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
" The current decline in response and participant engagement rates is a genuine crisis that threatens research data quality. "
Redefining the research toolkit: Expanding methodologies for a changing world
March 12, 2025
" This moment is yours to shape. If you step up to it, you won’t just be expanding your toolkit. You’re going to be expanding your influence, your impact, and the future of our profession itself. "
Theme 2 Intro
March 12, 2025
" Focus groups have been called a curse, but I'm giving them a second chance to see if there’s something positive there. "
Day 2 Theme Panel
March 12, 2025
" It’s important to put the participant at ease and not add to their cognitive burden. "
Methodologies: Beyond the interview [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
September 4, 2024
" Put the most important message right up front no matter what the format. "
Getting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research
March 26, 2024
" We don’t just stop the research project when we collect data; analyzing, extracting insights, and shaping the narrative is part of it. "
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
" Our education program isn’t just basic info—it builds empathy and literacy across the whole product team. "
A Selectively Scrappy Approach to ResearchOps
November 8, 2018
