Will Notini
Design RESEARCH
I’m an applied anthropologist with 10+ years experience doing research in industry. I’m also an educator, currently teaching Exploratory Design Research at University of Chicago.
I believe an enormous amount of time and energy is wasted creating products and services that fail address any real human desire or need.
Do yourself a favor and take the time now to learn from real people who care about the problem you are trying to solve. It will enable you to move faster, with better ideas, and with higher confidence.
I currently work as a Senior Manager of User Research at Resy, a part of American Express Global Dining.
In this role I conduct research that helps our product team build a future for the hospitality industry that is centered on solving operator needs.
Previously, I worked at IDEO’s Chicago studio as a Senior Design Lead managing multi-disciplinary teams through iterative design projects. While the work spanned industries and design applications, I specialized in designing within complex b2b2c ecosystems.
WORK
RESY, Senior Manager User Research (2025-Current)
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, Lecturer (2025-Current)
IDEO, Senior Design Lead (2020-2025)
TECHNOMIC, Director of Research & Insights (2015-2019)EDUCATION
B.A. NYU, GALLATIN, 2013
M.A. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, SOCIAL SCIENCES, 2014
M.B.A NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
Documenting and communicating management principles for a rapidly scaling commercial organization
Design work by Zach Hobbs
Moderna mindsets
EPIC 2025 Presentation
Paper Title: Encounters between Artificial and Human Intelligences in Early-Stage Innovation Work
Authors: Dan Perkel, Partner, IDEO; Will Notini, Senior Design Research Lead, IDEO; Angela Kochoska, Senior Data Scientist, IDEO
Paper presentation given at Aalto University in Helsinki as a part of the EPIC conference thematic session on responsible AI Innovation.
Sat down with User Interviews to talk about exploratory design research and slowing down in order to move quickly.