Tracy Hayes is an experienced and creative User Experience (UX) leader who has an exceptional ability to solve global challenges while driving business results and promoting customer focus and data-driven design. Hayes studied Professional Writing and Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University and later obtained certification as both a Certified Empowerment Coach and Life Coach at the Institute for Professional Empowerment Coaching (iPEC). She has a wealth of professional experience, having held various leadership positions at Sears Holdings Corporation, Ipsos, eBay, and Human Factors International among others. Currently, she serves as a UX Research Manager at Google, where she manages teams and empowers them to achieve business goals while creating user-friendly products that inspire customer delight. Hayes values empathy as a central tenet of nurturing a collaborative and cross-functional team, where she champions new ideas, refines processes and motivates team members using communication, collaboration, coaching skills, and facilitation.