I’m an experience design researcher and strategist for products and services.
I specialize in complex environments like healthcare, enterprise, finance,
public sector, and more.
I lead projects and teams with care, curiosity, creativity, and courage.
How I can help
Understanding your audience
Using a toolbox of quantitative and qualitative methods, I can help you understand your customer’s background, mindset, and drivers that influence their connection to your product, service, or experience.
Bringing teams together around a goal
I collaborate with and lead multidisciplinary teams to bring results, provide clarity and efficiency, prioritize what’s important, and enable everyone to focus on what they do best.
Designing services with a systems thinking lens
I help develop a clear view of all touchpoints, end-to-end, grounded in the customer experience. You will see when and where pain points happen so you can identify opportunities with precision.
Evaluating ideas and experiences
With quick, iterative testing, I can provide a clear plan around what to do next, what to fix first, and what to change to turn it into the best possible customer experience.
Setting up research operations
I systematize actionable, compliant, inclusive, AI-supported, trauma-informed research so it has an effective, ongoing, and lasting reach across the organization.
Designing concepts and prototyping
I will help you explore different versions of your product or service and see what works with customers before launching, quickly and cost-effectively.
Select case studies
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Giving taxpayers a free, easy tax filing option
IRS DIRECT FILE
Led a user research team around continuous testing, foundational research and research operations resulting in 96% positive reviews, 80+ NPS, and a 1/3 reduction in tax return rejections.
“Direct File is a glimpse of a world where government tech benefits millions of Americans.” - The Atlantic
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Envisioning a modernized health care system
INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
Qualitative research and service design to identify Health IT needs of the nation-wide health care system serving American Indian and Alaska Native communities. A Fast Company Innovation Awards finalist.
"The personas and blueprints created allow decision makers to create a sense of empathy and urgency for addressing challenges that are faced across the country" — Maia Laing, HHS
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Helping manufacturers identify and prioritize production tasks
INFOR
Iterative research and design to improve day-to-day tasks and alerts management for manufacturing production planners.
Project highlights
Medicaid and CHIP data collection centralized supporting compliance
Conducted research to design four data collection instruments using scalable, repeatable patterns to help states report back to CMS and ensure funding
CMS
Medical bill rights services made simple for patients and professionals
Based on English/Spanish research with providers, insurance carriers, patients, and caregivers. Visit Medical Bill Rights
CMS
Future vision of services for
Nike flagship retail
Created customer journeys, service design, technology frameworks, and spatial concepts. Visit Nike House of Innovation
NIKE / R/GA
EHR system rollout following an AI-forward discovery process
Conducted interviews with clinical and administrative staff and developed an EHR rollout roadmap for a community healthcare system with 130+ employees
CONFIDENTIAL
A new way to save money reached 10,000 families
Conducted Portuguese/English research and conceptual design to inform the services for a new Brazilian savings and investment bank. Visit grao.com.br
GRÃO / METHOD
Retirement application made more accurate and faster by APIs
Led qualitative and quantitative research to inform strategy and prioritization for the U.S. federal employee retirement process. Visit retire.opm.gov/ora
U.S. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
A Forrester award-winning,
financial health-centric credit card
Designed Barclarycard Ring’s client interfaces for this community-driven credit card
BARCLAYCARD US / EMC CONSULTING
Enterprise AI adoption prioritization supported by data
Quantitative research with Coforma’s creative team to unearth needs, goals and use cases.
COFORMA
Who I worked with
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Coforma
Isobar
Method
RAPP
R/GA
SapientRazorfish
UXL
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Bayer
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Johnson & Johnson
Merck
Pfizer
Planned Parenthood
Walgreens
Tuple Health
U.S. Health and Human Services
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Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Immigration Policy Tracking Project
Indian Health Service
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
National Science Foundation
New America
Planned Parenthood
Resilience Advocacy Project
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Office of Personnel Management
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Citibank
Barclays
E*Trade
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
J.P. Morgan Chase
Morgan Stanley
Scottrade
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Astrocenter
Chobani
Infor
LogicMonitor
Madison Square Garden
McKinsey & Co.
Mercedes Benz
Nike
Travel Channel
Verizon
Walmart
Weather Channel
Talks and publications
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Telling Complex User Stories: IHS Health IT Case Study
How we designed service blueprints for the IHS to illustrate complex user stories.
by Sabrina Fonseca and Arden Klemmer
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Understanding the Catalysts for Citizenship Application
Barriers, opportunities around naturalization, based on research and testing with over 70 immigrants.
by Sabrina Fonseca and Lindsey Wagner
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Designing forms for gender diversity and inclusion
How do we ask people for their gender in a thoughtful and respectful way?
by Sabrina Fonseca
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Designing Products for Everyone
How to design products with various attitudes, abilities, and aptitudes in mind, from ideation to execution.
by Arden Klemmer and Sabrina Fonseca
Who I am
My expertise in addressing wicked problems comes from my passion for arts and humanities, and thoughtfully engaging in difficult conversations.
I was a photographer in a previous life. I also enjoy doing acrobatics in my aerial hammock, taking any excuse to travel somewhere known or unknown, existing at a spa, reading, spoiling my cat, watching movies, and hanging out with my friends.
I'm based in NYC, with strong ties in Montréal and Brazil.
Contact me
Hit me up if you have questions, requests, or just want to say hi!