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:
" Insight is that aha moment, a new understanding that helps us make decisions that move us forward. "
Positioning insight: Structuring teams, roles and careers for a changing research landscape
March 13, 2025
" Duplicative research will become less acceptable; researchers must act as natural connectors to reduce it and enhance organizational knowledge sharing. "
Redefining the research toolkit: Expanding methodologies for a changing world
March 12, 2025
" Knowledge just isn’t created in isolation anymore. "
Theme 2 Intro
March 12, 2025
" Tools don't matter as much as the desire to learn and ask why things keep happening the way they do. "
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
" Hoard and reuse your jewels. Those proven frameworks can amplify every hour of your work. "
Getting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research
March 26, 2024
" The greatest impact is when people call me directly or give a brief to me directly; it's about relationships. "
Panel: Excellence in Impact
March 25, 2024
" Creating personas as a team is more valuable than the persona itself because it creates ownership and empathy. "
What UX research maturity looks like and how we get there [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
November 9, 2023
" If you want access to those names, you got to come through us and show your research plan, which helped us ensure quality. "
A Selectively Scrappy Approach to ResearchOps
November 8, 2018
