Rian Van Der Merwe

Current

• Senior Manager, User Experience Research at eBay

Past

• Manager, User Experience Research at eBay, Inc.
• Senior User Experience Researcher at eBay, Inc.
• Staff User Experience Researcher at eBay, Inc.

• Research Project Manager at Survey.com
• Lecturer at Curtin University of Technology

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Education

• Curtin University of Technology
• Stellenbosch University/Universiteit Stellenbosch
• Stellenbosch University/Universiteit Stellenbosch

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Recommended

5 people have recommended Rian

Connections

255 connections

Industry

Internet

Rian Van Der Merwe’s Summary

Analytical, creative and motivated user experience and strategy professional with international training and experience in a broad range of areas, including usability, ethnography, surveys, marketing, product management, and strategy development & execution. Problem solver and strategic thinker with the added value of these skills being rooted in a solid theoretical foundation.

My career objective is to use my education, skills and experience in a team-based environment to contribute to the enhancement of the user experience of interactive products. I want to use my analytical skills to have a thorough understanding of user needs, behavior and attitudes; my creative skills to help develop the best possible systems and strategies for design; and my communication skills to build relationships and execute these strategies effectively.

Rian Van Der Merwe’s Specialties:

User Experience Research (online surveys, usability testing, RITE studies, ethnographic research, participatory design, card sorting)
User Experience Strategy
Product and project management
Research data analysis and interpretation

Rian Van Der Merwe’s Experience

• Senior Manager, User Experience Research

  eBay

  (Public Company; ebay; Internet industry)

  March 2009 — Present (5 months)

  Responsible for the planning, execution and business impact of eBay's Product Health program (see below for details). Manage the team that executes the program, and work with leaders across the design, business and engineering organizations to guide product strategy based on the insights, and provide success metrics they can use to measure the impact of product changes.

• Manager, User Experience Research

  eBay, Inc.

  (Public Company; ebay; Internet industry)

  March 2007 — February 2009 (2 years)

  Developed, and built the team responsible for, eBay’s Product Health Strategy. Product Health is a holistic research program that drives global product strategy and resource allocation through insights from a variety of comprehensive, ongoing, methodologically robust user assessments of our site experience. We utilize surveys, true-intent studies, advanced in-page analytics, site logs/web analytics, and qualitative insights.
  
  Also managing the team responsible for all qualitative user experience research related to the Selling business.

• Senior User Experience Researcher

  eBay, Inc.

  (Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; EBAY; Internet industry)

  March 2006 — February 2007 (1 year)

  Still responsible for all product survey research in the User Experience Research group at eBay, with all the responsibilities I had as Staff User Experience Researcher. In addition, also designed and started executing eBay's Product Health strategy, a comprehensive research program to track the health of eBay's products over time.

• Staff User Experience Researcher

  eBay, Inc.

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; EBAY; Internet industry)

  April 2005 — February 2006 (11 months)

  Responsible for all product survey research in the User Experience Research group at eBay. Even mix between executing the research myself and managing vendors and internal resources to complete projects. Work directly with designers, product managers, marketers and engineers to develop and execute high-quality research using the most appropriate methodologies. Includes design, fielding, extensive analysis and reporting on results. Combine survey research with usability tests, ethnographic research and other qualitative methods.

• Research Project Manager

  Survey.com

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  March 2004 — March 2005 (1 year 1 month)

  Work directly with a variety of clients to manage their market research needs from start to finish. Includes design of research methodology, survey design, negotiating with vendors, sample development, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
  
  Also responsible for data processing for all projects, using Excel, SPSS and WinCross to perform extensive analyses involving complex cross tabulations, regression, data modeling, conjoint analysis, qualitative data analysis, etc. Responsible for research and development of software and systems to improve efficiency in all departments.

• Lecturer

  Curtin University of Technology

  (Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Higher Education industry)

  July 2001 — June 2003 (2 years)

  Lecturer and tutor for the various courses in the School of Business at Curtin University of Technology, Australia, including undergraduate and graduate courses in Marketing, Market Research, Strategic Marketing, E-commerce strategy and E-Marketing. Project leader in various team-based research efforts, as well as several individual research projects related to current business issues.
  
  Selected achievements:
  * Co-Developer for Marketing Management course for Jones International University.
  * Electronic tutor for the School of Management, University of Surrey, United Kingdom.
  * Electronic tutor and course developer for the online course E-commerce – A Strategic Approach at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands.

Rian Van Der Merwe’s Education

• Curtin University of Technology

  Ph.D , Internet Marketing , 2001 — 2003

• Stellenbosch University/Universiteit Stellenbosch

  M.Sc (Eng) , Information Science , 2000 — 2001

• Stellenbosch University/Universiteit Stellenbosch

  B.Eng , Industrial Engineering , 1996 — 1999

Rian Van Der Merwe’s Contact Settings

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