Hi, I'm Pooria
This is my story :
Currently I'm the head of user research team at Snapp (Iran's Uber with 40M users) and I lead a team of 6 researcher across B2B and B2C product lines and 12 verticals with the same approach.
My biggest achievement as UX manager:
increasing ux research team velocity by using AI in the research that lead to 2X more delivery in the same time
Creating a research Ops and framework that let product people(Designer, Product managers) run a standard UX research independently that lead to more data driven decision making
Creating a streamline research process that let researchers focus on their projects instead of being in many meetings.
My achievements as UX Researcher:
Based in Dubai
Turning insights into decisions at scale
Hi, I'm Pooria
A mixed method UX Researcher | UX Manager.
Hi, I'm Pooria,
UX Research Manager |
Mixed-Methods Researcher
My Research Mindset:
Current and previous experiences
Current and previous experiences
Triangulation in research is the key to reduce biases and increase quality of outcome.
By having strong experience in both qualitative and Quantitative methods(mixed method researcher), hand on experiences of working with Data(running queries, cleaning and manipulating data) I pick best methods based on project needs(user, business), limitations and expectation from output.
This process generally started by:
reviewing current situation, research questions and expectation with our team,
understanding known and unknown area, (what do we need to know)
prioritizing unknowns based on project expectation
finally pick most suitable research methods to answer company questions.
I’m a UX Researcher with 8 years of experience across the MENA region.
Currently, I’m the Head of User Research at Snapp (Iran’s Uber, with 40M users). I lead a team of 6 researchers across three products (Super App, Driver App, and Passenger App) and two business lines (B2B and B2C), helping product teams make data-informed decisions, quickly and effectively, in the age of AI.
I report to the CPO and the Design Director at Snapp.
Previously, I worked as a Senior Researcher across the Passenger, Driver, and B2B domains.
Key projects I’ve worked on include:
Conducting an accessibility study
Reducing call-center costs through research
Identifying user problems prior to the Super App redesign
Uncovering B2B challenges through a corporate panel
I have also supported other businesses:
Ride-hailing: Baly (the first ride-hailing service in Iraq)
Health-tech: SnappDR (online doctor and pharmacy services)
Travel-tech: MrBilit (one of the largest OTAs and travel services in Iran)
MarTech / Social Listening: Dataak (a social listening and data analysis platform)
I’m a UX Researcher with 8 years of experience across the MENA region.
Currently, I’m the Head of User Research at Snapp (Iran’s Uber, with 40M users). I lead a team of 6 researchers across three products (Super App, Driver App, and Passenger App) and two business lines (B2B and B2C), helping product teams make confident, data-informed decisions—fast and effectively—in the age of AI.
I report to the CPO and the Design Director. Previously, I worked as a Senior Researcher across the Passenger, Driver, and B2B domains.
My Research Mindset:
Highlights:
My mindset is to create impact on business strategy, product decisions, and design decisions through research insights, not just to share research results.
This process generally starts with:
Understanding the current situation and aligning with the team on research questions and expectations
Mapping what is known vs. unknown (what we still need to learn)
Prioritizing unknowns based on project goals and constraints
Selecting the most suitable research methods to achieve the desired outcomes
8+ years in UX Research (MENA)
6 researchers led across 3 products + B2B/B2C
163 ADPList mentoring sessions | 10 countries | 35 five-star reviews
Teaching program: 2 cycles, 56 hours, ~30 students/cycle, 5.7/6 satisfaction
Key Projects:
Conducted an accessibility study to identify critical usability and inclusion gaps.
Reduced call-center costs by turning research insights into actionable product improvements.
Identified user problems prior to the Super App redesign to de-risk key decisions.
Uncovered B2B challenges through a corporate panel to improve enterprise experience and outcomes.
My Research Mindset
My mindset is to create impact on business strategy, product decisions, and design decisions through research insights—not just to share research results.
My process generally starts with:
Understanding the current situation and aligning on research questions and expectations
Mapping what is known vs. unknown (what we still need to learn)
Prioritizing unknowns based on goals and constraints
Selecting the most suitable methods to achieve the desired outcomes
What is my strengths and Why?
What Are My Strengths and Why?
What Are My Strengths and Why?
Stackholder management
since 2010 I worked in different roles such as product manager, developer and ux desginer and startup founder, I have a massive experience in other fields that help me to easily understand what each stackholders looking for and needs and always can looking into the project from their point of view.
Involving all neccesary stackholders into decison making process as team is my magic to create the best result always.
Mixed Method Research:
With strong experience in both qualitative and quantitative research, and hands-on work with data (running queries, cleaning, and manipulating datasets) , I select the best methods based on project needs, constraints, and expected outcomes so research drives real decisions.
Mixed Method Research:
With strong experience in both qualitative and quantitative research—and hands-on work with data (running queries, cleaning, and manipulating datasets)—I choose methods based on project needs, constraints, and expected outcomes so research leads to real decisions.
Stackholder management
I involve key stakeholders throughout the research process—from planning to reviewing results—so insights translate into product and design outcomes.
Since 2010, I’ve worked in different roles (product manager, developer, UX designer, and startup founder). This background helps me understand stakeholders’ needs and evaluate projects from their perspectives.
Stakeholder Management
I involve key stakeholders throughout the research process—from planning to reviewing results—so insights translate into product and design outcomes.
Since 2010, I’ve also worked in different roles (product manager, developer, UX designer, and startup founder), which helps me understand stakeholder needs and evaluate projects from their perspectives.
Planing and budgeting:
There is no one way to run a project and it's depends on varies of factors (limitation, budget, users location and expectation from output and our skills ) I always make decision based on these factors to make sure projects
Planing and budgeting:
There’s no single way to run a project—it depends on factors such as constraints, budget, user context, expected outputs, and team skills. I make decisions based on these factors to control costs and maximize the value of research.
Planning and Budgeting
There’s no single way to run a project—it depends on constraints, budget, user context, expected outputs, and team skills. I make decisions based on these factors to control costs and maximize the value of research.
Mentoring:
with more than 8 years of working in the field of UX, I always mentored new researcher, designer, and product managers and helped them to level up their skills in the UX world, more than 100 free and paid mentorship session at ADPList with 5 star comments.
Mentoring and coaching:
With more than 8 years of experience in UX, I’ve mentored new researchers, designers, and product managers—helping them better understand users and run research in a consistent, high-quality way.
Mentoring and Coaching
With 8+ years in UX, I’ve mentored researchers, designers, and product managers, helping them better understand users and run research in a consistent, high-quality way.
Outside of my work :
Teaching
since 2024 to help Product community regarding doing high quality and standard research and I ran online UX research classes to help them being familiar with a standard research process in a practical way.
the result was 6.7/ 7 staisfaction score from 70 students.
Based on my experience in research and mentoring, I designed a UX Research program to help product managers and UX designers think about research and run it in a structured, standard way.
The program has run for two cycles, with an average of 30 students per cycle, 56 hours of instruction, and a 5.7/6 student satisfaction rating.
Based on my experience in research and mentoring, I designed a UX Research program to help product managers and UX designers think about research and run it in a structured way.
The program has run for two cycles, with an average of 30 students per cycle, 56 hours of instruction, and a 5.7/6 satisfaction rating.
Mentoring:
During my career as UX specialist, I've made many mistakes to learn how to do my job in a correct way and it was difficult to find someone to help you with. so I decided to start doing mentoring session to help the community.
I ran mentoring session is 2 ways :
Free by ADPlist : Results was 163 sessions from 10 countries and 35 5 star reviews.
Paid sessions: one of one sessons focus on mentee real problems on their work, results is 10 mentors with 50sessions.
Community building:
to Increase ux awareness in the market I created the first UXResearch community and channel based in Telegram with 1.5K active users.
Talks:
Mentoring:
During my career as a UX specialist, I made many mistakes while learning how to do the job correctly—and it was hard to find someone to guide me. That’s why I decided to start mentoring sessions to support the community.
I run mentoring sessions in two ways:
Free (ADPList): 163 sessions with mentees from 10 countries, and 35 five-star reviews.
Paid (1:1 sessions): Focused on real workplace challenges. So far, I’ve mentored 10 people across 50 sessions.
During my career as a UX specialist, I made many mistakes while learning—and it was hard to find someone to guide me. That’s why I started mentoring sessions to support the community.
I run mentoring sessions in two ways:
Free (ADPList): 163 sessions with mentees from 10 countries and 35 five-star reviews
Paid (1:1): Focused on real workplace challenges; 10 mentees across 50 sessions
Community Building:
To increase UX awareness in the market, I created the first UX Research community and Telegram channel, UserInsight, with 1.5K active users.
In this community, members can connect, share experiences, ask questions, and support each other.
To increase UX awareness in the market, I created the UX Research community and Telegram channel UserInsight, with 1.5K active users.
Members connect, share experiences, ask questions, and support each other.
Speeches
Speaker at UX Shiraz 2025 , Democratizing Research in Organizations.
I spoke at UX Shiraz, Iran’s largest UX conference, to an audience of 300 on “Democratizing Research in Organizations” (2025).
I spoke at UX Shiraz, Iran’s largest UX conference, to an audience of 300 on “Democratizing Research in Organizations” (2025).
How i start my first startup alone :
I’ve been a problem-solver for as long as I can remember — always watching people, spotting patterns, and asking “Wh questions:)) what,why,how,when, where?”
In 2008, as I walked into the local bazaar, I faced with queue of people in front of stores, so I start talking to them, why do you stay in these lines?
why do you want to buy these staff? I discovered those items weren't available in their city or was with 3X price, and there is no online market from this city to buy from it. so they have to travel many hours to buy these offline.
so this insight lead me to run my first startup: Bazaarrouz online store, where based on "wizard of oz" model, i took online order, buy from offline stores and shipping via post. I create everything from scratch by my own without getting help as I coudn't find any partner during first 2 years in my city.
working alone, operation problem and low internet reachability rate in Iran forced my to shut down my first startup.
after a while i decided to find some partners, to build some ideas to gether.
at 2012 years later, I co-founded a city news app that aggregated local updates into one place.
Leading design and development, I learned Android programming and UX fundamentals on the fly.
We pitched it at Startup Weekend — and won. That win opened doors to my first official UX roles.
certificate of attendance- Startupweekend ahwaz
the team photo- after we won the startup weekend competition.
First official UX job
At Iran’s leading online travel agency (Atigh Gasht, with products like AirplaneTicket & MrBilit), I joined as a UX Designer/Researcher to optimize the booking experience.
By running usability tests and user interviews, I identified pain points in the checkout flow. After implementing the changes, we saw a 70% increase in ticket sales in just 3 months.
I was promoted to Product Manager for MrBilit, where I led a full app and website redesign based on user research — aligning the product’s vision with customer needs and company growth goals.
Outside of work, I did some role play :)))
Creating roadmap of app redesign at mrbilit
Snapp – Impact at Super-App Scale
In 2018, I joined Snapp, Iran’s largest ride-hailing super-app with 40+ million users.
As a Senior UX Researcher, I worked on:
• Ride safety: Research-led features that improved passenger trust and reduced incidents.
• Accessibility: Making Snapp usable for passengers with visual or hearing impairments.
• Cost-saving innovation: Developing an in-app navigation system to replace costly third-party maps.
• Driver satisfaction: Identifying and fixing core driver pain points to improve retention.
After two years, I was promoted to UX Research Lead, managing the largest research team in Iran. My focus shifted to research operations and culture-building:
• Launched UXR TV – a monthly internal broadcast of research findings to the entire company.
• Sent weekly Research Roundups to keep 300+ stakeholders aligned.
• Shortened project delivery time by half through process optimization.
• Mentored junior researchers and ran workshops to democratize research across teams.
Affinity mapping for one of snapp projects with help of designers, Prodcut managers and ux writiers.
I worked as facilator as long as analyzer the content.
Accessibility study with Snapp users( I got permission to publish these images)
UX ambassedor outside of work.
UX Mentoring Session
In 2023, I began teaching and talking about UX research to aware community about the impact of UXR on creating successful products, so I start mentoring session at ADPLIST as Product and research mentor and till now I passed 3000 Minutes mentoring session, in that way i learned a lot from mentee and find out what are their problems.
Teaching UXR to product people
Based on working and mentoring experience I designed a uxr program to help specially product managers and ux designers to think and run research in a standard way.
this Program have been ran 2 cycle and with average 30 students per cycle during 56 hours with 5.7/6 student satisfaction rating.
I also founded a Telegram community for UX researchers, which has grown into a vibrant space for sharing insights, case studies, and career tips.
Speeches
I spoke at UX Shiraz, Iran’s largest UX conference to 300 audience on “Democratizing Research in Organizations.” at 2025
Speaker at UXShiraz 2025- Democratization in User Research.
Hackathon- Snapp Group 2024
