MIB
Hi, my name is

Mahad.

User Research Leader and Product Thinker

I lead user research at Included Health, connecting member insights to business outcomes. I've built and led global teams across 25+ countries—from corporate strategy rooms to field research during the West African Ebola crisis. I'm equally comfortable setting organizational vision, managing teams, or doing hands-on research.

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Mahad
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About

About Me

Mahad

I operate across the full spectrum—setting organizational strategy, building and mentoring teams, and doing hands-on research at the Senior Staff level. My work has taken me from corporate boardrooms to rural health clinics across four continents, including emergency response in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea during the Ebola crisis.

At Included Health, I've led discovery for our first new product in three years (achieving 5/5 member satisfaction), transformed research operations to deliver 4x volume at 54% lower cost, and defined multi-year strategies for flagship products addressing $40M+ opportunities. My work spans strategic product innovation, operational excellence, and cross-functional leadership across clinical, product, and design teams.

Before Included Health, I served as Managing Partner at Gobee Group, a boutique global design consultancy. Over 13 years, I managed strategy and vision for 60+ projects across 25+ countries, working with organizations including Microsoft, UNICEF, the World Bank, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative on medical devices, health data products, and technology solutions.

PhD from UC Berkeley with Fulbright research in Egypt.

Core Competencies

  • User Research & Strategy
  • Product Discovery
  • Research Operations
  • Cross-Functional Leadership
  • Healthcare Innovation
  • Human-Centered Design
  • Global Health Technology
  • Stakeholder Management
Career

Experience

Included Health

Senior Staff UX Researcher

August 2025 - Present

Promoted to Senior Staff role. Lead user research across organization. Member of product leadership group.

  • Led discovery for company's first new product in three years (Cancer Support Program), achieving perfect 5/5 member satisfaction
  • Transformed research operations: 4x volume increase, 54% cost reduction, top 10 globally by study volume
  • Defined multi-year strategies for flagship products addressing $40M+ opportunities
  • Built research infrastructure enabling evidence-based decision making at scale across organization
Research Stack: Maze • Marvin • RallyUXR • Sprig

Staff UX Researcher

October 2022 - August 2025

Focused on internal Care and Clinical teams. Member of product leadership group.

  • Led foundational research that created new internal tool stack (Care App)
  • Spearheaded 0-1 revamp of multiple service lines including Claims and Concierge Referral services
  • Launched product satisfaction tracking surveys across Care and Clinical teams
Gobee Group

Managing Partner

2009 - 2022

Managed boutique global design consultancy focused on human-centered innovation in healthcare and social impact.

  • Set corporate strategy and vision for 13 years
  • Led 60+ projects across 25+ countries
  • Worked with Microsoft, UNICEF, World Bank, Clinton Health Access Initiative
  • Developed medical devices, health data products, and technology solutions
  • Managed multidisciplinary teams across global engagements
Cell-ED

Chief Technology Officer

2013 - 2015

Built foundational business and technology strategy for mobile-first adult education platform serving low-literacy, low-resourced learners.

  • Architected location-agnostic micro-learning model delivering 3-minute lessons via any mobile device, even without internet
  • Developed scalable platform strategy enabling education delivery through basic phones, smartphones, tablets, and computers
  • Created technology framework that proved to accelerate learning by 84% (later validated through randomized controlled trials)
  • Platform has since won Library of Congress Literacy Award (2016) and Harvard Kennedy School Top 25 Innovations Award (2017)
View earlier career Microsoft, World Bank, Intel, HP & more
Background

Education

01

Ph.D.

University of California, Berkeley 2002 - 2009

Dissertation: "Peeling the Onion: The Case of the Information Technology Club Project in Egypt"

Fulbright Scholar, Egypt. Conducted fieldwork examining technology adoption and social change.

02

Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS)

University of California, Berkeley 2000 - 2002

Masters project: Street Stories - a location-based mobile application to gather and present place-based oral histories

Work

Featured Projects

Cancer Support Program
01

Cancer Support Program

Led end-to-end discovery for Included Health's first new product in three years—a comprehensive Cancer Support Program for members facing cancer diagnoses. Achieved perfect 5/5 member satisfaction across all metrics through extensive member research including 20+ interviews and unmoderated testing sessions. Introduced new platform capabilities including in-app caregiver support and direct provider messaging that now serve as foundation for future product development. Gained CEO-level recognition for innovation and member-centric approach.

Care & Case Management for the AI Era
02

Care & Case Management for the AI Era

Spearheaded comprehensive discovery and strategic vision for major overhaul of Care and Case Management product—a flagship offering addressing $40M+ market opportunity serving high-complexity members who account for 40% of healthcare costs. Delivered transformative 2-year product strategy through rigorous research including 10 member interviews, 20 stakeholder interviews, 60 survey respondents, and 20 unmoderated testing participants. Created vision for AI-driven care delivery with projected 40-50% efficiency gains for clinical teams and ROI improvements from 1.6:1 to 3:1. Strategy received strong executive endorsement with CEO pushing team to "think even further out."

Research Operations Transformation
03

Research Operations Transformation

Led comprehensive overhaul of Included Health's entire User Research technology stack to dramatically scale research capabilities and reduce operational friction. Delivered 4x increase in member research volume (200+ moderated interviews, 400+ unmoderated tests) while reducing costs and timelines. Achieved 68 studies completed annually, placing Included Health in top 10 companies globally according to Maze. Reduced insight development time from 4 hours to 30-60 minutes (4x efficiency gain) and cut cost per moderated study from $1,300 to $600 (54% reduction). Transformed organizational research capability with new research repository, User Research CRM, and expanded toolset for only $20,000 net additional cost.

OperationsResearch InfrastructureScaled Impact
Real-Time Ebola Data System
04

Real-Time Ebola Data System

Conducted on-the-ground research in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis to develop rapid approaches to better manage critical epidemic data flows. Led a team of 20 researchers, data scientists, and technologists under emergency conditions. Created a 300-page design guide and framework that allowed paper forms to support real-time data technology. Designed a hybrid paper-and-digital system that integrated with existing workflows while providing real-time data during the epidemic. Work was featured in VICE.

View more projects Global health & social impact work from Gobee Group
Research

Publications

VICE July 2015

Ebola's Paper Trail

There is a data collection problem in West Africa. Paper can fix it.

View all publications
Recommendations

What Colleagues Say

If you were to have only one design researcher on your team you would want it to be Mahad. From exploratory to generative to evaluative Mahad can do it all. He has a diverse toolkit of qualitative and quantitative methods, and not only can he execute on every project exceptionally well, he is a trusted and respected advisor and mentor to his colleagues. Most importantly, perhaps, he has the experience and skill to wrangle multiple — and sometimes oppositional — stakeholders and facilitate the hard, complex conversations to achieve alignment, clarity, and forward momentum on wicked problems.

Marie Mika, PhD Lead User Researcher, Frontrow Health

Mahad has a unique ability to grasp problems quickly, be empathetic with users, come up with a product strategy and business model and execute. He thinks big but can roll up his sleeves and fight with you in the trenches. A really rare quality. Mahad has taught me how to be a better businessman and product manager.

David Haddad Head of Product and Technology, Adherium

Working with Mahad at Included Health was an invaluable experience. His dedication to driving impactful research for our care and clinical teams was unparalleled. Soon after joining the company, Mahad implemented a repeatable method for stakeholders to observe and understand the challenges of these teams, generating empathy and valuable solutions in the process.

Allison Leach, CPACC Expert UX Researcher, Veradigm

I had the pleasure of working under Mahad directly during my internship at Gobee, and have been grateful to call him my mentor for 7 years now. In addition to being a brilliant multidisciplinary thinker that leads by example, he is also an incredible manager. Working with Mahad was a career accelerant for me.

Omar Mohamed Founder / PM, Startups

To be on a team with Mahad is to be on a winning team -- whether as a boss, colleague, or business partner. Mahad is unparalleled at organizing and inspiring teams, and he methodically and unflinchingly tackles problems of any scale. The depth and breadth of his experience and expertise makes him an indispensable player who can work on any project at any level.

Alexis Santos CEO, The Bureau Adventure Games

I have known Mahad for over 10 years and had the pleasure of working with him on multiple projects. Mahad's ability to breakdown and communicate complex ideas to bring it to life is unmatched. His demeanor was always composed and confident and he has a keen sense of emotional intelligence.

Bette Mengesha Principal, HR Business Partner, American Water
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