Rayoung (Rae) S.

Song Insights Lab

I run a boutique research consulting & coaching agency for Korea-based start ups aiming for global expansion. I help companies to penetrate US & global markets leveraging user insights. I'm also nurturing the next generation of UX researchers in Korea by providing coaching and training.

Founder & Principal Researcher 

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

- As a founding member of the UX & Counseling Psychology major, I have advised the program directions and trained the next generation of Korea’s UX professionals. 
- Courses taught: Intro to UX Research (Fall, 2023), Qualitative UX Research Methods (Spring, 2024)

Adjunct Professor

User Experience Researcher

PayPal

As the first UX researcher for risk, I led UX research in improving user experience in disputes & account limitation experience. My selected projects include:
- Redesign account limitation experience
- Redesign seller dispute experience
- International 2-sided project to reimagine cross-border dispute experience

UX Researcher

Defense Language Institute English Language Center

DLIELC is a US Dept. of Defense (DOD) agency helping the English language needs of our international military partners. As overseas program manager and consultant, I am responsible for evaluating the customers’ experience of DLIELC's service and recommending solutions to optimize the effectiveness of the service by translating stakeholders’ needs, collecting and analyzing user experience data, and synthesizing and presenting the results. 

Key accomplishments:   
•	Cross-functionally collaborated with external stakeholders from the Dept. of Defense, the Dept. of State, and 15 Latin American partner nations, which resulted in 2 contracts amounting to ~$5M and ~$350K of sales from consulting and materials.
•	Planned and organized field visits and observations at 20+ overseas program sites. 
•	Designed and executed a virtual consultation survey during COVID.  
•	Built new client relationships with 3 Latin American nations using my communication skills. 
•	Selected as the Employee of the Quarter due to completing the largest mission in Q2.

Overseas Program Manager & Consultant

University of Massachusetts Amherst

As principal investigator, I designed and led a 5+ yearlong online ethnographic research study investigating user experience and participation in an online English learning community.
- Conducted 50+ hours of virtual observation and 20+ hours of in-depth & focus group interviews. Collected and analyzed ~600 multimodal blog posts.
- Demonstrated how online community users’ social identities (e.g., gender, race) influence their perception of virtual space and how it impacts users’ experience and participation in the online community.
- Created English for Feminists, an English learning podcast and club, to address the issues on gender inequity found from the research results. Created 14 podcast episodes. Led 5+ diversity & equity themed reading discussions and 9 mentoring sessions. 
- Published two academic papers reporting the results.

Principal Investigator

- Designed and led 2 generative research projects to improve multicultural & international users’ experiences in the education industry using surveys, in-depth user interviews, and contextual inquiries.
- Organized 3+ workshops and meetings for diverse stakeholders to communicate the research findings and recommendations to advocate for underrepresented users’ needs. 
- Published a book review and presented at 14 interdisciplinary conferences in social science.

Qualitative Researcher

Manhattan College

- Assessed the English language needs of 15+ international students, developed personalized learning plans, and taught weekly tutorial sessions. 
- Guided 2 at-risk students to successfully complete their academic semester.

English Language Specialist & Instructor

Ohio University

Official title: Online Teaching English for Specific Purposes (TESP) certificate coordinator.

Learning Experience Designer

Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Multicultural Education (Sep. – Dec. 2014)

Graduate Teaching Assistant

I am a UX researcher with 10+ years of interdisciplinary qualitative research experience in education and linguistic anthropology. I use my research and communication skills to advocate for the needs of diverse and underserved users. 

As a long-time educator for multicultural & multilingual learners, I am also passionate about community building and information/knowledge sharing. So you can expect me to share many resources that I find helpful about #UX, #research, and/or #altac career

Views are my own.

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