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:
" Triangulate, triangulate, triangulate — use multiple data sources and secondary research to build robust insights. "
Positioning insight: Structuring teams, roles and careers for a changing research landscape
March 13, 2025
" Participants want to take ownership of their stories and demand participatory, non-extractive, trauma-informed research methods. "
Redefining the research toolkit: Expanding methodologies for a changing world
March 12, 2025
" I want you to push yourselves to try one new approach, to challenge one of your assumptions, and to walk away ready to take an action. "
Theme 2 Intro
March 12, 2025
" Right sizing research respects communities by matching the scope to what participants can reasonably engage with. "
Day 2 Theme Panel
March 12, 2025
" Some people lie; that’s why we need to triangulate methods to approach reality. "
Methodologies: Beyond the interview [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
September 4, 2024
" But what’s the so what? Get to the point and don’t make me wait. "
Getting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research
March 26, 2024
" Impact can be about changing the way people talk about the problem and see the customer. "
Panel: Excellence in Impact
March 25, 2024
" Maturity is not just knowing what to do, but also knowing what not to do and being smart and grown up about saying no. "
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
