Headshot of Cheryl Abellanoza, PhD

Cheryl Abellanoza, PhD

Associate Director, Experience Strategist, Verizon Connect · Instructor, UXR Institute

Quantitative rigor earns its keep not at the point of analysis, but at the moment a number you calculated changes a decision someone else was already sitting with.

About

Cheryl Abellanoza, PhD has spent eight years at Verizon Connect building UX research infrastructure and connecting its outputs directly to the metrics the business tracks. The team she grew from a single position to a global operation fifteen times larger now runs on cycle times half of what they were at the start, supported by a repository of more than 1,000 studies. That operational foundation reflects how she thinks about the work: the moment a finding arrives already expressed in the metric the business is tracking, the interpretation layer disappears, and the path from study to decision gets shorter.

The clearest example: contract term length research she ran at Verizon Connect drove process changes that lifted customer retention within two months of launch. That kind of specific, documented line from study to outcome is what she looks for in her team's work and what she teaches in her quantitative ux research course at UXR Institute. She brings a background in Cognitive Neuroscience and years of applied practice with inferential statistics, predictive analytics, and survey design to both. Her team health metrics at Verizon Connect are tracked the same way she tracks research outcomes: inclusion and collaboration at 90% on the Verizon Pulse survey, and a statistically significant increase in team understanding of business goals (p < .001). She has presented this work to C-Suite and Executive Leadership, and has spoken publicly about communicating research impact in a Dovetail presentation and on the Usability Sciences Corporation podcast.

UX Research Experience

  • Verizon Connect,Associate Director, Experience Strategist
    • Leads a team of UX Research managers overseeing the full UX Research function: business goal alignment, UX research allotment and gap assessment across cross-functional teams, recruitment tooling, research repository and archival, readout planning and communications, data triangulation with business operations, and sharing team learnings in the broader UX community
    • Built a Dovetail repository of 1,000+ studies spanning eight years while halving tactical cycle times from four weeks to two and discovery cycles from one quarter to one month, supporting 120+ research-backed product launches
    • Connected research directly to measurable business outcomes: contract term length research drove process changes that lifted customer retention by 3% within two months of launch
  • Verizon Connect,Senior Manager, UX Research
    • Managed and grew the UX Research team across Verizon Connect using mixed-methods toolbox, Lean Product Playbook, Kanban, Hoshin, and OKR frameworks to ensure product and roadmap decisions served both business and user needs
  • Verizon Connect,Manager, UX Research
    • Built and managed UX research capability across all Verizon Connect lines of business, establishing mixed-methods practices and cross-functional research partnerships from the ground up
  • Verizon Connect,UX Researcher
    • Conducted qualitative research (in-depth interviews, ethnography, card sorts, needs analysis) and quantitative research (survey design, univariate and multivariate statistical analyses using SPSS and R, feature prioritization, Kano questionnaires) for the Hum consumer product team in Atlanta
  • iPerform Center for Assistive Technologies to Enhance Human Performance,Coordinator / User Experience Researcher
    • Conducted user research and coordinated an NSF-funded I/UCRC at the University of Texas at Arlington, collaborating with diverse project teams and industry advisory board stakeholders

How I think about quantitative UX research

Quantitative methods get treated as the harder, more intimidating branch of research. What I have found is that they tend to be the faster path to a decision. When you can put a number on something, you remove the interpretive debate. The executives I present to are rarely skeptical of the findings. They are skeptical of judgment calls. Statistics give them something concrete to react to, and that changes how the whole conversation goes.

Areas of expertise

Quantitative UX research and statistical analysisResearch operations and team scalingCommunicating research impact to business stakeholdersCustomer journey research and experience mappingSurvey design and inferential statisticsAI-assisted research workflows

Courses Cheryl teaches

Credentials & Education

  • PhD, Experimental Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience)
    University of Texas at Arlington
  • Master's, Experimental Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience)
    University of Texas at Arlington
    Earned en route to PhD
  • Master's, Clinical Counseling
    The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

Honors & training

  • Culture Champion
  • All-In Award
  • Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award

Body of work

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