Michelle Poris

Michelle serves as Smarty Pants’ in-house quantitative research expert. With her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan and B.S. in Human Development from Cornell University, Michelle consults on each project to ensure language and methodology is age-appropriate for the participants involved.

Michelle has 25 years of research experience, including nearly 20 years of designing and executing business-building research for many of the world’s largest corporations and nonprofits. With an industry-wide reputation as a talented and meticulous researcher, her mastery of global quantitative methods is nothing less than stellar.

As Smarty Pants’ “Quant Savant,” Michelle leads all custom quantitative research initiatives. She has extensive experience with brands across industries including companies such as Crayola, Playskool, NUK, Aetna, Tommee Tippee, Spin Master, Hallmark, Nickelodeon, PepsiCo, and Target, to name a few. She matches the best quantitative methods to the specific project needs–including concept, package, and positioning evaluations, segmentation studies, A&U research, white space opportunities and more. Michelle also serves as an academic advisory board member of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU).

In addition to her consulting and her published work in academic journals such as Infant and Child Development and Young Consumers, Michelle regularly speaks about youth and family trends at national conferences–including serving as an invited speaker at the White House Conference on Generation Y: “Exploring the Digital Generation,” and instructing librarians and publishing professionals as a keynote speaker at the American Library Association annual conference, and educating marketers at multiple marketing and market research conferences.