About Sonia
I am a senior UX researcher at RentSpree with 6 years of experience, currently reimagining the rental process to foster collaboration and transparency among renters, agents, and landlords. As a researcher working across multiple product domains, I am a curious collaborator, working with various stakeholders to ensure that users’ needs and goals are met within our products.
I am a proactive contributor, seeking opportunities to improve our experience for users and collaboration across our cross-functional teams. I actively seek out opportunities to refine workflows & processes so that team members are heard and able to contribute meaningfully towards these solutions. Teams trust me to deliver high quality research, ranging from large-scale projects to scrappy iterative testing, to inform how we can build an accessible & equitable experience for renters and housing providers.
During the last two years at RentSpree, I’ve led over 35 research initiatives, spanning from generative to evaluate research. As a research team of two, I’ve quickly adapted to the needs & priorities across various teams and incorporate meaningful insights during critical points in product development. I’m a committed advocate for users, and have developed an ideation training framework at RentSpree to ensure that users’ needs are at the center of any kind of product development and improvement.
I’ve consistently exceeded role expectations in my semi-annual performance reviews, excelling in communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and strategic impact.
Hear what collaborators have to say about my work:
Driving impact through research
“Sonia has played a pivotal role in the team. By consistently delivering high-quality research and working hand-in-hand with her product team and fellow xFN partners to translate learnings into solutions, Sonia has gained significant influence over the product direction. Major product efforts have stemmed from Sonia’s research.
I attribute to Sonia the significant progress the domain has shown in terms of collaboration and alignment. She has risen to the occasion to lead important company-wide activities, such as the annual Ideation Sessions driving the product roadmap for 2024.
Sonia demonstrates a strong sense of ownership and the ability to drive action by ensuring clarity on expectations, setting context, and facilitating discussions that empower her peers to contribute meaningfully.”
“Sonia’s workshop facilitation methods are highly regarded, particularly her ability to energize and engage the team in learning activities. She conveys complex research findings in a clear and concise manner.”
“Sonia adeptly aligns research planning and initiative with project goals, ensuring the provision of valuable insights that effectively contribute to brainstorming and crafting innovative design solutions”
Leadership & strategy
“Sonia has demonstrated strong abilities in both collaboration and leadership — which is a special combination of skills. She excels in fostering a positive environment, rallying team members toward common goals, and setting clear direction and pace, all of which contribute to her significant influence within the team.”
“I was trying to come up with ideas on how to work together as a product team to refine ideas we identified as high impact. However, we needed input from engineering and design on how we could break down high-effort initiatives down further.
Sonia not only gave me great feedback but she took the initiative to propose a structure for us to break down these initiatives while ensuring we’re driving impact. On top of this, she also provided constructive feedback on how we could work together from ideation to prioritization, showing she gave much thought on how to efficiently work together and ensure effective handoff. I really enjoy working with her and learn a great amount of how to communicate and collaborate efficiently and effectively.”
Collaboration with xFN partners
“Sonia was an absolute joy to work with. Her exceptional attention to detail, inquisitive nature, and strong communication skills, both in written reports and visual diagrams, greatly contributed to our team’s success. Sonia’s infectious energy and enthusiasm created a motivating work environment, and her dedication to accessible product design truly enhanced the user experience. It was inspiring to witness her continuous growth and assumption of greater responsibilities at RentSpree, and I have full confidence in her ability to tackle any task with excellence.”
“Sonia consistently demonstrates a proactive approach in assisting everyone on the team, ensuring inclusivity and a positive environment where no team member feels left out”
“Sonia’s best communication skill is her listening. She’s one of the most conscientious partners at RentSpree, which allows her to provide on-point contributions to discussions.”