Materials · screening/scout-ux.md
# Scout report: Behavioral and UX research track Sources read: tallgrass-ux-researcher.md (posting), tallgrass.md (employer packet), record.md (candidate record). Nothing else. ## Tallgrass Health: Senior UX Researcher, Measurement ### 1. What the employer is actually selecting for - The packet says Tallgrass has a 40-person product team and **no researcher with measurement training**. Product leads track engagement but cannot tell whether engagement means patients are better off. The real need is someone who can **replace usage counts with validated outcome measures** (patient confidence and burden), tie them to outcomes clinicians care about, and set up the measurement practice from scratch. - Patient research happens under health-privacy law, and the **review process for patient research is still being built**. So the hire will likely have to help build research governance, not just work inside it. - Usability studies are listed in the posting, but the packet points to measurement and validation as the core gap. ### 2. Jordan's evidence (from record.md) and what is missing Evidence that answers it: - **Kestrel Media, Research Lead, Measurement (2022-2024):** rebuilt the viewer-satisfaction survey after finding its main item tracked outages more than catalog satisfaction, then validated the new measure against later cancellation. This is a close match to Tallgrass's problem: it shows a metric that seemed to measure one thing but measured another, a rebuilt measure, and validation against a real outcome. Owned the measurement plan for product-team experiments but **did not run those experiments**. - **Parcel, Senior Research Scientist (2018-2022):** designed and analyzed product experiments; built the company's first holdout process for long-running experiments. Shows experience setting up a practice from nothing. - Industry tenure: about 6 years of behavioral and measurement research (Parcel 2018-2022, Kestrel 2022-2024). This meets the "five or more years" bar, though none of it is titled UX research. - Survey design and validation: listed as a skill used in the work, and backed by the Kestrel rebuild. Also a published measurement contribution: Ibarra et al. 2021, *Journal of Applied Psychology* (published; third of four authors, contributed the measurement model and robustness analyses). - Postdoc (2016-2018): ran lab experiments with student participants and managed the participant pool. - Guest lecture on survey measurement (2021). Missing or absent from the record: - **No patient, health, or clinical research.** No work with sensitive populations. Student lab participants do not count as sensitive. - **No usability studies** are recorded. - **No work with clinicians**, and no experience with health-privacy law. - **No experience building or running an ethics or review process.** The record also does not say whether the postdoc lab work went through formal review. - No experience directly measuring user burden or confidence. - Relay and the pricing rehearsal are **simulated-agent work only**. They involved no people and are not evidence of user or patient research. They must not be presented as such. - Since 2024, Jordan has been an independent researcher with no employer. ### 3. Materials and submission - Résumé, plus a portfolio of **two case studies**, uploaded as PDFs through the applicant-tracking portal. - The Kestrel measure rebuild is the obvious first case study. The second could be the Parcel holdout process or experiments. The record does not say whether Jordan is allowed to share details of Kestrel or Parcel work, so Jordan needs to confirm what can be disclosed. - A simulated project should not be used as a "user research" case study. ### 4. Strongest case against applying Jordan has never researched patients, run usability studies, worked with clinicians, or worked under health-privacy rules. This would be a company's first measurement hire, in a regulated setting, with no finished review process. The person would probably have to stand up governance alone before any patient research can start, and Jordan's record has no evidence of doing that. A two-year gap from industry roles adds to this. ### 5. Title vs actual work **Divergence.** The title is "Senior UX Researcher." That suggests a senior individual contributor joining an existing research function and running usability studies. The packet shows something different: Tallgrass has no measurement-trained researcher, and the job is to found a measurement practice, define outcome measures with clinicians, and work inside (and likely help build) a patient-research review process that does not exist yet. In practice that is a founding measurement lead role carrying an IC title. That fits Jordan's Kestrel measurement-lead work better than the UX label suggests. It also carries more scope and governance risk than the title implies, and the level or pay may not match the scope. **Verdict: pursue.** The Kestrel measure rebuild and validation directly answer Tallgrass's core problem (engagement vs. real outcomes), and Jordan meets the tenure and survey-validation bars. Before applying, Jordan should confirm two things: that the Kestrel and Parcel work can be shown as portfolio case studies, and that Jordan accepts the lack of patient and usability experience.