Anastasiya Levchuk

UX Researcher

🤹Combination of user-centric activities
🔬Mixed methods (qualitative + quantitative)
🫶Inclusive and ethical solutions
🦄Diverse background
🌳Co-founder of 2 NGOs

14 years in tech

Developer 2 yrs
Project Manager 2 yrs
Tech Director 3 yrs
UI Dev / Tester 2 yrs
UX Engineer 1.5 yrs
Lecturer 2 yrs
UX Researcher 7 yrs & ongoing
14 years in tech
7 years as UX Researcher
9 years in engineering

Next step

🧩Being part of a complex product
🌱Responsibility for long-term results
🤝Close collaboration across teams
🌍Diving into new industry
⚖️Promoting user-centric and ethical decisions

Skills highlights

Hard skills

UX Research & Engineering
  • qual & quant methods
  • UX audit
  • prototyping
Cooperation and communication with clients
  • "dialog-based research"
  • co-creation
  • teaching by doing
UX Research strategy
  • stakeholders identification and prioritization
  • research tasks, methods, timelines planning
Teams alignment
  • requirements creation
  • co-creation across teams
  • research infrastructure management

Soft skills

Quick learner
  • new technologies
  • new methods
  • new approaches
Curiosity for people behavior and tech
  • empathy
  • ethics

Arsenal of research instruments

🗣️Qualitative

  • interviews
  • usability testing
  • contextual inquiry
  • shadowing
  • research workshops
  • desktop research
  • content tests (cloze, recall, highlighter)

📊Quantitative

  • A/B testing
  • surveys
  • card sorting

🧩Expert

  • heuristics analysis
  • accessibility evaluation

Approach to data analysis and synthesis

Strategic research

Broad research from scratch, no artifacts like Personas or CJMs predefined. I dive into research data, then apply thematic analysis – coding data, identifying themes and connections – to understand patterns.

I share findings iteratively with stakeholders through workshops or asynchronous communication. Based on both communication and findings, we identify the artifacts that will best help product owners make decisions.

Then I prepare coded or clustered data as building blocks, and map them into artifacts – alone or together with stakeholders. Iterate.

Ad-hoc research

Ad-hoc research is more narrow – understanding usability issues, finding answers to specific questions, or filling gaps in existing research artifacts.

I cluster research data into preset blocks (artifacts or questions), extract insights to communicate them live to stakeholders, and prepare a workshop or report to turn insights into actionable steps.

Communicating research findings

The main idea of delivering research findings to stakeholders is to transform these findings into something actionable.

Report

In case of strategic research

  • The research goal
  • How the goal is connected to the business goal
  • Condensed summary
  • Methods used (including collaborative activities with stakeholders)
  • Insights and artifacts
  • Next steps, if defined, or recommendations for the next step or further research

In case of ad-hoc research

A short summary of insights and visualized suggestions or next steps (schemas, prototypes). Receivers are those responsible for immediate implementation.

Workshop

A workshop allows not only to fill in the backlog, but also to build empathy and teach in-house or client's team to use research artifacts effectively.

Workshop stages

1. Overview of the findings

2. Activity with the findings: fill in artifacts, prioritization or ideation session, formulate challenges as HMW questions, etc.

After workshop

I prepare a report with an overview of insights, performed activities, and next steps.

Research cases

CASE 01

Discovery research that reshaped an MVP

Helping a precise-agriculture startup release the faster and cheapest MVP

Context

Building the right product, not the planned one

A precise-agriculture startup planned to build a complex web frontend for their soil-sensor data platform. As the in-house UX Researcher working alongside the engineering team, I ran rapid iterative cycles of user interviews with farmers and prototype usability tests to validate which features users actually needed.

Each iteration narrowed the scope further. The research showed that farmers didn't need a dashboard – they needed timely alerts in the first place.

The team replaced the planned frontend with a lightweight SMS-based notification system, shipping the MVP faster and cheaper while solving the actual user problem.

UX researcher with laptop in cornfield with installed soil sensors
My role

In-house UX Researcher and UX Engineer

Owned discovery research, interactive mockup creation, and usability testing across multiple iteration cycles, embedded with the product and engineering team.

Project journey

Iterative loop with farmers

Interviews with farmers
Interactive mockups
Prototypes & testing
🔁 Several iterations
Quick result

Light SMS broadcasting MVP instead of bulky frontend

Light SMS broadcasting system as MVP – instead of the initially planned bulky frontend. Reduced initial feature set from ~12 planned screens.

CASE 02

Research that pivoted a startup from B2C to B2B

Helping a startup win a second round of funding by uncovering new user segments

Context

From a B2C waste calculator to a B2B service provider

BioBin launched as a consumer-facing waste calculator app and was struggling to find product-market fit. Under tight time and budget constraints, I designed a research program combining app audit, qualitative interviews, and quantitative surveys to test where real demand existed.

The findings revealed a stronger opportunity in the corporate sector. The startup pivoted to a B2B waste-collection and sorting service, secured its next round of funding, built a unique service model, and ultimately became the leading waste-management provider for HoReCa clients.

BioBin pivot: B2C app screens transitioning to B2B waste containers
My role

Lead UX Researcher

Reframed the client's initial brief, co-designed the research strategy with the founders, and ran the program end-to-end – from desktop research through workshop-based delivery of findings and ideation.

Project journey

From initial request to results delivery

🚀 Initial request
Request reframing brief
desktop research
written communication
Goal aligning kick-off workshop
Research strategy co-design planning workshop
Research findings synchro "atomic communication"
milestones synchro
🏁 Results delivering ideation workshop
Challenges

Working under tight constraints

Tight timing
Strict prioritization of research activities
Extremely broad scope
Flawless and frequent communication with the client
Low budget
Strict prioritization of research activities
Client's success

From struggling consumer app to category leader

Switched to corporate sector
Built unique service model
Discovered new funding sources
Became #1 waste management provider for HoReCa
CASE 03

A multi-phase research strategy built through facilitated workshops

Designing an adaptable research program for a complex institutional client

Context

From a bike-sharing initiative to a 5-year fundraising strategy

The Goethe-Institut – a German cultural association represented all over the world, funded by the German government and private donors – launched a project converting employees and visitors into using personal mobility vehicles for commuting. They started with two bike-sharing stations and wanted to expand into a 5-year program of reducing pressure on city traffic.

The challenge: project goals, audiences, and success metrics were undefined. I structured the engagement as a chain of facilitated workshops that progressively aligned stakeholders and built consensus on what the research needed to answer.

The result was a flexible three-component research plan that the client used to apply for multiple funding rounds and that became the backbone of their long-term communication strategy.

Goethe-Institut bike-sharing station and research artifacts
My role

Lead UX Researcher and workshop facilitator

Designed the research strategy, planned and ran the workshop chain, and built a research program structured to flex across funding cycles.

Research goal

Initial request from the client

Understand how to motivate Goethe-Institut users to switch to sustainable transport
Get ground for a long-term sustainability fundraising campaign
Make it scientific and public
Project journey

Chain of workshops to define research direction

🚀 Initial request
Project goal synchro
Reframing project opportunities
workshop #1
Defining research direction
workshop #2
Prioritizing research blocks
async activity
🏁 Final result
Final result

Three-component research plan

Component 1
Study of current experience using personal mobility vehicles, and possibilities for use at project locations
Component 2
Monitoring impact of project solutions on environment and users during implementation phase
Component 3
Final assessment of project impact and finalisation of the public guidelines knowledge base

Each component contains several sets of tasks, research questions, and timelines. Sets can be mixed and rescheduled to suit specific funding applications.

Client's success

Adaptable research strategy in action

Applied to multiple funds
Skeleton for a 5-year grant strategy
Communication plan based on research strategy
Flexibility to mix research activities
CASE 04

Mixed-methods stakeholder research at scale

70 interviews and behavioral mapping across a complex stakeholder landscape

Context

City-wide infrastructure project with diverse stakeholders

The World Bank initiated a project for a rapid tram line extension in Kyiv. It was a citywide project that would affect almost all users of the area. The purpose of the research was to assist in developing a system for communication and stakeholder engagement throughout the project.

The project required compliance with World Bank standards in ethical research and public presentation, with approval of project stages across all levels of World Bank team management.

Kyiv tram at the station – World Bank rapid tram line extension project
My role

Lead UX Researcher

Led a team of researchers, cooperated with the World Bank team, and prepared the final public report.

Research goal

Two complementary objectives

Study stakeholder needs, expectations, and fears about possible changes
Understand how stakeholders' engagement can minimize negative impact on them
Methods

70 interviews across 4 stakeholder groups

Combination of short face-to-face interviews and in-depth interviews, structured by stakeholder group:

Interview methodology: 4 stakeholder groups with 70 interviews total, structured by interview type and duration

Research questions covered: activities in the study area, what stakeholders value, problems they experience, expected impact of the implementation, fears and expectations, factors to consider for planning, stakeholder needs the project can meet, and convenient communication channels.

Visualization

Activity analytics across the affected area

Activity heatmap and zone-based behavioral analysis of the area affected by the tram extension
Challenges

Managing complexity across teams and stakeholders

Wide variety of stakeholder groups
Stakeholder groups prioritisation by impact / influence matrix
Stakeholders' emotional perception of future changes
Transparent and detailed communication and decisions justifications
Gap between World Bank and Kyiv city administration standards
Several iterations of synchronisation activities
Results

Three key deliverables

Detailed report on opinions, experiences, and feelings of the stakeholders
A map of activities in the affected area
Recommendations on stakeholders engagement opportunities
Client's success

Deep stakeholder understanding for project planning

The World Bank team gained a deep understanding of which engagement actions can minimize the negative impact on stakeholders and meet their needs.