Established a Secure Payment Experience for Agentic Commerce
Contribution + Impact
Built a multidimensional agentic commerce evaluation rubric, mapped critical Human-in-the-loop safeguards, translated findings to key strategic priorities for Visa — driving adoption by deploying tokenized payments and establishing default user verification.
From the original deck — the idealized agentic purchase flow participants converged on: the AI handles discovery and comparison, the person keeps final sign-off.
Challenge
As "agentic commerce"—AI agents discovering and purchasing on a user's behalf—moved from concept to reality, Visa needed to define its role in making autonomous transactions trustworthy enough for adoption.
Approach
A 5-day diary study tracking 25 participants across four AI shopping tools: Amazon, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. Each shopper completed a live transaction using a primary tool and evaluated a secondary tool, capturing discovery, evaluation, and checkout experience.
Key Findings
- Solution. AI agents are helpful research partners, but inability to complete transaction within the AI tool frustrates users.
- Trustworthiness. Concerns about over-automation making some hesitant to share their payment information.
- Accuracy. Displaying accurate product prices upfront was expected, but AI failed to do so.
- Ease. Users want the AI platform to save personal information for easier shopping.
- Perceived security — Payment. Tokenized payments and credit cards are the ideal payment methods for AI platforms.
- Perceived security — Verification. Verification of purchases is required, with biometrics considered the most secure method.
Implementation & Influence
- Product Execution. Initiated strategic digital wallet partnerships to deploy tokenized payment within agentic workflows, separating sensitive financial data from AI platforms.
- UX/Design Strategy. Provided Visa brand reassurance during payment entry to reinforce consumer protections and alleviate data-sharing concerns.
- Authentication Standard. Adopted Visa Payment Passkeys (utilizing biometrics) as the default verification, ensures users retain the control.
Defined Google TV's India localization strategy
Contribution + Impact
Uncovered Indian TV viewers' core viewing behaviors and built a MaxDiff vs. "Well-Met" framework to prioritize critical unmet needs. By establishing content aggregation and subscription bundling as primary market differentiators, this work guided the launch and localization strategy for Google TV's smart UI (Amati) in India and introduced contextual Google Assistant prompts during personal profile use, driving a 23% increase in Google Assistant engagement.
From the original deck — the MaxDiff-vs-"Well-Met" 2x2 used to sort Indian TV viewers' needs into top differentiators, table stakes, value adds, and innovate bets.
Challenge
Amati, the next generation smart TV UI, was heading into one of Google TV's most important markets with no clear read on which localized needs would actually move the needle for Indian household.
Approach
- Phase 1 (Qualitative). A 5-day diary study (N=24) across four geographic regions with 12 follow-up interviews to uncover TV viewing habits, needs, and first impressions of the Amati concept.
- Phase 2 (Quantitative). A MaxDiff survey (N=1,000) mapping need importance against current market satisfaction ("Well-Met" analysis) to define critical product differentiators.
Key Findings
- Family-friendly discovery. Shared, multi-generational households turn family-friendly discovery into a requirement, creating hesitation around voice assistants misinterpreting queries.
- All-in-one is helpful. Almost everyone already juggles 5+ streaming apps — "everything in one place" was the single strongest hook.
- Discount + convenience = delight. Together they drove real delight — neither alone was enough.
Implementation & Influence
- Drove Measurable Feature Adoption. Introduced contextual "Try Google Assistant" prompts within personal profiles, lifting Google Assistant engagement by 23% in the following quarter.
- Defined Go-to-Market Differentiators. Positioned cross-platform content aggregation and subscription bundling as primary market differentiators to anchor regional product and marketing strategies.
- Localized Privacy & Family Controls. Directly influenced the Google TV PRD to incorporate profile locks, family-friendly content tagging, and regional language filters tailored to communal Indian households.
- Cross-Organizational Influence. Scaled research impact across Google, with Indian media consumption findings cited by cross-PA roadmaps including YouTube and Pixel Tablet. The mixed-methods framework was also integrated into the research handbook for new hire onboarding.
Shaped the design of Sony's Aim Controller
Contribution + Impact
De-risked complex hardware concepts ahead of physical production, directly steering the hardware roadmap toward developing and launching the dedicated PS VR Aim Controller in 2017. Furthermore, uncovering critical interaction hurdles with sensor gloves—such as bimanual ambiguity—convinced leadership to halt standalone glove development and instead integrate capacitive finger touch detection on existing controllers to simulate natural finger tracking.
From the original deck — the Wizard-of-Oz prototype method used to simulate VR glove input before the hardware existed.
Challenge
Prior to launching PSVR, Sony faced fundamental uncertainty around interaction modalities—specifically whether players would favor sensory gloves, traditional controllers, or dedicated VR peripherals, and whether those preferences would diverge across game genres.
Approach
Wizard-of-Oz prototyping simulated VR glove interactions before the hardware was built, paired with a fully counterbalanced within-subjects lab experiment — 24 participants per game — across racing, shooter, and fighting genres. Followed quantitative measurement with interviews to probe mental transportation, controller preferences, and overall enjoyment.
Key Findings
- Participants strongly favored physical controllers that mirrored natural, real-world interactions.
- Dedicated tactile controllers (like the Aim Controller) significantly elevated mental transportation, which led to higher overall gameplay enjoyment.
Implementation & Influence
- Steered Shooter Hardware Strategy. Guided the hardware roadmap by establishing the core case for dedicated, tactile shooter controllers, directly shaping the direction that led to the PS VR Aim Controller launch.
- Resource Optimization. Redirected product development away from low-desirability standalone gloves, translating gesture insights into practical enhancements like capacitive finger touch detection on current hardware.
- Organizational Mindset Shift. Aligned engineering, product, and design around user desirability thresholds, establishing a team-wide framework for balancing novel technology with intuitive tactile interaction.
Notes on approach
These case studies span a decade—from evaluating pre-production VR hardware to observing AI shopping agents in the wild. The methodology shifts with the question: a Wizard-of-Oz rig when tech isn't real yet, a MaxDiff survey when user needs require strict trade-offs, or a diary study when trust and habits need to be observed rather than asked about.
What never changes is the definition of done: a study isn't complete when the deck is shared, but when it steers a decision—whether triggering a contextual feature prompt, shifting cross-functional roadmaps, or defining a controller that lands on store shelves, the goal is always tangible, measurable impact.