Colette Kolenda
As Strategic Research Leader, my teams are known for driving product strategy based on multidisciplinary insights. We triangulate data across User Research, Data Science, Market Research and other insights disciplines to understand complex spaces and create impact for product teams and company leadership.
Over the last 8 years, I have built insights teams from the ground up at Spotify and Cash App. Additionally, I really enjoy coaching ICs and managers focusing on high quality qualitative and quantitative research methods and enabling their career growth in personally fulfilling and maximally impactful ways.
My Research Journey
I graduated from Duke University with a Bachelors of Science in Neuroscience and a Certificate in Markets & Management Studies. My schoolwork instilled in me a deep love for understanding human behavior, rigorous research, and experimental design.
My first formal role as a researcher was in the Brannon Lab at Duke’s Institute for Brain Science, where I ran behavioral and EEG studies on children to assess cognitive processes involved in numerical processing. It was fascinating to study how kids think about math from both behavioral and neuroscience perspectives.
Searching for a research role that would generate more immediate impact, I was selected for a Behavioral Science research position in Dan Ariely’s Center for Advanced Hindsight lab. I fell in love with the trifecta of research — brainstorming novel research questions, conducting quantitative and qualitative research, and generating meaningful insights — to understand how people make decisions. I learned how to ask the questions others weren’t asking. This experience profoundly shaped my approach to designing clever studies that get to the truth of human behavior. Curious to apply my research skills to product and business questions, I transitioned from academia to industry.
After joining Spotify in 2016, I specialized in mixed-methods research, working on products ranging from listener experiences to creator and advertiser tools. As the 5th researcher hired, I put in place insights infrastructure for surveys, rolling research, and peer review best practices in addition to my day-to-day qualitative and quantitative insights work. Transitioning from an IC to a manager in 2019, I built and led the Strategic Research Team for Spotify Free. My team was responsible for defining and enabling Spotify’s Advertising Business Unit goals, OKRs, and strategies. Our multi-disciplinary team triangulated User Research, Data Science, and Behavioral Science to uncover new opportunities and enable product and business executives to make data-driven decisions in service of our Spotify Free listeners and advertisers. It was a blast building this team, managing ICs and managers from several different insights disciplines, and figuring out how to combine our insights superpowers to do research that defined and enabled our Business Unit’s OKRs and long term goals.
In 2022, I joined Cash App as the first Research Lead and focused on building the research team for the Financial Services business unit! I built out the Rolling Research Program, lead the first set of UXR x Data Science collaborations, and grew the team from 2 to 8 researchers. We conducted foundational research that shaped the 2023 roadmap for 10+ product teams.
I rejoined Spotify at the end of 2022 to lead User Research and Data Science teams focused on user growth and monetization through new product innovation.
Say hi for interest in strategic, multidisciplinary research or speaking & writing opportunities.