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RESUME / CV

RESEARCH · STRATEGY · SYSTEMS

MATHIAS BURTON /

Understand complex work.
Give teams a clearer direction.

I research technical products and build the systems that help teams continuously understand the people using them. My practice connects hands-on inquiry, product strategy, and research leadership across financial data, civic platforms, and scholarly research.

01 / SELECTED IMPACT

Research that changes what gets built.

PITCHBOOK / PRIVATE CREDIT

From market complexity
to a shared roadmap.

Research shaped requirements, product models, and the direction of the LCD integration.

Explore the experience ↘SOCRATA / CIVIC DATA

From fragmented tools
to a connected platform.

Technical workflow research carried through ingress, publication, and platform strategy.

Explore the experience ↘PROQUEST / REFWORKS

From citation management
to researcher workflows.

Three waves of inquiry informed product strategy, a redesign, and release priorities.

Explore the experience ↘

02 / EXPERIENCE

Research and product leadership.

CURRENT PRACTICE / INDEPENDENT

Prototyping with AI.

I use generative tools to turn questions and source material into working prototypes I can inspect, use, and improve. I’m developing a more consistent practice and working toward automating my research operations.

Explore working experiments ↗
2022–2024

PitchBook

UX Research & Design Manager

Private credit / research strategy + operations

Turned complex credit workflows into product and platform direction.

Led research and design across the LCD integration, connecting customer decisions, editorial workflows, and technical delivery. Contextual inquiry, interviews, and working-session replays revealed how timing, authority, and approval constraints differed between deal leads and advisors.

Research, decisions & contributions
  • Combined role and workflow research with transaction analysis to inform personas, requirements, and a multi-year credit roadmap.
  • Studied taxonomy with 30 editors and 20 customers across more than 40 categories, comparing editorial structures with customers’ mental models.
  • Built a research-operations program, repository, and benchmarking process, with shared guidance to help designers conduct their own studies.
PORTFOLIO EVIDENCE
2017–2022

Socrata / Tyler

Director of Product Research & Design

Civic data / technical platforms

Researched the system behind the interface.

Worked across data ingestion, validation, modeling, administration, and publication. As a player-coach, I embedded with product and engineering, using architecture maps, scenario tests, design spikes, and prototypes to understand system boundaries and failure modes.

Research, decisions & contributions
  • Helped bring Connected Government Cloud to market, translating government workflows into an end-to-end platform experience.
  • Built recurring research and usability programs, customer advisory mechanisms, and shared synthesis using analytics and coded NPS alongside qualitative evidence.
  • Led through Tyler’s acquisition of Socrata and helped establish Tyler Forge’s shared design language, component foundation, and contribution model.
PORTFOLIO EVIDENCE
2013–2017

ProQuest

User Experience Lead

Workflow solutions / research + product design

Led UX work across a portfolio of research workflow products.

RefWorks was one of several products in my workflow solutions portfolio. For RefWorks, I developed a sustained research program across students, faculty, librarians, and research groups. Three connected waves combined focus groups, contextual inquiry, workflow studies, prototyping, and usability testing to guide product strategy and releases.

Research, decisions & contributions
  • Manually coded NPS responses into a working database and triangulated qualitative findings with survey evidence about research-tool use.
  • Translated research into a collect, understand, organize, and cite model that shaped the RefWorks redesign.
  • Shared the research approach and its influence on the redesign with more than 500 librarians in 2016.
PORTFOLIO EVIDENCE

Earlier experience

2013

Senior Designer / Hello Innovation

Product concepts and market solutions for B2B products; research to improve customer touchpoints.

2012–2013

Senior Art Director / Mars Advertising

Integrated campaigns spanning retail displays, websites, and printed collateral.

2011–2012

Art Director / Doner Advertising

Cross-media campaigns and creative leadership for the Detroit Zoo mobile application.

2010–2011

Interactive Art Director / Campbell Ewald, Team Detroit & Organic

Social campaigns, application design, and website systems, including a Hilton booking-widget redesign.

Detroit Zoo / mobile experience ↗

03 / RESEARCH PRACTICE

How I conduct research.

01

Study work in context

Contextual inquiry, interviews, field research, working-session replay, and research with groups.

RefWorks / field research ↗
02

Connect different kinds of evidence

Qualitative coding, taxonomy studies, product analytics, NPS analysis, survey evidence, and transaction analysis.

PitchBook / persona evidence ↗
03

Make technical systems testable

Workflow and system models, scenario tests, usability studies, design spikes, and working prototypes.

Socrata / technical research ↗

04 / EDUCATION

Design and engineering education.

05 / COMMUNITY + LEADERSHIP

Mentoring and community work.

I conduct research and help others develop their skills through shared methods, coaching, and mentorship.

Mentorship + education

UW iSchool & HCDE mentor 2022–2024

UW GSA curriculum advisor 2019–2021

Civic + community work

Democracy Lab volunteer 2017–2019

Open Seattle tech advocate 2015–2017

Michigan Humane Society 2010–2015

AIGA Impact Team 2009–2013

Professional community: UXPA · IxDA · AIGA