CV

This is the curriculum vitae of Patrick Kennedy; user experience researcher and strategist.

You can read my summary CV below, or download my full CV. My references and testimonials are also online, as is a list of my published work and speaking engagements.

Overview

My area of specialty is providing insight into audience needs and behaviour, to inform strategy and guide the user-centred design of products and services, ensuring the business is grounded in reality. This involves several core skill-sets:

  • research planning, preparation, execution, analysis, and application
  • user research, ethnography, market research, design research
  • secondary research and compilation of collective insight
  • generation of actionable, tactical, and inspirational consumer insights that can be applied to help reach business objectives and inform the design of innovative experiences
  • product/solution strategy and conceptual design
  • concept testing and user feedback gathered early in the product development process (is the idea right?)
  • usability testing and iterative user feedback (is the design right?)

As a key user advocate and consumer insight evangelist, I act as an insight aggregator and distributor, especially in highly interdisciplinary and collaborative environments where insight into audience needs permeates all areas of the business and on multiple levels. This is particularly important in large businesses where knowledge, data and insight are generated and collected by many different teams across the organisation yet a clear, concise picture of the audience often does not exist.

As the ‘resident expert’ on research, I am often responsible for identifying and mapping out new research opportunities for clients (internal or external), developing and applying appropriate data collection and analysis methods. This requires keeping abreast of the latest trends and innovations in research, and assessing their suitability for use in a variety of situations.

I am at my strongest when operating at a high level, developing strategy and providing direction to team-mates who work at a detailed level to implement solutions. My broad experience and holistic perspective allow me to successfully integrate business requirements and technology specifications with audience needs, design and usability.

I have over 10 years industry experience, ranging from software engineering and web development, through to marketing and advertising, and then in more recent years user experience design and user research, on which I now focus exclusively. My project experience spans many industry sectors, including IT&T, electronics and manufacturing, automotive, not-for-profit and charitable, banking and finance, government,
FMCG and tourism/travel. I have worked in a variety of environments: freelance and consultant; small teams and big teams; ‘agencyland’ and the corporate world.

My passion for research stems from a desire to understand; understand how things work, understand what makes people tick, and understand how to best provide a solution to a challenge. My current aim is to find a challenging and exciting role that allows me to utilise my extensive experience whilst continuing to expand my knowledge through working with talented and interesting people and undertaking new projects and ventures.

Work history

Education

  • Bachelor of Computer Systems Engineering – UTS (1999)
  • Diploma of Engineering Practice – UTS (1999)
  • Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAA49194 – CTI Australia (2007)
  • Diploma of Marketing – TAFE OTEN (2011)

Training and short courses

  • “Effective Workplace Relationships” – Australian Institute of Management (November 2011)
  • “Time Management with Technology” – Australian Institute of Management (September 2011)
  • “Understanding insight driven innovation” – AMSRS Winter School (July 2011)
  • “Semiotics” – AMSRS Winter School (July 2011)
  • “Foundations of Segmentation” – AMSRS Winter School (July 2010)
  • “Methods of Collecting Qualitative Data” – AMSRS Winter School (July 2010)
  • “Agile Academy: Agile Project Management” – Software Education (June 2010)
  • “Fundamentals of Multivariate Analysis” – AMSRS Winter School (July 2009)
  • “Techniques and Models for Qualitative Analysis” – AMSRS Winter School (July 2009)
  • “Facilitation Masterclass” – Futures By Design (April 2009)
  • “SharePoint: An independent business and technical analysis” – Michael Sampson (April 2008)
  • “Narrative techniques for business” – Anecdote (July 2007)
  • “Taxonomy and metadata strategies for effective content management” – Joseph Busch (June 2007)
  • “Data Driven Personas” @ UPA07 – Todd Warfel (June 2007)
  • “Taming the content beast” – Bob Boiko (March 2007)
  • “Leading successful web and software projects” – Scott Berkun (September 2006)
  • “Web accessibility workshop” – Vision Australia (May 2006)
  • “Writing for publication” – Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (UTS) (2006)

I also have a LinkedIn profile.