Aruna Balakrishnan

Aruna Balakrishnan has extensive experience in research and user experience roles. Currently, they hold the position of Director of Research at Lattice since June 2022. Prior to this, they worked at Twitter from July 2020 to June 2022 as a Senior Research Manager, focusing on health, privacy, and identity.

Previously, Aruna worked at Dropbox where they held various roles, including Head of Design Research [Interim] from October 2019 to July 2020, Design Research Manager from January 2018 to October 2019, and Design Research Lead from November 2016 to January 2018.

Before Dropbox, they worked at Change.org as the Principal User Researcher from March 2015 to November 2016. In this role, they established the User Research department and integrated research into all product verticals, ensuring the user voice played a part in decision-making processes.

Aruna also has experience working at Google as a Senior User Experience Researcher on Inbox by Gmail from January 2014 to March 2015, where they designed and directed large-scale longitudinal studies to determine launch readiness and set product design directions. Aruna also worked as a Lead User Experience Researcher on Collaboration Apps from October 2011 to December 2013.

Additionally, Aruna has a background in academia, with a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University, where they worked as a PhD candidate from September 2006 to August 2011. Aruna conducted research on the impact of visualizations on problem-solving success and information sharing behaviors in distributed collaborations. Aruna also interviewed researchers to understand the factors that make collaborations more successful.

Before their PhD, Aruna worked as a Research Intern at IBM in 2009 and 2008, where they conducted research on web 2.0 tools and collaboration suites.

Earlier in their career, Aruna worked as a Research Assistant at the RAND Corporation from April 2004 to June 2006, supporting various science and technology research projects. Aruna also worked as a Lab Manager and Research Assistant at Harvard University from January 2002 to March 2004, conducting user studies and developing mathematical models for finger joint mechanics during typing.

Aruna Balakrishnan holds a Ph.D. in Human Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. Aruna also obtained a Master of Science degree in Human Computer Interaction from the same institution. Prior to attending Carnegie Mellon, Aruna earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Engineering from Harvard University.