USER RESEARCH LEAD | GAMES · E-COMMERCE · CONSUMER TECH
I build research functions and partner with teams to turn player and customer insights into decisions.
I'm Charlese Saballe. I lead UX and Player Research at Metacore Games, where I built the research function for Merge Mansion from the ground up. Before that, I was a Senior Quantitative User Researcher at Zalando. My work runs across player research, quant, qual, and inclusive design, and I'm at my best connecting the dots across different types of data and weaving them into something that drives action and strategy.
Selected Research
A few highlights
A taste of my work, from building a research function to advanced quant and inclusive design. The full set lives on the work page.
Building the Player Research Function
How I turned ad-hoc research requests into a system: intake tied to decisions, a live roadmap, and an AI-queryable insights repository.
Research went from reactive and disposable to a function that product teams now use.
What Drives Players to Stick
Merge Mansion had high awareness but low retention. I set out to find what actually moves players to keep playing, and where we stood against competitors.
Became the evidence base for the brand refresh and a gameplay priority.
Black-Owned & Focused Brands
Evidencing whether Black-owned and Black-focused brands were missing from the platform, for whom, and in which categories plus the awareness gap underneath.
Presented to category buyers; informed Zalando's commitment to onboard 70+ Black-owned brands.
How I work
A few principles run through all of it.
Whatever the method or industry, the same beliefs shape the work.
Research should serve a decision.
The most useful research is tied to a decision someone needs to make. Research anchored to a decision tends to get used; research that isn't tends to sit in a folder.
Connect the dots across kinds of evidence.
Behaviour, attitudes, and community feeling: no single source gives the whole picture. I'm at my best bringing them together into something a team can act on.
Pair quant rigour with qual depth.
Numbers for scale and measurement; conversations for meaning and motivation. The methods are usually stronger together than either is alone.
Be honest about the evidence.
I'd rather flag a limitation than oversell a finding, and be clear about who did what. Being honest about the edges is what makes the rest worth trusting.
Get in touch
Let's talk research.
Happy to talk about research, inclusive and responsible practice, or how teams can make better use of insights. Whether you're hiring, collaborating, looking for a speaker, or just want to swap notes, please reach out.