Kaari Peterson

Kaari has spent her career building and leading extraordinary User Experience Research and Design teams. Her user-centered design and research practice combines her interests in educational technology, dedication to building products that people love, passion for people-managing, and promoting cross-discipline collaboration. As a prominent UX voice, she’s helped improve user experiences for companies including Adobe and Yahoo!, and for over a decade has been a leader in UX design and research at Chegg, Inc., an Ed Tech brand at the forefront for college students. As Chegg's Head of UX Research, she has studied issues around designing for millennials, using UX research to inform roadmaps and getting the maximum ROI out of user research. She is also the current co-chair of the CheggHER ERG.  
 
A native of Clarkston, Michigan, Kaari is a graduate of Michigan State University's College of Communication Arts & Sciences Advertising program. She also holds a BS degree in Graphic Design & Photography from San Jose State University. Kaari is a longtime resident of the Bay Area, where she has for many years held a summer "hobby job" working at Shoreline Amphitheatre as a Media Coordinator, allowing her to indulge her love of both music and photography. When not at Chegg or Shoreline, Kaari's likely to be found gardening or watching Stanford Women's Basketball.