Experience

HMRC

From June to October 2025, I worked as a mixed-methods user researcher for HMRC (contractor for Accenture, via Brightbox Group):

My lovely team was HMRC Unity Business Services (UBS) – Recruitment Service Delivery.

I conducted several major research projects:

• Candidate Recruitment Experience Research
• Vacancy Holder & Recruiting Ops Research
• Volume Recruitment Research

My research methods were:

• Discovery research with in-depth interviews to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement
• Qualtrics surveys to measure experience
• User journey mapping

Feedback

• “Looking forward to the next bit. Love user research.”
• “Thank you so much for this work, Sabrina, it’s been so interesting!”
• “It has been an absolute pleasure working with you, you have been a wee ray of sunshine!”
• “It’s been brill to work with you, Sabrina – hope to see you again!”
• “Been so lovely working with you! Hope our paths cross again.”

“Sabrina has energy and enthusiasm, which was a great addition to the team. She quickly learnt the world of HMRC recruitment and our stakeholders to be able to effectively gather the user-centred insights that were fundamental to us. Sabrina effectively managed several concurrent streams of UR, working with both the project team and multiple stakeholders. She was creative and used a series of techniques to gather meaningful data. This was presented back clearly and methodical – giving us the information we needed to drive forward service improvements based on clear evidence. I really enjoyed working with Sabrina.” Project/ Change Manager

Publicis Sapient

In January and February 2023, I worked as Senior Manager Research & Insights at Publicis Sapient on a Mobile Experience Vision project for NatWest.

Publicis Sapient is a consultancy specialising in digital business transformation and employs over 20,000 people in 53 offices in 17 countries. Publicis Sapient is part of Publicis, the third-largest communications group in the world with over 80,000 employees and its headquarters in Paris, France.

The Stepstone Group

From October until December 2022, I worked as a UX Research Consultant on a contract for The Stepstone Group, conducting discovery user research about enterprises in the UK and Germany. I worked very closely with Product.

“Sabrina was hired as an external UX research consultant to help Stepstone better understand our enterprise customer base. It was the first focused research we had done within this segment across both German and UK markets. To add, our product team was severely lacking the customer touchpoint and perspective — so this was quite an undertaking for one person over the span of 2-3 months. Sabrina is exemplary in her demeanor, methodology and collaboration with our group. She took the time to break down her insights for multiple audiences and was happy to be flexible in the process, course correcting along the way as needed. It’s clear that Sabrina brings a lot of passion to her craft and she is infectious in her energy — it’s impossible to not open up to her. And, that translates to the comfort customers and users feel when being interviewed by her. That’s all to say, I cannot recommend Sabrina enough and would happily work with her again.”

Portfolio Product Director Enterprise

“I just wanted to say that you made great work here and it was great to work with you.”

Digital Product Manager

Experience Lab

From July until October 2022, I worked as Head of Insight at Serco Experience Lab. I led a team of researchers, supported business development with proposals, and worked on client projects. Research for Aviva involved two rounds of concept prototype testing for a financial planning tool. I was also hiring junior and midweight researchers.

“This is truly awesome! Thank you.” “We really like the report.” “Thank you Sabrina and team for the great support on this test phase. We hope to be able to work with you again soon!” “Thanks again for getting this turned around so quickly, really appreciate it.” “Thanks again and lovely to work with you.”

Aviva client feedback

“Sabrina collaborated with us on a project at Aviva, supporting the development of our Direct Wealth proposition. This was a particularly complex project and in a regulated space, with an early-stage product vision that was still evolving in terms of its proposition and target users. In her role as Head of Insight at Serco Experience Lab, Sabrina led two rounds of concept testing and played a key role in helping the team gain clarity on the product direction. Her work was always delivered on time and presented in a clear, accessible way. She has a deep understanding of her field, yet communicates insights simply and effectively, making it easy for all stakeholders to engage and align. I would gladly work with Sabrina again and highly recommend her for any future opportunities.“

UX Research & Accessibility Lead, Aviva

Department for Work and Pensions

From January to June 2022, I worked as a Senior User Researcher (Contract) at the Department for Work and Pensions, DWP Digital – Payment Services. I analysed user research with service agents, created a concept for a diary study, conducted team vision workshops and process workshops, and created an action plan and a research process map with a checklist.

DWP is the UK’s largest government department, responsible for welfare, pensions, and child maintenance policy. It administers the State Pension and a range of working-age, disability and ill-health benefits, serving around 20 million customers.

Refinitiv

From August 2021 to November 2021, I worked as a Principal UX Researcher at Refinitiv.

I interviewed traders, wealth managers, and investment bankers globally. Researching Refinitiv products and prototypes, I explored new concepts and customers’ support and onboarding needs. I was also mentoring the junior researchers in our team.

Refinitiv, part of the London Stock Exchange Group, is one of the world’s largest providers of financial market data and infrastructure.

VERJ

From October 2020 to June 2021, I was Head of User Experience at VERJ, a LAB agency (press release).

I created VERJ’s UX offering and advocated UX in the Lab Group. Working closely with sales on client pitches and creating content for media and journalists, I enjoyed these new responsibilities. However, I remained hands-on, conducting user research and prototyping projects for a payment provider and a property developer.

VERJ is blending science, innovation and design. With insight, evidence-based thinking, and human-centred creativity, VERJ reshapes clients’ approaches to the digital world.

Valtech

From September 2019 to August 2020 and from June 2021 to August 2021, I worked as a Senior User Research Consultant at Valtech.

I was responsible for research in cross-functional, agile teams. For the UK government, I conducted discovery and alpha projects, including a website development project with NHS Data Security Centre (formerly NHS Digital, now NHS England), and a workforce discovery project with​ the NHS Business Services Authority. I also worked on a project for DWP (New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance).

Valtech designs and builds experiences and runs digital business transformation projects for both private and public sector clients. Valtech operates in 16 countries, has 38 offices, and around 3000 employees.

Feedback

“Sabrina is a very experienced UXer and research lead. A brilliant advocate of our profession, Sabrina offers a safe pair of hands for any project or programme.”

Design Director

“Sabrina is a delight to work with. A deep thinker who is always smiling, Sabrina brings much more to work than just what’s in the job description. As a talented researcher she’s helped Valtech and our clients really get under the skin of their users and customers. Ultimately this means we’ve made smarter product and design decisions leading to happier users and better outcomes for our clients. I’d highly recommend her!”

Head of Delivery

“Sabrina hit the ground running from day 1, straight into a Discovery project on the other side of the country. Her enthusiasm and work ethic has been noted by many.”

Newcomer of the Year 2019

“Your work is very much appreciated, it’s been good to work with you.”

NHS DSC client feedback

“We were really impressed with the work Sabrina did for us on the workforce project.”

NHS BSA client feedback

Experian

From May to September 2019, I worked as a UX researcher (contract) at Experian Consumer Services and conducted in-depth customer and competitor interviews to explore their behaviors and attitudes towards various financial products, brands, and money and finance in general. In design sprint research, I tested new ideas and concepts.

Experian Consumer Services is part of Experian and offers online credit reports, credit scores and monitoring of products. Experian plc is a global information services group in 37 countries, employing 17,000 people.

Zava

From October to April 2018, I had a contract as a UX Researcher at Zava. With a small and agile team, we developed a new online doctor application from scratch in a hypothesis-driven, lean manner, incorporating extensive co-design and team user research. With weekly Design Sprints, we gained a massive amount of insights into our users. Every week, we tested a new prototype, thus exploring a different step of the user journey.

Since starting in 2011, Zava has delivered over 1.5 million patient treatments across Europe.

Feedback

“Sabrina was the UX Researcher in our new team and helped us to understand in detail how people deal with their health concerns and how we might be able to help them better. Her expertise in usability testing, market research and user experience was very valuable for us to speed up our discovery process in which we prototyped and conducted moderated interviews every week to gain new knowledge as fast as possible. Sabrina was always open to try out new discovery methods that might help to improve the workflow of our team. She is a true collaborator that always pitched in if a colleague needed help to get ready for our weekly testing sessions be it prototyping, translations or desk research. I really liked to work with Sabrina because of her experience but also because she is a very fun and energetic person and helped me look at design problems from different perspectives.”

Lead Product Manager

Experian

From January 2017 to October 2018, I have been working as a UX Researcher at Experian Data Quality UK in the Global UX Team. I have conducted stakeholder workshops and interviews, customer interviews, and usability tests and created personas. I have been running UX training sessions for product managers.

Experian Data Quality offers data management solutions, including verification, duplicate identification, and data enhancement and is part of Experian. Experian plc is a global information services group in 37 countries, employing 17,000 people.

Spot Award September 2017

Co-organising and moderating the Experian One UX Conference with 2 days of expert talks and workshops, bringing together the Experian global UX and design community:

“Sabrina was a driving force in helping to organise the recently held One UX Conference which brought all of the UXers in Experian together. Over 40 Experian people attended from across the globe, with the goal of fostering a successful UX culture, beneficial collaboration and establishing a shared Experian design system. To accomplish this in less than 9 months was incredible. The business benefits of this conference will be noticeable. However it would never have happened without the organisational skills, hard work and late nights put in by Sabrina. Thanks Sabrina.”

“Amazing job organising this! Thank you so much for all your effort. It’s been awesome!” “Thanks for a great conference. My head is full of ideas now.” “Very well led! Love your inquisitive mind and clarity in summarising sessions. Thank you.”

One UX Conference audience feedback

Spot Award August 2017

Research project for API software for data matching, deduplication, and harmonisation involving interviews with account managers:

“Over the past couple of months Sabrina and Missy have worked hard to understand what we need to do to enable the business to sell EDQ Match. Their dogged determination to interview sales and pre-sales has given us insight that we have not had before. Their findings and analysis have helped the team understand how we need to adjust our communications about the product to the rest of the business. We now have a far better understanding of what information is valuable to sales and pre-sales, what messages they tune in to, and how we can best interact with them. I look forward to seeing what else they can come up with and how we can all use the information they gathered to work better together.”

Ministry of Justice

From July to December 2016, I worked as a contracting User Experience Researcher in an agile team at the Ministry of Justice in London (Social Security and Child Support Tribunals, Reform IT Workstream, HM Courts & Tribunals Service), designing a service according to Government Digital Service Standard. The UK is a worldwide leader in e-government (Government Service Design Manual).

“Sabrina is a wonderful researcher and knows the field inside out. She loves to share her wisdom and I’ve never known her to run out of energy!”

UX Practice Lead

The Very Group

From January to June 2016, I worked as a contracting UX Researcher for The Very Group (Shop Direct), Liverpool, UK. The Very Group is the UK’s second largest online retailer, with Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com.

“She brought a wealth of UX knowledge and experience, along with a huge amount of commercial acumen. Sabrina was always extremely positive and developed many strong relationships both in the UX team, and with our colleagues in the wider business. Sabrina’s infectious enthusiasm, passion for learning new things, and extremely hard-working and diligent approach to work made her a highly respected and well-liked member of the team.”

User Experience Research Manager

Thoughtworks

In 2015, I worked as a Senior UX Consultant for Thoughtworks Ltd., London, UK. Thoughtworks is a software development company with branches in over 30 countries, advocating agile ways of working.

Users’ delight

From 2013 to 2016, I worked with my agency users’ delight GmbH in Berlin, Germany and conducted user experience projects for HP, Intel, ING-DiBa, Amnesty International, urologenportal.de, and fotorola.

eye square

In 1999, I founded the user & brand research agency eye square in Berlin, Germany (together with Michael Schiessl). For over 12 years, I served as a managing director and was a partner, until 2012.

At eye square, I built the usability business and ran user research projects worldwide. In 2000, we conducted the first eye tracking study, a method that I introduced at eye square. eye square developed the eye tracking software ‘Visualizer’ which allows for comprehensive quantitative analysis of eye movements and behavioural data as well as appealing visualisations. Furthermore, I conducted research on ad effectiveness and shopper behaviour. As the company grew (50 employees), I was responsible for marketing and HR.

At eye square, I worked for eBay, Mobile.de, PayPal, Yahoo!, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telekom, Ford, Allianz, Otto, ImmobilienScout24, and many more.

Here is the story of how I founded eye square (in German).

My achievements

• Had the business idea usability
• Acquired the first client
• Pushed focus on digital and international
• Built international usability research business
• Introduced eye tracking as a usability method
• Managed relationships with universities (talks, recruiting)
• Found business angel via the First Tuesday event
• Drove the search for an investor

“Sabrina and her team at eye square are at the cutting edge of the world of market research today. In addition to bringing her expertise as a psychologist focused on human-machine interfaces, her company has truly pioneered new ways of communicating consumer behavioral data to marketers. The outputs of eye square’s work has to be seen to be believed! Sabrina is also great fun to work with – bringing enthusiasm to the job – something that we feel as a client/business partner even on the other side of the world in Tokyo!”

Andrew Till, Founder of JMI (GMO Japan Market Intelligence), Tokyo, Japan

eye square in pictures

The founders of eye square GmbH, Sabrina Duda and Michael Schiessl, and the two investors, Dr. Friedrich Jacobi and George L. Brenninkmeijer, in the eye square office in Berlin, Kreuzberg:

The founders and investors of eye square GmbH, Michael Schiessl, George L. Brenninkmeijer, Dr. Friedrich Jacobi, Sabrina Duda on the terrace of the eye square office in Berlin, Kreuzberg:

The founders, the investors, and three of the first employees of the eye square GmbH on the terrace of the eye square office in Berlin, Kreuzberg:

World Usability Day

From 2005 to 2015, I supported the World Usability Day Berlin as an organiser, speaker, and sponsor. We successfully established the WUD Berlin as a well-known and highly regarded conference featuring an extensive program of around 30 speakers. The number of participants rose over 800 in 2014.