That insight shaped my work in startups. At Pattern Brands, I designed across 7 e-commerce sites (23% conversion increase, 8% reduction in cart abandonment, faster development through a unified design system).  My PhD research took that same approach to AI: systematic research, analyzed countless academic papers, surveyed 345 users across 46 countries, and audited 10+ AI tools across 6 interface types, to understand adoption patterns. Understanding what drives growth, what users actually need versus what they say they want, and finding the shortest path between an insight and a solution that works.