprise to local nonprofit. One of my favorite aspects of consulting is the range of industries and domains to explore:

•Emerging technology
— AI, ARM, OEM software, form factor, packaging, metric frameworks, business/product strategy
— internal- & external-facing platforms

•News media
— beta apps & websites, desktop & mobile

•E-commerce & grocery
— apps & websites

•Employment
— apps & websites, business strategy
— B2B, B2C, internal- & external-facing platforms, desktop & mobile

•Healthcare, mental health, nutrition, & health information technology
— dashboards, websites/portals, branding, business strategy
— internal- & external-facing platforms

Interested in learning more about me and my work?
Shoot me a message! I look forward to hearing from you.

MESSAGE ME

Skills

Generative Methods

• Competitive Analysis

• Concept Testing

• Contextual Inquiry

• Diary Studies

• Experimental Design

• Exploratory Research

• Focus Groups

• Interviews

• Survey Design & Analysis

• User Need-Finding

Evaluative Methods

• A/B testing

• Benchmarking

• Heuristic Evaluation

• Cognitive Walkthrough

• Usability Testing

— Desktop, Mobile, Physical

— Guerilla, Formal

— In-person, Virtual

— Moderated, Unmoderated

— Prototyped, Live, Wizard of Oz

— RITE

Analysis

• Affinity Diagramming

• Content Analysis

• Inferential Statistical Methods

• Metric Frameworks & Questionnaires

• Qualitative Analysis

• Quantitative Analysis

• Thematic Analysis

Communication & Structure

• Client Service

• Dashboard Design

• Data Storytelling

• Data Visualization

• Project Management

Brand & Design Systems

• Brand Development

• Design Systems & Atomic Design

• Design Thinking

IA & Task Structure

• Card Sorting

• Concept Mapping

• Flow Models

• Hierarchical Task Inventory

• Information Architecture

• Scenarios

• Task Analysis

• Task Sequence Models

• Tree Testing

• User Flows

User Modeling & Analysis

• Journey Mapping

• Personas

• User Segmentation

• User Work Roles

Interaction & Visual Design

• Gestalt, Design, & Psychological Principles

• Mockups

• Photography

• Prototyping (low- to high-fidelity)

• Storyboarding

• Wireframing

• Color Theory Fundamentals

• Typography Fundamentals

Work Style

• Adaptable

• Attentive to Detail

• Collaborative

• Creative Problem-Solving

• Lateral Thinking

• Proactive/Strategic

• Self-Motivated

Tools

advanced/preferred | intermediate | beginner/rusty

Design

• Adobe XD

• Adobe Photoshop

• Adobe Illustrator

• Balsamiq

• Figma

• Framer

• iMovie

• Justinmind

• Microsoft Publisher

Analysis & Programming

• Bash shell

• Excel

• Github

• HTML/CSS

• JMP

• Matlab

• R

• SAS

• SPSS

• Tableau

• WordPress/PHP

Research

• CoLoop.ai

• Optimal Workshop

• Qualtrics

• Recollective (similar to dscout)

• SurveyMonkey

• UserTesting.com

• UX Metrics

• UXtweak

Collaboration & Communication

• Asana

• FigJam

• Figma Slides

• Google Suite

• Haystack

• Microsoft Office Suite

• Microsoft Teams

• Miro

• Slack

• TeamGantt

• Zoom

Education

MS in Information Studies | University of Texas at Austin | 2023
Specialization in UX Research & UX Design | 4.0 GPA

BS in Psychology | Grand Valley State University | 2014
Minors in Applied Statistics & Philosophy

Work Experience

Sentier Strategic Resources | Austin, TX

UX Researcher (+ Occasional Designer) | 06/2022 – 06/2025

Designed, implemented, analyzed, and communicated custom end-to-end research for external clients, in both lead and collaborative roles. Conducted generative and evaluative research across a range of industries—including technology, e-commerce, media, employment, and AI—using a variety of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods.

— Rapidly absorbed new domain knowledge and adapted to evolving client needs, including pivots, shifting priorities, internal restructures, and tight timelines without compromising rigor

— Collaborated closely with clients from product, design, leadership, and engineering teams to identify opportunities, scope research, and translate insights into directionally impactful design decisions

— Synthesized complex findings into actionable strategic insights that helped clients:

• Improve product design and support rapid iterations

• Align product strategy with user needs and establish positioning in emerging markets

• Restructure ineffective user segments

• Develop user personas, journey maps, product roadmaps, and metric frameworks

— Created reusable visual design systems, layout patterns, and templates in Figma for research deliverables—now adopted company-wide to support storytelling and design consistency

— Led the redesign of a multi-user dashboard to support mindful, measurement-based mental health care

— Produced high-impact reports, tools, and assets that stakeholders continue to rely on years later

— Recognized as the go-to researcher by a flagship client for delivering impactful, richly-detailed insights

— Mentored team members in research design, analysis methods, Figma, Excel, survey coding, and accessible language use

— Brought two new clients to Sentier through trusted relationships built during previous work at Connxus

UX Research Intern | 01/2022 – 06/2022

— Led a series of six in-depth, multi-platform heuristic evaluations for a global employment company, each focused on key user journeys. Deliverables: Figma-based report decks; annotated user flows; usability issue spreadsheets referencing those flows

— Analyzed qualitative data and helped deliver the final readout for a tech worker compensation study

— Conducted a self-directed secondary research initiative (100+ sources) on global data regulations and their customer experience implications for a multinational technology client

Integrated Care Collaboration (now Connxus) | Remote

CONNECT Fellow | 08/2021 – 11/2022
via UT CONNECT program

— Led research (competitive analyses, interviews, concept testing, surveys) and iterative brand design—including identity, logo, palette, typography, iconography, merchandise, and brand book—helping revive the organization (now Connxus) and fuel growth in partners and offerings.

— Directed research (interviews, competitive analysis, card sort, tree test) and design (site map, wireframes, mockups) for a new website foundation, now live and aligned with the refreshed brand.

— — — — — —

Earlier, Formative Work

UT Austin Intelligent Environments Lab (CAEE) | Remote

Graduate Research Assistant | 08/2021 – 12/2021

— Designed specialized, intuitive Tableau visualizations for a multidisciplinary, multi-factor computational modeling project; these visuals underpin a 2024 publication in the Journal of Building Performance Simulation

— Built an interactive, multi-page Tableau dashboard ("story") enabling structured exploration of data across scenarios, which has garnered 850+ views

— Designed two conference posters on project methodology and findings, earning high praise and multiple requests to reuse visualizations

UT Austin Ctr for Sustainable Development (SoA) | Remote

Graduate Research Assistant | 06/2021 – 08/2021

— Co-authored a comprehensive report on carbon accounting in the building sector to guide a prominent hotel developer’s sustainability decisions

— Authored core report sections defining carbon accounting, explaining Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) & related frameworks, and outlining decision-making standards and processes

— Created the majority of visualizations used to synthesize and present research findings

UT Austin Department of Psychology | Remote

Teaching Assistant | 01/2021 – 05/2021

— Led a weekly two-hour lab for a 24-student section of PSY420M: Psychological Methods & Statistics on research design, data analysis, and academic reporting

— Largely shaped course content and structure for all four sections of the course, developing lectures and instructional materials (slides, handouts, assignments, quizzes)

— Constructively evaluated student work and offered tailored student support focused on skill development, learning potential, and foundational academic analysis & writing skills

— Guided engaged students to marked improvement by the end of the course and received highly positive feedback in student evaluation—despite the extensive workload (which I couldn't mitigate)

Publications

Felkner, J., Nagy, Z., Beck, A. L., Reeves, D. C., Richter, S., Shastry, V., Rathmun, E., Mbata, E., Zigmund, S., Marshall, B., Marks, L., Rueda, V., Triplett, J., Domedead, S., Vasquez-Canteli, J., & Rai, V. (2024). IMPACT pathways – a bottom-up modelling framework to guide sustainable growth and avoid carbon lock-in of cities. Journal of Building Performance Simulation, 18(3), 371–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/19401493.2024.2388229

Marks, L. & Quamme, J. R. (2014). Influence of event segmentation on associative recognition: Memory for sentences rearranged within and across narrative event boundaries. Honors Projects at ScholarWorks@GVSU. Paper 294. http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/honorsprojects/294

Marks, L., Blanchard, T. C., Hayden, B. Y. (2012). Foraging behavior in rhesus macaques: sooner rather than bigger. Poster session for Undergraduate Summer Fellowship Program in Vision Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY.

Quamme, J. R., Kurby, C. A., Marks, L., & Zimmerman, T. (2018). Event boundaries and recognition memory for associative information in narrative text. Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.

Quamme, J. R., Marks, L., & Kurby, C. A. (2015). Event segmentation and associative recognition for narrative details. Accepted for Psychonomic Society’s 56th Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.

Smith, C. M., Idema, C., Hunter, O., Sage, C., Nicholls, R., Marks, L. (2011). Group and individual creativity under conditions of experimentally induced fixation. Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.

Smith, C. M., Hunter, O., Idema, C., Sage, C., Marks, L. Nicholls, R., (2011). Group and individual problem solving under conditions of experimentally induced fixation. Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.