Megan Blocker
Director of User Research, DigitalOcean
Megan founded McKinsey’s design research & insights practice, establishing and growing a team of one to more than 50 researchers, data analysts, and data scientists globally. As part of that transformation, she built the design research talent architecture and established McKinsey’s design research philosophy, operations, and tooling. In addition, Megan is deeply passionate about equity and inclusion. She co-founded McKinsey’s Women in Tech initiative and was a member of the DE&I global leadership team.
In her work as a researcher, Megan combines empathy with data to achieve deep understanding, craft inspirational vision, and deliver actionable insight. As a leader, she makes sense of ambiguity and thrives when building and leading teams where trust, transparency, and clarity of vision encourage risk-taking, innovation, and creativity. Most of all, she loves building something new and scrappy, then strategically operationalizing it for scale. She invests in people, Post-Its, insights, and LEGOs.
Rosenverse talks by Megan:
" Position research as strategic partners early in the process, not as work to be done at the end of the production line. "
Positioning insight: Structuring teams, roles and careers for a changing research landscape
March 13, 2025
" Duplicative research will become less acceptable; researchers must act as natural connectors to reduce it and enhance organizational knowledge sharing. "
Redefining the research toolkit: Expanding methodologies for a changing world
March 12, 2025
" Participants are not passive anymore. People don’t just want to be studied. They want to be active contributors to the knowledge we create. "
Theme 2 Intro
March 12, 2025
" Use systems thinking to connect insights and show how research impacts organizational strategy holistically. "
Day 2 Theme Panel
March 12, 2025
" The purpose of research is paramount; it guides the choice of methods and how rigorously to apply them. "
Methodologies: Beyond the interview [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
September 4, 2024
" If you see a problem or opportunity, you should do something about it. "
Getting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research
March 26, 2024
" I think you can't be good at research unless you're also good at getting that research across. "
Panel: Excellence in Impact
March 25, 2024
" Creating personas as a team is more valuable than the persona itself because it creates ownership and empathy. "
What UX research maturity looks like and how we get there [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
November 9, 2023
" If you want access to those names, you got to come through us and show your research plan, which helped us ensure quality. "
A Selectively Scrappy Approach to ResearchOps
November 8, 2018
