Simina Megyes

Product Strategy

• Owned the research that shaped 8x8 Pulse, now a shipping conversational-intelligence product, from early discovery through concept testing and churn-signal work; defining product direction and core flow as research lead throughout. The director in charge of the product called my CSM-team insights “crucial”.
• Answer product direction questions raised by product leadership, including the Chief Product Officer, combining customer research with competitive research. The answers changed how we market some products.

AI Research Systems

• Built the internal AI research platform 8x8’s product teams now run studies on: AI moderator, automated insight repository, participant management and a layer connecting qualitative findings to product-usage and competitive data. Built end to end on the Claude API with a manual evaluation loop to keep output reliable.
• Shipped an AI research assistant that turned research from a bottleneck into a self-serve capability, letting product and design teams run their own studies without adding headcount.

Strategy and measurement

• Defined the 0→1 research strategy for a suite-wide AI assistant, shaping a contextual integration model across 20+ product lines. The research changed the product roadmap.
• Built the organization’s first AI metrics framework, establishing the measures for intent accuracy and user trust that the company used to track AI performance (RICE-prioritized).

Research Operations

• Built the GDPR-compliant participant registry and research protocols adopted across all product divisions, reducing legal exposure and standardizing how research gets run.

Product Impact

• Built Bitdefender’s parental control app from scratch, leading the research and design that defined it.
• Improved service activation rates by 8% (multivariate testing).
• Delivered key product portfolio enhancements by conducting remote research studies that directly informed and influenced critical design changes.

Partner Research

• Enabled partners to optimize their user experiences and identify growth opportunities through strategic journey mapping and actionable solution recommendations.
• Ran an on-site design workshop with Netgear in the US, driving new design directions.

Research Operations

• Empowered designers and stakeholders to make informed, data-driven decisions by establishing a centralized research repository facilitating easy access to critical user insights.

• Defined the strategic direction for a new product by leading comprehensive discovery research, ensuring alignment with user needs and market opportunities.
• Established a user-centered culture by integrating research into core processes, resulting in products that consistently met both user expectations and achieved key business objectives.