Leah is probably the most committed person I have ever worked with. Her passion for discovering new insights and the intensity that she dives into her work with is something you don’t often see and results in ideas and insights that other people miss or would never find.
She stretched herself and the group through her leadership and influence. She has an incredible intelligence and a collaborative personality that people naturally respond to.
I truly enjoyed working with her and quickly found that I relied on her.
— Scott Donnell | Director of Design at Connective DX
Leah is an exceptional researcher and strategist.
— Cynthia Owens | Director of Strategy, Fresh Consulting
Leah provides fuel for innovation and is contagiously enthusiastic. Her empathy for end users is truly authentic, and she’s great at not only discovering key information, but working within a team to find deeper opportunities.
— Kenny Lohr | Industrial Designer, Leatherman
Leah brings her all to every study, infusing her research with wit, innovation, and poetry. Her approach is informed by her expertise in product, design, and strategy work, as well as her earnest, open-hearted way of bringing people out of themselves and engaging them in research “play.”
Leah will be the first to tell you that insights turn into business successes when they’re told in a story that stakeholders can remember and champion. Working alongside her, I most appreciate the way she interrogates every piece of data to understand how it helps illuminate that overarching story.
— Jon McNeill | Director of Qualitative, Hypothesis
Leah is a standout in the field of experience design, blending her keen sense of human curiosity with the meticulous rigor of design research. When it comes to product development, she is adept at balancing customer needs with client objectives to craft stories, strategies, and solutions that delight users and transform businesses.
Leah is a standout in the field of experience design, blending her keen sense of human curiosity with the meticulous rigor of design research. When it comes to product development, she is adept at balancing customer needs with client objectives to craft stories, strategies, and solutions that delight users and transform businesses. Her work is a fusion of analytical precision and creative insight. Science and Poetry. Logic and Magic.
— Ben Jensen | Lead Design Strategist, Fresh Consulting
I have partnered with Leah across multiple projects and companies. I actively seek out her counsel on any project where technology intersects with pesky human beings. She has a vast knowledge of best practices for understanding and advocating for the user throughout the complex process of bringing ideas to market.
Leah has a boundless curiosity, and can deep dive into any topic more quickly and more thoroughly than anyone I have ever worked with. Above all, Leah is a delightful partner. She is cheerful, quick witted, passionate, and works hard to bring teams together.
— Tawny Schlieski| Founder, Shovels and Whiskey
The biggest superpower Leah has is her empathy – her ability to take herself out of the product/solution and put the customer’s needs/wants/dreams in the foremost. Most people talk about being empathetic, but Leah truly lives it and makes her work significantly stronger than most. She stands alone in this capability and is truly unique. I witnessed this first hand as well as hearing stories from previous engagements. This empathetic position helped product managers, engineers, and everybody on the team think about the customer in every aspect of the development. With this leadership, Leah was able to drive a better product / solution across the whole team, not just from design.
— David Parry | Director of Home Print Solutions, HP
Leah brings 110% to the collaborative process. She is agile and adaptable, ever responsive to the changing needs of complicated group dynamics. Her expertise as a design researcher helps push learners to uncover their own insights.
— Juliette LaMontagne | Sr. TED Fellow, Founder of the Breaker Project
Out of all the design research professionals and research students that I have worked with in the last 20 years, Leah Noble Davidson is the one I would ask to work with me now. Her ability to clearly and appropriately communicate with all team members is valuable, even among those with very strong or weak personalities. Her ability to consider a wide range of stakeholders enables her to engage all types of people and problems at all levels.
— Walter Hargrove | Director of Product Development, Brown Jordan
She plows through exploration and iteration at lighting speed while keeping everyone on the same page, makes pulling patterns into focus look as natural as breathing, and always seems to know just the right way to build and deliver a compelling narrative. Most importantly, she’s always openly striving to learn from the past while embracing the present—living the science of poetry.
— Kyle Fordham | Co-Founder of Do Things
Leah is one of the most inquisitive, engaged, and passionate design researchers I know. As a student, Leah was fearless in confronting difficult subject matter and always had a unique perspective on any given topic – her work was always thought-provoking, thoroughly executed and of great quality. She was an inspiration to many as a thought leader and as a growing voice in the field. Leah is also a beautiful poet and her prowess with storytelling has only added to the depth and richness of her work. She is a deeply intelligent and fascinating person to work with. It was a great privilege to be able to work with Leah and I know she will be a great asset to any company she joins.
— Carly Thompson-Campitor | Research Analyst, Ziba Design
The kinds of things I learn from Leah have this spooky way of showing up in books by renown scientists and researchers two years later.
Leah may be too modest for her own good, but she is brilliant and consistently ahead of her time.
— Thomas Simmons | Digital Strategist, Cart Logic
Leah is one of the most sincere and inquisitive people I have ever had the pleasure to know, work and study with. She bring’s her curiosity and ethic of working diligently to every project while making you laugh and think every step of the way, making her a crucial asset to any team or project.
— Phillip Stewart | Art Director. Owner of Coffee Beer
I tried to steal Leah for my team. Multiple times. But the other team would not give up her time or talent. Leah was an incredible contributor at HP, bringing a wealth of experience and insights to every project she touched. I don’t know how we can replace her, because she is truly one-of-a-kind. I would have her join any project with zero hesitation.
If you want to level up your project, your department, your company – STEAL LEAH. She’s a game-changer.
— Chad Q. Martin | Principle Designer, HP Advanced Design & Strategy
Leah is creative, collaborative, hard working, innovative and fun to work with. She is an incredible storyteller, who inspired even the most curmudgeonly engineer with her customer stories. Leah was extremely committed to the project and was willing to do what it takes to deliver the best. Leah always pushed towards an exceptional user experience but was willing to compromise with the technical team when needed. She is everything that I look for in a partner – excellence in her discipline, open communicator, collaborative, and always striving for the best. I would unequivocally work with Leah again.
— Sarah Hendrick | Master Program Manager, HP
Leah Noble Davidson goes beyond the academic and into the heart-meat, constantly proving why she is one of the most exciting voices of today.
— Derrick C. Brown | Author of Uh-Oh and Strange Light, Texas Book of the Year
— Robyn Bateman | Author of Oh and creator of Failing Haus
I’ve had the pleasure to work with Leah on several projects where her expertise and creativity in design research were required. Leah has a tremendous ability to take concepts that, at first, may appear unrelated or disjointed and show their points of intersection and connection to broaden the horizon on design discussion and concept generation.
She’s always three steps ahead in a conversation and can get anyone to feel comfortable enough to really open up and be truly honest about how they feel and what they think. Our clients have been extremely impressed with the depth, range and quality of research and insight that Leah has provided. Her enthusiasm for design research and the designs it influences is not only obvious but also contagious.
— Patrick Scranton | Industrial Designer, Sigma Design
Leah’s ability to see beyond the task at hand is the driving force behind her creativity, She pulls her inspiration from the unexpected, delivering clever and successful solutions. She is a passionate and compelling designer.
— Allison McKeever | Account/Project Manager at Pinpoint
Regarding Leah: Einstein once stated, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
Her people skills make her a solid addition to any workplace and thoroughly augment her ability to gather accurate, precise, and actionable (i.e. profitable) user data. In addition, she is highly adaptive, able to cognitively pivot on a dime, and maintains a healthy sense of humor, which serves her well in otherwise difficult situations.
— Robert LaCosse | User Experience Designer at Intel
We hired Leah to help us prototype several versions of our products fastener. She came back within days with a bag full of options, one of which ended up being the final design we’ve been working with since. She would be an amazing resource for any project and I couldn’t recommend her higher.
— Kavan Bahrami | Co-founder, Wearshare
Leah has never failed to impress me with her keen eye for detail or that way that she is able to tease out valuable insights from people for her research. Sometimes when I see her talk about her work, it seems so effortless on her part, but having seen her meticulous processes and her industrial strength work ethic I know that’s just not the case.
Leah is exceptionally articulate, a natural at public speaking. I think it’s her ability to empathize with people and to see their nuanced behavioral cues that allows her to tell such moving stories.
— Joe Tedesco | Sr. Producer at TNG
Leah re-instilled my faith in groups.
— Benjamin Martin | Co-founder of Winemaker – Dauntless Wine Company
Leah passionately brings the user into clear focus in every brainstorm, conversation and debate, and was able to weave her research into compelling stories that helped drive stakeholders and executives towards important innovations and investments that benefited our user. Leah brings an infectious energy and enthusiasm to all her work and genuinely wants to make products people will love.
— Nathan Shirley | Lead Industrial Designer, HP
Working with Leah was – Inspirational. She embodies a liveliness, positivity and energy for ideas that is consistently refreshing. She is not afraid to challenge paradigms, encourage others to think bigger, and come alongside as a support. She relishes big opportunities that a less-assertive person would shy from. Leah is tireless even if she gets tired; there wasn’t a day when she didn’t come in smiling, excited and passionate about making an impact on people through the work we were doing.
— Nathanael Clanton | Graphic Designer, Satori Engine