Arrivederci Google

Hello, after 15 years at Google (2 spent in Mountain View and 13 in London), it is time for me to say goodbye!

I would like to take this opportunity to share a bit of my journey and thank all those across many teams, projects and organizations who have helped make it a deeply fulfilling work and life experience.

Beginnings

I will never forget my first team, Quantitative Marketing, who welcomed and mentored me enthusiastically. My manager Adam Ghobarah) was trusting of my knowledge and experience while supportive in guiding me while I took my first steps working for a large organization such as Google (at the time I thought 20K employees was a huge organization; little did I know how large it would become in the years following!). I had the pleasure to work with Vani Henderson & Kristin Maczko, PhD and learned so much from them.

My experience with this team left a profound mark in me, helping imprint the Google culture in me: the proactiveness mindset to just try solve any problem you see, the creativity and contagious energy, the both kind and smart people. Working at headquarters did the rest, especially when attending the weekly in-person Friday meetings TGIF with Larry and Sergey.

Another part of the Google culture I gathered was that you should know what to work on. Your manager should help you in achieving that, make connections with stakeholders and unblock you if necessary. This is somewhat controversial and assumes a lot. I will expand on that in a future Linkedin post.

New chapter in London

Thanks to Adam and Tony Fagan , I was able to relocate to London with my wife Ana Villar in 2011 so that we could be closer to our respective families.

While in London I joined Brand Studio where I worked on measuring Google brand and reputation in collaboration with great colleagues such as Kevin Taylor , Yongwei Yang , Natalie Rojowsky , and Heath Row who continued to be an important part of my survey research community even after I moved teams.

From Marketing to UXR

When reaching about 7 years in the Marketing organization, my manager Cassidy Morgan triggered a pivotal moment. During one of our career conversations it became clear that the logical step for me was to move to a User Experience Research role. Why would you ask? Because I wanted to be closer to product decisions, working directly with product managers, engineers and with designers + other roles in UX to help shape Google products.

Although I did not come from a background in Human Computer Interaction, I had been dipping my toes in UXR since joining Google through our survey mailing list and survey office hours volunteer group. Aaron Sedley , one of the pioneer survey methodologist at Google who invented the Happiness Tracking Surveys or HaTS we still rely on nowadays, brought me into that group, and I will be forever thankful.

During these office hours and other consulting moments, I was challenged by my colleagues to put in practice my survey knowledge and to apply it in the context of Google UX, trying to answer questions about products, services, experiences, and colleagues (surveying Googlers).

Unaware of it at the moment, this turned out to be my initial? training in UXR. This training continued thanks to the extremely welcoming UX community at Google, who put together numerous activities, resources, conferences, and other brilliant initiatives (such as UX University).

I accepted a role as User Experience researcher In October 2017, thanks to Catherine Courage who welcomed me in the Ads UX team and Javier Andrés Bargas-Avila , my first UX manager.

Later on I followed Javier to the Cloud organization working for a cross functional team called Research System. Javier made me understand what UX Research really is, and Jorge Amaral patiently explained to me what design for Google products is, and what it should be.

UX community at Google and Quant UXrs

In the move to UXR I experienced the extremely welcoming UX community at Google and its numerous activities and initiatives.

I was also welcomed by the Quantitative User Experience (QUXR) community at Google, a specialization in the UX research area which Google ( Kerry Rodden ) introduced in 2006. I shared with QURXs my passion for surveys and for experimental design. I leaned what QURX can bring to the table from Chris Chapman , Jason S Schwarz , Kristy Cyffka , Fabian Hoelzenbein, PhD , Angela C. Hoelzenbein, PhD , Ben Davison , Lenka Kovalcinova , Inna Tsirlin, PhD , and Joe Paxton .

Final years in Google Cloud

In January 2023 I started working on Gemini Cloud Assist and because it was a new product I had the opportunity to use qualitative research methods. Yoanna Dosouto helped me to refresh my qual skills and my manager Sobia Tariq supported me in this transition. When you work for such a big company like Google, it is rare to work on a brand new product, but for Gemini Cloud Assist I had the opportunity to start from scratch, conducting the first user interviews with no product designs, moving on to show some mocks to customers, then a working demo, and finally open up the first version of the product as private preview! I had an amazing group of colleagues and Product Managers who trusted our research from the beginning: Cheng Wei , Marcello P. , and Marcos Grappeggia .

20% projects

I will remember all the projects I worked on, but some more than others stuck in my mind. They have a common denominator, they were all 20% projects, a key part of how Google’s culture promotes proactive and creative endeavors, and one that separates it from other companies. For example early in my career I used my 20% time to work on my two books (Web Survey Methodology and Online Panel Research) with the support and understanding on the Quant Marketing team. Other 20% projects started as such and became fully funded and staffed projects.

What makes Google a great place to work but sometimes we forget to acknowledge

Another aspect of the Google culture and what makes a great place to work are the countless mailing lists and chats on every possible topic you can imagine, from work related to more hobbies and other topics. I will definitely miss the following: greyglers, audiophile, music-room-London, UXR/QUXR mailing list and chat, and survey-research, a mailing I started a long time ago and that now will be managed by Yongwei Yang .

To close this farewell note I also think I need to thank all the staff that makes Google a great place to work and that massively contributes to your wellbeing.

• The kitchen staff works relentlessly to feed us tasty, healthy and creative meals, offers exciting cooking workshops (which I joined every single time I could), and even offered one-to-one consultations during the COVID lockdowns to help figure out how to bake the perfect Thanksgiving turkey.
• Our gym coaches and personal trainers help us to stay fit, I want to mention my first personal trainer Andrew Matthews made me understand what the right exercises can really make a difference for your body, and my last PT, Aleksandra Grabska Hadmon who helped me recover from injuries in the past few years, together with Simon Cabot , our on site physiotherapist.
• Finally there will be no Google without the famous massage program. Claudette took care of me for the last 13 years and I will miss our weekly chats.

Coming to an end at Google

Over this summer I’ve had the chance to reflect on my time at Google: what I’ve done, what I’ve learned, what I’ve contributed across different projects, teams and communities I’ve been a part of. My conclusion was that I have been part of more organizations, teams, products, initiatives and roles than I could have dreamt. I even have had the privilege to travel the world with my teammates and engage in unique activities, from beekeeping to hot air balloon rides and fly fishing. Much like when I transitioned from marketing to UXR, I feel like I’m ready for a new challenge and a new adventure.

What's next?

Many of you might wonder what is next for me.

For the time being I am taking a break and working on a project that I will share in due time.

I am also looking forward to be more active in the #xoogler.co community, comprising more than 33K former Googlers around the world.

In the meantime I will start publishing some posts about what I did learn in my 15 years working at Google.

Until then, have fun looking at some pictures below.

Cheers!

#google #googlecloud