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Damla Kerestecioglu
Design Researcher at Microsoft
Professional Background
Damla Kerestecioglu is a highly accomplished design researcher with over six years of comprehensive research experience in various facets of user experience, particularly focusing on the areas of emotion and memory research. Damla has honed her skills through myriad research methodologies, including lab studies, usability testing, interviews, contextual inquiries, and field studies, showcasing her versatility and dedication to understanding user needs and behaviors. Throughout her career, she has collaborated extensively with interdisciplinary teams, seamlessly integrating user experience (UX) research into the product design lifecycle. This collaborative spirit allows her to effectively communicate project needs and balance the strengths and limitations of research methodologies with business requirements.
Currently, Damla serves as a Design Researcher 2 at Microsoft, where she continues to utilize her varied expertise in UX research to improve product offerings and enhance user satisfaction. In her previous role as Design Research Manager at TD, Damla led initiatives that prioritized user-centered design and fostered an enriching user experience across various digital platforms. Her tenure as a Senior Design Researcher at TD further solidified her reputation as a leading authority in the field, where she was responsible for conducting groundbreaking research that directly informed product strategies.
Education and Achievements
Damla's academic journey laid a solid foundation for her professional career, beginning with her studies in Cognitive Psychology at the prestigious University of Toronto, where she earned her Honours Bachelor of Science degree. This program equipped her with a deep understanding of cognitive processes and their implications for user experience. She further expanded her knowledge and skills through a Master's Degree in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, immersing herself in systems-level thinking and design principles that are crucial in creating effective user experiences.
In addition to her degrees, Damla completed a Foundation Program in Psychology at the University of Exeter, enhancing her educational background with international exposure and insights into diverse psychological frameworks. Notably, she also acquired her Abitur and German Sprach Diplom from the Deutsche Schule Istanbul, showcasing her multilingual capabilities and cultural competency.
Throughout her education, Damla has engaged in various research roles that further refined her expertise. Noteworthy positions include her work as an Undergraduate Researcher in the Human Neuropsychology and Cognitive Science Lab at the University of Toronto under Dr. Morris Moscovitch, and as a Research Assistant focusing on Affective Cognitive Neuroscience with Dr. William Cunningham. She also contributed to behavioral studies at the Rotman School of Management under Dr. Spike W.S. Lee. These experiences have equipped her with robust research methodologies and analytical skills that she effectively applies in her professional roles today.
Notable Projects and Contributions
In her role as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for SYDE261-Technology and Society at the University of Waterloo, Damla cultivated her ability to convey complex ideas and engage with students, further amplifying her communication skills and mentorship abilities. She was instrumental in facilitating a classroom environment that encouraged exploration and deep thinking about the societal impacts of technology.
Throughout her career, Damla has successfully designed and conducted multiple research studies from inception to completion, demonstrating her strong independent research capabilities. She has facilitated numerous research sessions, analyzed extensive data sets, and delivered actionable insights that have driven meaningful changes in product development and user engagement strategies.
Damla's strong interpersonal skills, combined with her profound understanding of the intricacies of design research, position her as a unique asset not only in UX research but also in the broader context of product development, where user-centered design principles are paramount. Her ability to deliver timely insights ensures that product teams are well-informed and able to make data-driven decisions that enhance overall user experience.
With her extensive background and rich experience in research, Damla Kerestecioglu is poised to continue making significant contributions in the field of user experience design and research, delivering value to organizations eager to innovate and optimize their product offerings.
Achievements
Damla's negotiations and success in interdisciplinary collaboration underscore her capability to bridge the gap between research and product design, ensuring that user insights are woven into the fabric of strategic decision-making. Her research not only informs product iterations but also elevates the overall user experience, contributing to greater user satisfaction and loyalty. As an emerging thought leader in her field, she actively seeks opportunities to share her insights and learnings, advocating for user-centric practices that enhance product design and usability.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.