Researcher · People leader · Maker

Hi, I’m Cynthia.

I make the invisible visible.

For more than a decade I’ve helped teams at Zillow, Meta and Salesforce see what their customers actually need. Lately, I’ve been making things of my own.

See the workRead the story
Cynthia in a garden, smiling
ZillowMetaSalesforceBrandtrustMatch My Logic
About me

A researcher by training. A people leader at heart.

My husband and I have spent the last two and a half years making things and putting them out into the world. Now I know both sides of the numbers: what they say, and what people feel.

A finding from our own launch
Finding · Kickstarter launch, 2025Quant and qual

Both were true.

Have you ever hit your goal and still felt like you failed? That was our Kickstarter.

On the surface · what the numbers saidFunded.Goal met. 267 backers.
Underneath · what it felt like“It felt like an epic fail.”On launch morning our email service blocked us, so we reached out to people one by one. For the first 24 hours it felt like our dreams were crashing in front of us.
What it means

That messy middle, where what the numbers say and what people feel haven’t met yet, is where I do my best work.

Selected work

What it looked like, on the surface and underneath.

Every project has two layers. Switch any card to bring the one underneath into focus.

Zillow · Information architecture

Rebuilding the app around Home Loans.

As the research leader on Zillow’s information architecture work, I oversaw a year of surveys, usability studies and interviews that reshaped the app, including a new Home Loans tab. Our stakeholders were the CEO and senior leadership.

  • Quant surveys
  • Usability studies
  • Interviews
  • Executive readouts
Home Loans tabShipped
The app’s bottom bar, with the new tab our research put there. The other tabs are drawn as placeholders.
Saved Search+48%
Home Loans submits+3%
Before, set to 100After the new tab
~95%of users reached
1 yr+of research behind it
Zillow · Non-movers

Why people are here right now.

For people who weren’t moving, buying or selling yet, we built archetypes to understand what they might need that doesn’t exist yet, and what would bring them back.

  • 521 people surveyed
  • 4 archetypes
  • Mixed methods
Readout · Non-movers4 archetypes
1234
521 people surveyed, one square each, then four archetypes. Archetype sizes aren’t shown.
Zillow · AI · 2023

Where AI belongs, and where it doesn’t.

When nobody knew what AI meant for Zillow yet, I got pulled in to lead a squad of seven to find out. Four months of foundational research, and a proposal for an experience that stays human first while AI assists.

  • Foundational research
  • An experience proposal
  • Human first, AI assists
AI squad2023
A squad of seven
Four months of foundational research
People decide
AI assists
The principle the proposal was built on
What we explored
Natural language searchBuyer flowsSeller flows
Meta · Communities

Relevance and trust, across seven markets.

I managed a team of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods researchers focused on how people discover, join and engage with communities on Facebook.

  • Qual, quant and mixed methods
  • Behavioral analytics
  • Experimentation
Communities study7 markets
1,736 people across 7 markets. Every square is a person.
Salesforce · Dreamforce

An agenda people could actually live.

At Salesforce I built the research practice from the ground up. On Dreamforce, the business thought it knew what attendees wanted. We staffed the work in a week and shipped in two months.

  • Research practice built from the ground up
  • CEO, CIO and CMO readouts
Dreamforce agendaShipped
Drawn from what attendees asked for: sessions, plus walking time, lunch, meetings and people to meet. List, calendar and map views were among our recommendations.
170,000attendees
1 weekto staff
2 monthsto ship
4 · 6 · 4sessions · teams · time zones
Zillow · Home LoansA sign-in people finish−35% sign-in drop-off · +18% qualified leads. Tested before launch, so it shipped with confidence.
Brandtrust · 2013 to 2017Fortune 500 brands, one conversation at a timeLand Rover, Cadillac, Frito-Lay, Eli Lilly, Kimberly-Clark. Where I learned to keep asking why.
My path

Nearly twenty years of listening to people.

Nonprofits, my own company, consulting, then research leadership. Every role was about understanding people well enough to help them.

2007Wheaton CollegeB.A., Interpersonal CommunicationsWhere I first learned to study how people connect.
2008Invisible ChildrenProgram managerBuilt a program that raised $1M+ in four months through storytelling events for audiences up to 3,000.
2009San Diego Rescue MissionProgram managerLaunched a national pilot with healthcare partners to open new revenue for the mission.
2010Events by WillowFounderMy first company: a lifestyle and event design firm. Clients, vendors, creative direction, budgets.
2013BrandtrustResearch consultantInterviews, ethnography and focus groups for Fortune 500 brands across cars, food and health.
2018SalesforceSr. research managerBuilt the research practice from the ground up. Hired and led a team of eight.
2021MetaUX research managerLed five qual, quant and mixed methods researchers on growth and relevance for communities.
2022ZillowSr. research managerLed five researchers across Growth and Shopping, from search to Home Loans.
2024Love From Los FelizCo-founderOur studio. Match My Logic, Pop In and Pannall.
Scroll sideways →
Match My Logic

I made a game about the magic of connection.

What building a physical product with my husband taught me about the people on the other side of a marketplace.

Co-founder, 2024 to now

It started on the couch. My husband and I were watching TV and chit-chatting, and we stumbled our way into a game. The next day we designed the cards and had them printed as business cards, just so we could start playing.

I did what researchers do. I watched. Players started calling out “locked in” when they committed to an answer. When every guesser matched the setter exactly, we called it perfect logic. Watching people play showed us the magic was in the simplicity.

Then came everything I’d never done before: manufacturing, freight, pricing, packaging, tariffs. That holiday season an order came in from a complete stranger on the other side of the country. I’ll never forget that feeling.

  • PrototypeBusiness cards
  • PlaytestsFriends and family
  • Kickstarter267 backers
  • MadeBase game + 4 expansions
  • SoldOur store and Amazon
  • TrademarkFiled it ourselves
Cynthia and Jason smiling beside a laptop showing the first Match My Logic card designs
Designing the first cards, together
A player laughing as she reveals her cards
Two players grinning across a table of cards
A player resting her chin on her hand, thinking, while another studies his card
The Match My Logic box with word cards, category cards and a veto card
Play a round

Can you match my logic?

In our game, one player sorts the cards by their own logic and everyone else tries to match it. Is a vampire louder than a teenager? It depends who you ask.

How to play

Put the five words in your order. Then lock in.

When everyone matches the setter exactly, that’s perfect logic. It rarely happens, and that’s the point. The game is really about seeing how someone else thinks.

  • One setter
  • Everyone else guesses
  • Perfect logic when all match
LogicSoundquiet ↔ loudQuietest first
Tap 5 more
What I believe about technology

Technology should solve real problems for people.

And a business should be rewarded for solving them, not for creating them. When I stepped away from corporate, that’s what I set out to build.

Things I’ve made

Three products, from the first idea.

With my husband Jason, under our studio, Love From Los Feliz. Each one started with what people actually need, and each one is about being seen.

The Match My Logic box and cards
Match My LogicA card game about the magic of connection.My partWe designed it, ran the playtests and took it from Kickstarter to manufacturing to a stranger’s order.Kickstarter-funded · Sold on our store and Amazonmatchmylogic.com ↗
The Pop In app icon
Pop InPermission to see your people. Seeing your friends should be easier than texting them.My partI guided it from the first idea: who it’s for, what they actually need, and how it should feel.A social plans app · Live on iOSpopinbesocial.com ↗
Your work, seen.
PannallPerformance feedback for the person, not just the company.My partCo-founder. I lead strategy and research, starting with my own first-run walkthrough of the manager experience.In betapannall.com ↗
How I work

Four ideas I bring to every team.

Research is a synthesis: pieces examined one by one, then brought together into something a team can act on.

Three problems

Every project holds a business problem, a customer problem and a team problem. I keep all three in the room.

Define, Discover, Dare, Do
  1. 01DefineAgree on the real problem.
  2. 02DiscoverFind unmet needs and build empathy.
  3. 03DareInvent together, across every team.
  4. 04DoPrototype the future and show it.

The method behind the research practice I built from the ground up at Salesforce.

Human first
AI helps
GatherTranscribeSortDraft
People stay first
Frame the questionChoose who we hear fromDecide what it means

AI can help gather, sort and draft. People frame the question and decide what it means.

Who’s in the room

Research works when the people who’ll act on it help make it. At Salesforce: four work sessions, six teams, four time zones.

How I lead

Seen, elevated, cared for and supported.

That’s what I want for every person on my team.

People leadership

Good research teams are built, one person at a time.

One of my researchers has followed me to three companies. At Zillow she brought quant rigor to a team that had little of it. At Salesforce I built the practice from the ground up: three mixed methods researchers, two strategists and three design operations program managers.

  • See: know what each person is great at
  • Elevate: put their work in front of leadership
  • Care: be a buffer when things get loud
  • Support: grow the craft and the person
Growth that travels3 companies
Where we metI first managed her here.
MetaShe followed.
ZillowShe followed again, and brought quant.
In her words“Mentoring researchers is one of my favorite things to do.”
Some things I believe

Know yourself. Take up space. Speak your mind. Take care of each other.

Something I’ve told my teams.

  1. 01Everyone deserves to be seen: customers, teams, and the people doing work nobody notices.
  2. 02The way things happen matters as much as what happens.
  3. 03Most things aren’t just good or bad. The truth usually lives in the messy middle.
  4. 04When something feels off, ask what’s underneath it.
  5. 05Business should be human.
  6. 06AI should help. People should stay first.
  7. 07Bring everyone in. Alignment is part of the work, not the end of it.
Cynthia smiling, seated in a garden in a black blazer
Say hello

If any of this resonates, I’d love to hear from you.