Meet our Leadership Team
Charlotte Wise
Charlotte Wise is a design leader with 20+ years of expertise in qualitative and quantitative research, interaction design, and information architecture for B2B and B2C sectors. Her work spans fintech, technology, startups, and agencies, and she is a passionate advocate for accessibility and inclusive design.
Charlotte has been the first research hire at three companies, and built Visa's product research and operations practice from the ground up. She lead strategy and execution for user research across Product and established Visa’s first-ever physical usability lab and first quantitative research function, bringing mixed-methods rigor to the product development cycle. Her clients include Fidelity, US Bank, BB&T, TD Bank, Alaska Airlines, and PNC Bank.
She has a proven track record in growing and nurturing diverse, happy, high-performing teams, and is a respected influencer who empowers insights across organizations through collaboration, respect, and trust.
Charlotte is especially interested in service-led design operations, mentoring early career talent and uplifting the next generation of women leaders in design. She believes strongly in servant-leadership and creating a team culture built on kindness and authenticity.
She majored in sociology at Rice University and lives in Austin, Texas.
Certifications:
Human Factors International Certified Usability Analyst™
Scrum Alliance Certified ScrumMaster
Erin Houchen
Erin Houchen is a seasoned head of research with a passion for assembling and leading comprehensive, cross-functional teams of skilled mixed-method researchers, product designers, and engineers. Erin's career began as a designer at NASA, and spans payments, tech, government services, private industry, and agencies, demonstrating her versatility and expertise in research and design.
With extensive industry experience, Erin oversees the entire research lifecycle, shaping design outcomes that significantly enhance user experience. For the last 7 years, she has been client-focused and outcome-driven, known for her attention to detail and nimble approach to meeting business objectives and revenue targets.
At Visa, Erin served as the Head of Research for Innovation, building the client-focused research function into an $19M chargeable service. She also founded Visa’s first “open space” research team focused solely on 0-1 and green field generative and exploratory research, with a special emphasis on research with under-represented populations.
Prior to Visa, she built a research function within Innovation at Mastercard. She has also worked in consulting at Price Waterhouse Cooper. Her clients include Bank of America, Truist, Southwest Airlines, Wells Fargo and Chase.
Erin is passionate about furthering equality in design through inclusive research practices, incorporating real-world diversity in recruitment, and mentoring and fostering the next generation of women leaders in design.
Erin splits her time between Las Vegas, Nevada, and Encinitas, California.
Professional Education:
Wharton Executive Education - Executive Presence & Influence: Persuasive Leadership
University of Georgia - Quantitative Data Collection
dSchool, Stanford University - Design Thinking
Yale Executive Education - Women’s Leadership Program: Leading with Power & Influence
Stephanie Shapiro
Stephanie Shapiro brings over 20 years of expertise in recruiting for the design and research fields. She began her career at Landor Associates as a project manager, closely collaborating with design teams on high-profile packaging projects for brands like Hilton, Coca-Cola, and McDonald's. Transitioning to talent acquisition, Stephanie joined a small web design company called Adjacency, which was later acquired by Sapient. At Sapient, Stephanie led and grew a large team of recruiters focused specifically on user experience research and design positions across 10 US offices.
In 2003, Stephanie founded DesignRecruiter Inc., partnering with companies such as Google, Samsung, Visa, Cisco, JPMorgan Chase, and McDonald's to hire for positions at all levels including C-Suite, VPs, Directors, Managers, Principals, and mid-leveI ICs. Her vast experience and deep understanding of the unique skills of designers and researchers have made her a trusted leader in talent acquisition across the design and research disciplines.
Stephanie is particularly interested in creating teams that genuinely respect and trust one another, as she believes this enables everyone to do their best work and thrive professionally.
Stephanie lives in Berkeley, California.