UX Research Associates

Fifteen years of finding out what is actually happening.

I'm Dr. Shahab Malik, principal of UX Research Associates in Irvine, California. I'm a research anthropologist. I set research strategy and still run the fieldwork.

Background

From 2022 to 2026 I was Vice President, User Researcher at JPMorgan Chase, where I owned the research agenda for an internal engineering platform used by more than 60,000 technologists. My interviews, contextual inquiry, surveys and journey maps shaped the platform's roadmap, and my research and internal evangelism helped it reach 89% team adoption and more than 50% adoption of its embedded AI assistant. I helped make developer experience a strategic priority for the Palo Alto technology center and tested LLM Suite, the firm's generative-AI platform.

Before that I led research at Deloitte Digital and ResMed, and at UX Research Associates for B2B SaaS and e-commerce clients, using personas, journey maps, card sorting and contextual inquiry. For seven years I designed IRB-governed ethnographic studies and taught research methods at UC Riverside, where I earned my PhD in anthropology.

This year I've pointed the same research discipline at AI full time: designing a SANS-published evaluation of two AI models, and taking an operating business from an operations audit to AI agents that a person supervises.

How I work

Start from the decision.
Every study is scoped around what you need to decide, not what would be interesting to know.
Watch the work.
What people do differs from what they say, so I observe before I ask.
Show the evidence.
Every finding comes with its quotes and data, traced to the source.
Leave something behind.
Personas, maps and rubrics your team keeps using after the readout.
Use AI, check everything.
I use AI throughout my own research, for synthesis, analysis and building tools, and I check every output. Agents I build start by reading and flagging, earn more authority at gates, and log what they change.

Experience

  1. Apr 2026 – now
    UX Research Associates · Principal

    Research and research-led AI implementation for operating businesses and product teams. An engagement for a precious-metals dealer that began as a 90-day assessment; study design for a SANS-published AI evaluation.

  2. Jul 2022 – Apr 2026
    JPMorgan Chase & Co. · Vice President, User Researcher (Developer Experience & Engineering Platform)

    Owned developer-experience research for a platform serving 60,000+ technologists. Helped make developer experience a strategic priority at the Palo Alto technology center, including sessions at the firm's engineering conference.

  3. Feb 2022 – Jun 2022
    Deloitte Digital · Senior UX Researcher (contract)

    Mixed-methods research for enterprise-technology and internal-tooling clients.

  4. Jul 2021 – Jan 2022
    ResMed · Senior UX Researcher (contract)

    Research with iOS and Android teams on data-heavy digital-health products; facilitated a multi-day design sprint and coached designers and junior researchers.

  5. Aug 2018 – Jul 2021
    UX Research Associates · Lead User Experience Researcher

    Research for B2B SaaS and e-commerce clients. For Hearthy Foods, personas and journey maps drove a 5%+ conversion increase and 30% revenue growth in 2020.

  6. Sep 2011 – Dec 2018
    University of California, Riverside · Researcher and Lecturer, Anthropology

    Multi-year, IRB-governed mixed-methods research; taught ethnographic methods and cultural analysis.

Education

  • PhD, Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, 2018
  • MA, Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, 2012
  • BS, Anthropology, summa cum laude, University of California, Riverside, 2009
  • FinTech Certificate, Cornell University, SC Johnson College of Business, 2024

Collaborators

Researchers I bring in when an engagement calls for them.

Stephen James, PhD · Senior UX Researcher
An academic research anthropologist with long industry experience in intercultural communication and management training, in London, the US and Hong Kong, and on projects in the former Soviet Union.
Muhammad Ali · Lead Quantitative Researcher
More than ten years in quantitative analytics, building the business analysis behind cross-channel marketing and every stage of the buyer's journey.

Get in touch

Bring the decision you're stuck on. In a 30-minute call we'll work out which question research needs to answer first.