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Elizabeth Mitchell Fitterer, our Principal Researcher, worked as a Usability Specialist at Microsoft and Amazon.com before starting Mitchell Research in 2006. She is a total data nerd who loves collecting accurate, unbiased information.
She earned her Psychology degree from the University of Washington. She learned her basic observational research skills by working for Dr. Geraldine Dawson, scanning facial expressions and body movements for subtle gestures and meticulously recording them in a data log. She honed her quantitative skills by teaching statistics, practiced nonjudgmental listening by doing counseling internships, and worked in the UW's Alcohol and Behavior Lab, getting participants drunk and sobering them up again.
She learned how to be an expert usability tester and survey designer by working for several years in the Microsoft usability and playtest labs, and incorporated many different techniques into her own style by watching all her great colleagues in action. She helped to pioneer long-duration video game playtesting at Microsoft, spending entire weekends in the lab with participants. When she worked at Amazon.com, she learned another spectrum of research techniques such as heuristic evaluations, design mapping, and persona creation from incredibly talented researchers and designers. She worked for fast-paced teams, sometimes iterating many changes between research sessions each day.
She was sometimes unhappy with the quality of study participants brought in by recruiting firms. She started Mitchell Research to do top quality recruiting and consulting on her own. The consulting life allows her to do research on a variety of projects, in a variety of environments, which is what she loves.
In addition to working with data, she has a passion for crafting words. In her spare time she writes stories, watches Wheel of Fortune, and converses in Latin with her daughter (a nerd-in-training). She also has a soft spot for government—she has a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the University of Washington, worked for several years as a Policy Analyst at the State Senate, and has watched every West Wing episode at least 3 times.
Dylan Fitterer is the technology advisor at Mitchell Research.
We conduct the vast majority of our recruiting jobs as internet surveys, with Dylan's help. Dylan designs custom databases and programs to handle even the most complicated of recruiting jobs. His skills allow Mitchell Research to screen a large number of applicants at once, and to narrow thousands of survey responses into a small group of precisely qualified participants, all without the human error and bias that can be found in a call-center screening approach.
Dylan is the creator of the award-winning game Audiosurf, which won the Audience Choice and Best in Audio awards at the 2008 Independent Games Festival.
For larger jobs, we're looking for phone schedulers to help us schedule already-qualified participants. No cold calling or survey-giving is involved. If you're interested, email us at elizabeth@mitchellresearch.com
“We needed to quickly get end-user feedback on a new feature. Mitchell Research worked out a test plan and ran the study on time and on budget.”
—Eileen QueninPrincipal Researcher
Technology Advisor
