Alumni spotlight on Lauren Fine: Combining quantitative and qualitative skillsets for user experience research
Dr. Lauren Fine works as a user experience (UX) researcher at Meta. She took the CSSS communication track during her PhD in communication at the University of Washington (UW), graduating in 2020. After discovering her passion for quantitative research throughout graduate school, she’s building a career that combines storytelling with statistics.
Fine spoke with CSSS about her professional journey. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Question: What led you into your current work?
Answer: My trajectory is a little atypical — you don’t see many people who major in English end up doing both qualitative and quantitative social science research.
I earned my bachelor’s degree in English literature, where I spent my time reading novels and writing about them. I loved storytelling — making sense of something complex, finding new meaning, and telling a story about what I learned. That’s a through-line that’s stayed with me throughout my career.
By the end of my undergrad, I wanted to connect that love of stories to something more grounded in what was happening around me. I became interested in politics and wanted to study political discourse, so I pursued a master’s degree in writing and rhetoric. I studied how messages are crafted and taught writing — and that’s also where I took my first statistics class.
I was a research assistant on a writing-studies project comparing two curricula. We collected survey data and analyzed it, and I found I really enjoyed the process. Around the same time, I was applying to doctoral programs — some in English, some in communication — and realized I wanted to focus more on social science methods. That’s what drew me to the PhD program in communication at the University of Washington.
Once at UW, I shifted from rhetorical theory to political communication and took a lot of methods courses — both quantitative and qualitative. Over time, I realized I wanted to do research in a more applied environment, where the insights could have a direct impact, more quickly. Academic research is deeply rewarding, but it moves relatively slowly.
My husband works in tech and mentioned that companies sometimes hire PhD researchers. I looked into internships, got one at Meta, and loved it. They offered me a full-time position soon after I graduated, and within a month of finishing my PhD I was working there as a UX researcher.
Now, my job is to survey and talk with people about their experiences with our products so we can make them better. That means understanding people’s needs, how they use our tools, what’s working, and what isn’t.
Q: How did you initially get involved with CSSS?
A: Mako Hill was a professor for the first statistics class I took at UW, in the Communication Department. Mako was very involved with CSSS and told us all about it. He encouraged us to attend CSSS seminars and events, and I was intrigued.
At that point, I didn’t have much background in statistics, but I knew I wanted to build that foundation. CSSS felt like the perfect opportunity to deepen my skills and see how statistics were being applied across social science fields. I loved the interdisciplinary environment — hearing from economists, sociologists, political scientists, and others about how they use quantitative methods in their work.
That exposure during the seminars and courses helped me see the bigger picture and gave me tools I still use today.
Q: What from your CSSS training have you found most helpful?
A: Being involved in CSSS helped me directly in my career path because it enabled me to be a mixed-methods researcher. Many UX researchers focus on either qualitative or quantitative methods, but I do both, which lets me see the range of methodological options I have and choose whatever best fits the research questions I’m asking. So, overall my CSSS training has enabled me to employ more quantitative methods — such as surveys and experiments — as I learn about how people respond to the experiences we are developing. It’s also helped me to make use of the many sources of existing knowledge (from internal or external research and data) to more quickly deliver useful information to my team.
I frequently have to write and analyze surveys, so the survey design class I took was very useful. For example, I recently ran a survey to understand motivations for using (or not using) a particular feature. In the survey design class, I remember learning about how to choose the right sampling method and write and order questions in a way that reduces potential bias, and I turn back to those foundational principles regularly.
Many companies are very data-driven, and there are a lot of data-focused conversations. I’ve found that having a solid understanding of statistics has helped me be more involved in shaping my team’s strategy, especially since metrics from A/B testing are an instrumental part of how we make decisions.
I also personally enjoyed the range of discussions in the seminars. I’m very curious about many different things, and CSSS gave me an outlet to see the world outside my own department.
Q: If you could go back and give yourself advice during your PhD, what would you say?
A: Honestly, I would tell myself to take more statistics classes! It’s hard to find time to learn new methods after grad school, and I often wish I had gone deeper. I’d take a course on data visualization and learn more about weighting data, for example. I’d also remind myself to invest more in relationships with colleagues and peers. Grad school is such a unique time to form deep, lasting connections.
Q: What were some of your favorite spots around the UW campus or the university district in Seattle?
A: I have fond memories of coming to and from campus, walking from Red Square to the bus stops at Pacific and Montlake — on clear days, when the mountain was out, passing by the roses and fountain. The walk was so spectacular… not many campuses have those views on a commute!
Q: What have you been reading, watching, or listening to lately that you’d recommend?
A: One of my favorite podcasts is Revisionist History hosted by Malcolm Gladwell. Each episode highlights a lesser-known story or challenges the standard way we think about something.
For example, one episode explored sirens on emergency vehicles. We assume sirens save lives by helping get the vehicle to the emergency faster, but research shows they can actually be dangerous, increasing accidents and damaging hearing. Another episode is about why McDonald's changed its recipe for fries a few decades ago and how the new version isn't as good. I feel like I'm frequently surprised by what I learn listening to that podcast.
Follow Fine on LinkedIn and explore published UX research from teams at Meta.
