Billy Leet

UX Researcher

I turn messy human behavior
into clearer product decisions.

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Based in Pittsburgh. Open to senior and staff IC roles, contract or full-time.

selected work

duolingo · 2021–22

Flattening the Tree

As the sole UXR through the redesign's formative phases, I built the 10-study research program that informed product and rollout decisions.

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change.org · 2025

Super Recruiters

Independent foundational research that reframed how Change.org could support unusually effective petition sharers and led to two committed MVPs.

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instagram · 2019–20

Understanding Creators

As Instagram's primary creator researcher, I owned a 400+ response Live study that fed quarterly planning and research that shaped a shipped safety feature.

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about

The useful finding is the one that changes what the team does next.

The best research I've done didn't answer the question on the brief. It changed the question entirely. Teams came in asking whether users understood a feature and left reconsidering whether the feature was solving the right problem. To me, that's the actual job: not confirming what a team already believes, but changing what they think is possible.

Before UX, I was a Speech-Language Pathologist, which meant sitting with people who knew exactly what they wanted to say but couldn't find the words to match. That habit has carried over in my research practice: noticing the gap between what people intend and what actually comes out.

8+ years of hands-on research and research leadership at Instagram and Duolingo taught me that the research question is almost never the real question. I've led generative studies that shifted roadmap priorities, usability research that caught critical failures before they shipped, and longitudinal work that traced how people's relationships with a product evolve over time.

I'm available for senior and staff IC roles, contract or full-time, and open to the right research-leadership opportunity. I'm most interested in teams where the research can change what they think is possible.

what I do

Research Strategy

Most briefs arrive with the wrong question already baked in. I get involved before the brief exists, so the team is precise about what it actually needs to learn.

Qualitative Research

Interviews, ethnography, diary studies, usability testing. The craft is making it safe for people to say the true thing instead of the polite thing.

Mixed Methods

Stories land harder with numbers behind them. I partner with data scientists and build surveys that pressure-test what the interviews suggest.

Synthesis & Storytelling

Fieldwork is half the job. The other half is deciding what the patterns mean, what order to tell them in, and what format the decision-makers will actually read.

Communication & Language

I was a Speech-Language Pathologist before UX. I spent years diagnosing exactly where communication breaks down – turns out that's this job too.

Stakeholder Influence

Doing research and getting it used are different skills. I track who decides, what they need to hear, and when they're genuinely open to changing course.

career

Prior to 2016

Clinical Practice

Speech Therapist

Worked clinically with individuals across the lifespan with communication, language, and cognitive disorders. Observed where and why communication breaks down, and facilitated getting it back on track.

Apr 2016 – May 2018

Google

Contractor

Started as a contractor Copyright Associate on YouTube, then moved into research operations as a UX Research Coordinator for Google Cloud, managing study logistics, participant recruitment, and cross-team communication.

Jun 2018 – May 2021