-

UserTesting Appoints Baran Erkel as Chief Strategy Officer

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UserTesting, a SaaS leader in experience research and insights, today announced the appointment of Baran Erkel as UserTesting’s Chief Strategy Officer. Erkel brings over two decades of experience in corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and strategic partnerships, and will play a pivotal role in driving UserTesting's next phase of growth and innovation.

In his new role, Erkel will shape the company’s long-term strategy and lead the development and execution of strategic initiatives aimed at expanding UserTesting’s market presence and accelerating innovation. He will lead efforts to identify and pursue growth opportunities, with a focus on acquisitions and strategic partnerships to strengthen the company’s market position.

“We are thrilled to welcome Baran to the team,” said Eric Johnson, CEO of UserTesting. “His deep expertise in corporate development, combined with a track record of successful acquisitions and partnerships, will be critical as we expand our business and look to enhance our offerings. Baran’s leadership will help us deliver on our mission to be the world’s leading human insight platform for innovators to transform customer experiences.”

Prior to joining UserTesting, Erkel served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy at Nintex, where he played a central role in executing and integrating five acquisitions that were instrumental in the company's success. During his seven years at Nintex, Erkel also helped foster strategic relationships with key partners, while significantly contributing to investor relations efforts.

“I’m excited to join UserTesting and look forward to working with such a talented team to drive the company’s strategic vision forward,” said Erkel. “I see tremendous opportunity for both organic and inorganic growth, and I’m eager to contribute to UserTesting's continued success through strategic agility, impactful acquisitions, and strong partnerships.”

Before Nintex, Erkel held leadership roles in corporate development at Citrix and began his career in technology and management consulting with Accenture. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and M.S. in Computer Networks from North Carolina State University.

About UserTesting

UserTesting is fundamentally changing the way digital products and experiences are built and delivered by helping organizations get insights from customers—from concept to execution. Built on top of a world-class, on-demand sourcing engine, customers can receive fast, high quality, opt-in feedback from both our proprietary and partner-sourced audience networks around the world. UserTesting offers the industry's most comprehensive experience research and insights solution. Unlike approaches that track user behavior or collect customer listening data on live experiences, then try to infer what that data means, UserTesting enables companies to get input directly from customers—earlier in the process—helping to reduce guesswork, and bringing experience data to life with human insight. The company, formed through the combination of UserTesting & UserZoom, has more than 3,000 customers worldwide, including 75 of the Fortune 100 companies. To learn more, visit www.usertesting.com.

Contacts

Media Contact:
UserTesting Technologies, Inc.
Susie Penner
press@usertesting.com

UserTesting Technologies, Inc.


Release Summary
UserTesting Appoints Baran Erkel as Chief Strategy Officer
Release Versions

Contacts

Media Contact:
UserTesting Technologies, Inc.
Susie Penner
press@usertesting.com

Social Media Profiles
More News From UserTesting Technologies, Inc.

UserTesting Unveils UserTesting for Figma, Embedding AI-Powered Customer Insights Directly into Design Workflows

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UserTesting, the leading provider of customer insights for the enterprise, today announced UserTesting for Figma, enabling design teams to create, launch, and analyze user experience tests directly inside their design workflow. The new plugin uses AI to automatically generate complete test plans from prototypes, turning customer feedback from a bottleneck into a seamless, always-on part of design. This will allow designers to convert Figma prototypes into live...

UserTesting Named a Leader in Experience Research Platforms by Top Independent Research Firm

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UserTesting, a leading provider of customer insights for the enterprise, today announced it was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Experience Research Platforms, Q1 2026 evaluation. The report assesses experience research platform (XRP) providers across current offering, strategy, and customer feedback to help buyers evaluate their options. According to the report, “UserTesting is the choice vendor for many global enterprises for UX research.” Forrester ide...

UserTesting Acquires User Interviews to Strengthen the Industry’s Most Comprehensive Customer Insights Solution for the AI Era

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UserTesting, the leading provider of customer insights for the enterprise, today announced it has acquired User Interviews, the leading participant recruitment platform for user research, market research, and AI training. The combination brings together powerful insights technology and premium participant access to deliver the industry’s most comprehensive and scalable customer insights solution. “As companies reimagine their products and experiences to win in...
Back to Newsroom