John Nicholson

 

Principal

Washington, DC

John Nicholson

Prior to starting Marketade, I was a big-data digital marketer and analyst. I saw what worked and what failed with digital products but rarely understood why. Then I discovered the power of observing and interviewing customers 1-on-1.

From our start, helping teams use qualitative user research to innovate has been a driving force behind Marketade. I’m now lucky to be surrounded by a team of passionate researchers and to help a wide range of organizations use recurring UX research to drive business results.

Recent Work

  • Mixed-Methods Research Program for a Mid-Sized Company — For 7 years, I teamed up with Nora and other teammates to run recurring research for a 4,000-person company with over 15 brands. We developed a repeatable 4-step qual/quant research cycle unique to their business goals and development cycle. One of our wins: research-driven design changes helped increase leads by 2000% for one business unit.
  • Continuous UX Research for GEICO’s Enterprise Service Application — Over a 10-year period, we partnered with GEICO’s digital experience team to lead hundreds of research studies. We also built and ran 5 recurring research programs. My favorite: a program to improve the UX of internal software used by GEICO’s customer service reps. We built a research panel of over 1,000 participants and designed a 2- to 3-week testing cycle. This allowed us to run over 50 studies, most of which focused on a single application feature or flow.

Past Experience

  • Launched and led the digital marketing team for a Fortune 100 financial services company. I helped them achieve 50% year-over-year growth in online sales for 4 straight years.
  • Ran online consumer marketing for a Virginia-based online education company that’s now part of Gartner. I also built the company’s voice-of-customer program.
  • Launched an online reviews startup and worked at an economic policy think tank at George Mason University.

Education

  • B.A. from Brown University, in political science

Outside the Office

  • I live in Bethesda, Maryland with my wife, our 2 young kids, and our dog Luna.
  • I played competitive tennis through college and still play as much as I can.
  • I also love surfing and trying out different exercise programs. Current interests include the Egoscue Method, Knees Over Toes Guy, and Overtime Athletes.