Let's uncover what your users actually need.

I'm a researcher and product designer who partners with founders and startups to stop guessing and start understanding. I design and execute research sprints around the humans who use your product, then deliver strategy and design direction you can act on. 10+ years of research-led product work, from startups to platforms serving millions.

hello@samhankins.co

Why this work, now

Staying human-centered in AI-powered product development

Most of the founders I work with are building something they believe in. Their product is in market, it's solving a real problem, and people are using it. But the team is small. There's no dedicated user researcher. The founders, designers, and engineers are all wearing that hat part-time, in between everything else.

They have data. Surveys, feedback channels, analytics, support tickets. What they don't always have is time to step back and read it carefully, or a fresh perspective on what it's telling them.

AI has made it possible to design and ship at a pace that didn't exist five years ago. That's a real advantage. It also means the assumptions underneath the work get harder to catch.

The cost of building has dropped faster than the cost of building the wrong thing.

How we work together

Two to three weeks. Weekly check-ins. Async in between.

Context first

You send me what you've built and where you're stuck before our first call. I come in with questions, not catching up.

Refining the question

The first call is mostly listening: surfacing assumptions, taking stock of which users and data you have access to, sharpening the question into something the work can actually answer.

The actual work

Some combination of user interviews, usability testing, feedback synthesis, and behavioral analysis. Which mix depends on the question. AI handles the mechanics (transcription, clustering, faster drafts). The judgment is mine.

What you walk away with

A working document and a live conversation. Wireframes or prototypes when the answer needs to be concrete.

Two places to start

Both are grounded in user research. Which one fits depends on whether you're holding a specific question or building a longer-term practice. Most engagements range from $5K to $15K, depending on scope.

Product Clarity

A full research engagement for founders and startup teams holding real questions about their product and their users. I talk with your stakeholders, run 8 to 15 interviews with the people actually using (and not using) your product, and synthesize what emerges into a working document and a live conversation.

You come away with a grounded read on who your users actually are, what they're asking for (and not asking for), and how that sits against the direction you've been planning.

3 – 4 weeks

Research Practice

A shorter engagement for teams that want to move from reacting to incoming feedback to prioritizing what they actually do next.

I audit what you're currently doing, build a listening playbook (interviews, surveys, pattern review) that fits how your team actually operates, and run a first round with you so you can see how it works. You come away with a playbook you can keep running.

1 – 2 weeks

Background

Before I found design, I was in a lot of other places: art direction, waiting tables, law school, higher education. Each of those chapters shaped how I listen, what I pay attention to, and what I think good work looks like. A decade of product design later, the through-line is still the same: careful listening to people whose needs are often misunderstood, then work that holds up when the stakes are real.

2015 – 2023

Coral

Mozilla, then Vox Media · Founding & Principal Designer

Open-source commenting and community platform. Scaled to 120+ newsrooms in 18 countries, built on a research foundation of 300+ interviews across 150+ newsrooms in 30 countries before we shipped a line of code. The Toxic Comments nudge I designed (the first Perspective API integration in commenting) produced a 36 to 40% self-edit rate among warned commenters.

2021 – 2023

SB Nation

Vox Media · Principal Product Designer

Led product discovery across 250+ NFL fan communities. The work surfaced a pattern ("completionist readers") that reshaped how the community team thought about engagement and informed product strategy for the network.

2023 – now

Independent product work

rssHQ · advisory engagements

Built rssHQ, a workforce management platform, end-to-end using AI coding tools. Also consulted on a wage compliance tool for tipped restaurant workers, where the work needed both product design and regulatory understanding.

Training

Legal training

JD · Gonzaga Law School

Legal training shapes how I read evidence, hold tradeoffs, and write plainly under pressure.

Training

Higher education

Student affairs · program design

Built and ran programs for students from underrepresented populations. The work was grounded in academic and student life policy, and in listening carefully to students whose needs often weren't reflected in institutional defaults.

Teaching

Design education

UX & user research methods · bootcamp

Taught UX design, including user research methods. Teaching research methodology sharpened how I explain what I do, and reinforced that the practice is as much about helping teams ask better questions as it is about finding answers.

If any of this resonated, book a 30-minute call.

I'll ask about what you're working on and the questions you're sitting with, and share what I've learned from similar work. No pitch, no pressure.

or hello@samhankins.co · replies in ~2 business days

P.S. Also open to short-term contract and fractional engagements. Mention it in your email.