Welcome to Colleen’s work
Hey y’all, I’m Colleen Corkery, a chronically curious UX researcher with a background in UX content strategy, marketing, journalism, teaching, creative writing, radio DJing, and music blogging.
On this site, you’ll find examples of my work spanning UX research, content strategy, marketing, and journalism in B2B, B2C, tech, advertising, privacy, and music spaces.
Career journey
First, a little introduction to how I became the UX researcher I am today:
Journalist →
I studied journalism, and after college, I was a journalist and online editor for nine magazines covering topics such as business, health, beauty, family, home and outdoor, and even golf!
As a journalist, I fine-tuned the art of interviewing, asking questions, and relaying info in a clear, entertaining way.
Teacher →
I got my Cambridge English Teaching credentials and taught English to adults in Ireland, and children ages 2-14 in South Korea.
As an English teacher, I learned patience, listening, empathy, organization, and cultural differences.
Music blogging & DJing
As a side hustle, I created and founded the music blog Coco Stereo (as mentioned on NPR), ran the radio show Cuckoo for Coco’s Pop Underground on BFF.fm, and wrote for/served as the voice for Mappable, a visual music streaming site. I learned entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, written and audio storytelling, and how to use a soundboard!
Marketer →
I was a lifecycle, content (and editor-in-chief), demand gen, and social media marketer leading efforts in B2B, B2C tech & music industries.
As a marketer, I learned (and loved) behavioral analytics, A/B testing, surveying, interviewing, and creating strategies for user and business value.
UX content → strategist
I entered the world of UX via content strategy to develop content-first design across complicated technical spaces.
I learned how to identify user pain points, test, and create clear content that drastically improved user experiences and business outcomes.
UX researcher
I pursued UX research because I love gathering and analyzing user behavior, attitudes, and needs through qualitative and quantitative methods.
I’ve learned to identify key pathways for uncovering crucial answers and dive deep to see trends and insights that lead to clear solutions and inspire innovation.
UX Research
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Creating a usability research program for Google Ads Insights
Developing a rolling usability research program turned product managers from UX research-resistants to advocates, increased users’ usefulness scores by 25 points to 75%, and expanded more research across all of Google Ads.
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Re-inventing IBM.com’s IA & navigation
Facing negative feedback on IBM.com's usability, outdated design, and a push for digital excellence, leadership chose my team to revamp the IA, navigation, and design. Through extensive mixed-methods UX research, we launched a new navigation system, boosting user success rates by 21%. Here, I detail the research plan and results.
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Helping Google Ads teams see the big picture for advertisers
By combining contextual inquiries, user interviews, and user flow analytics, we discover that advertisers (big and small) are using the Google Ads platform in entirely different ways and are struggling with various issues. These research findings impacted 5+ product teams and customer support and inspired a wave of change.
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Transforming IBM's contractor tool
IBM's outdated Contractor Sourcing Application (CSA) suffered from poor usability, technical issues, and complicated flows, leading to a -29 NPS and an F rating for ease of use. Managers frequently bypassed the tool, costing IBM millions. An engineering-led redesign without research only complicated the situation.
Here, I detail the research, findings, and designs I developed to improve usability and business outcomes, along with the result