Ellen Kolsto
Design Principal
ibm
Ellen Kolstø has been conducting user and consumer research for 18+ years. She started her journey as a Strategic Planner for agencies such as Mullen and GSD&M. In 2012 she moved to market and product research heading up qualitative research in North America for System 1 Group (formerly BrainJuicer). Ellen joined IBM in 2016 where she spent two years focused on understanding teams that develop AI. In 2018, she was appointed Design Principal within IBM Research to lead user research on emerging technology experiences, including IBM Quantum. Currently she is working on understanding visionary use of cloud environments to support software applications. Ellen’s work at IBM has defined new user groups, identified crucial gaps in product experiences and given teams direction for product development to meet future-facing user and market needs.