Mia, UX Researcher

Joined in 2021 from 🇨🇳 🇵🇹

What led you into research?
Life. Earlier in my career, I wanted to pursue industrial design, handcrafted furniture, or anything related to lifestyle. But due to the small industry and lack of opportunities back in Portugal, I ended up going for communication and brand design. After a few years, I decided to quit the creative industry, packed my only suitcase, and moved to Shanghai to begin a new chapter. Lucky enough, I was hired as a service designer by a German/British company which gave me very good foundations of service design and research principles. That’s how I discovered research and the amazing aspects of “understanding people”.

What does a typical day look like?
Simple routine to keep me focused:
1. Shower > water > texting > rush to the office
2. Work/ meeting /calls/ decide what to cook for dinner
3. Happy hour or Climbing or Yoga or spinning or any other activity
4. Shower > cook > Netflix or book
5. Catchup with friends and families
6. Sleep and repeat until the weekend arrives.

Name three non-researcher you feel inspired by when conducting interview and synthesising.

Tony Hsieh — Founder of Zappos.
“Usually, my ‘a-ha’ moments are when I’m not trying to think of how to solve a particular problem.”

Ruth Reichl — Food critic of NYT and author of best-selling book Garlic and Sapphires.
“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.”

Anthony Bourdain — Chef, author, and travel documentarian.
“You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.”

What would your self-portrait look like?
Simple-minded person, driven by challenges and changes.

Anything you want to promote or plug?
I am recruiting climber partners, please send me your CV.
Also, I am new in HK, any recommendations or tips are welcome!