Melissa Schmidt leads UX Research for the Digital Experience at Autodesk. She has spent the last 15 years practicing UX research, and the last 8 years leading research teams. At Autodesk, Melissa enjoys leading large, cross-functional projects that bring customer insights to drive business and product strategy. She also facilitates customer and coworker design thinking workshops, and has taught design thinking to over 250 coworkers as a certified LUMA instructor. Melissa holds a PhD in Computer Science from CU Boulder and a BA in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley. She’s happy to call Oakland, CA her home with her husband and two children.