Researching humans to move businesses forward.
I’m Dora! 👋 — a mixed-methods user researcher with 8+ years of experience helping businesses understand their customers and turning that into decisions that scale. Less opinion, more evidence.
Based in the UK · currently accepting contract and freelance work
I’ve helped
I tie research to retention, conversion and risk and pick the method that fits the problem space.
Continuous discovery, not one-off studies: fast, repeated rounds while findings can still change the build. At HMRC that was associated with an estimated 30% less wasted development time.
People act on what they’ve seen for themselves. I’ve coached 40+ colleagues across my projects to watch, run and analyse sessions and built repositories, democratising research.
Together, we can…
The whole point of human–computer interaction is that there’s a human involved. In an agentic, AI-first 2026, I’m the human in the loop.
Plan my next synthesis with that in mind.
Love that. Here’s a split that keeps you in the loop:
The most expensive research is the research you skipped.
DovetailClaude
UserTesting
User Interviews
Prolific
Maze
Lyssna
Figma
dscout
Hotjar
Amplitude
Qualtrics
Miro
LoomThree problems teams bring to research and what changed once they had evidence.
Features shipped on assumptions. In Pendo’s 2024 benchmarks, even the best products get 80% of their clicks from just 16% of their features.1
Fidelity International 5+ new product features shaped by research before build
Analytics shows where people drop off and churn. It can’t tell you why, or what would have made them stay.
UX Studio ↑ 3% Day-1 retention and ↓ 5% iOS trial cancellations after a research-led redesign
A new market, segment or service and no clear picture of the people in it or the jobs they need done.
Shell Innovation Hub 15 in-depth interviews behind the journeys, personas and blueprints for a new service
1 Pendo Product Benchmarks 2024, reported by Mind the Product, based on usage data from 2,500 Pendo customers. All other figures are from my own projects.
Worried AI means cutting corners, fake customers or your data ending up somewhere it shouldn’t? Fair. Here’s how I use it: AI agents sort through the data. I make the calls and I go through every finding myself, back to the original recordings and notes.
Faster doesn’t have to mean rushed. AI takes on the drafting, sorting and formatting, so you get findings while the decision is still open and more of your budget goes on talking to your customers.
AI-generated “users” give shallow, overly positive answers (Nielsen Norman Group). Every finding I give you comes from real people. No exceptions.
Customer recordings and notes are sensitive. Your data only goes into tools you’ve approved and personal details never go into a tool that doesn’t need them.
My AI setup doesn’t leave when I do. The skills and templates stay with your team, so your next study starts faster.
AI-informed, never AI-decided.
My AI workflow builds on the work of Nikki Anderson at The User Research Strategist.
“I needed an executive summary with headline findings and key metrics for the purposes of programme board. You were very swift to supply this recognising that I did not have time to review each of the recordings […]”
“Dora has run the User Research sessions very effectively and fed back excellent Insights sessions after each round, documenting the ‘headlines’ in a clear, concise format for the [product] team to then work on during development. […] Dora’s planning cannot be faulted.”
“Dora has endeavoured to make her work inclusive with the […] team, which historically has not functioned in a user-centred way. […] Dora always has an upbeat attitude, even in adversity, making collaboration with her simple […]”
I didn't start in tech. I started with people and everything since has been a variation on one question: what is this person actually experiencing?
DoraSzegedA degree in Special Needs Education at the University of Szeged, finished Summa Cum Laude and two years as a research assistant studying children with learning difficulties and how they relate to the people around them. It taught me to observe before I interpret.
DoraAcross EuropeI trained as a Transcendental Meditation® teacher and have taught ever since: courses, workshops, public talks and one-to-one consultations across Europe. It's where I learned to listen without filling the silence.
DoraSzeged, Budapest, LondonFrom Pronovix in Szeged to UX Studio in Budapest, with UX research and design training at the Interaction Design Foundation along the way, then London and research for HMRC, Barclays, Fidelity, Shell, Booking.com and Google. Different sectors, same job: making sure the people in the room can hear the people who aren't.
DoraWherever you areToday I’m working as an independent senior UX researcher on contract and freelance projects and mentoring other researchers through ADPList: methods, portfolios, repositories and getting past imposter syndrome.