# Michael Winnick

> Michael Winnick is the Chicago-based founder and CEO of Dscout, an experience-research platform that grew out of the innovation consultancy gravitytank. A Stanford graduate who completed graduate coursework at IIT's Institute of Design, led product development at WIRED and other Bay Area companies, and later taught at Northwestern, Winnick has spent his career connecting product decisions with evidence from people's real lives. Dscout began as a mobile diary-study tool, became an independent company in 2011, committed to a subscription model around 2015, and raised a $70 million Series C in 2022. Winnick's recent work focuses on how UX researchers can use AI-era speed while preserving judgment, context, and direct human evidence.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Dscout
- **Organizations:** Dscout, gravitytank, WIRED, Northwestern University, IIT Institute of Design
- **Education:** BA, Stanford University, Graduate coursework, IIT Institute of Design
- **Known for:** Founded Dscout, which grew from a gravitytank-incubated mobile diary-study tool into an end-to-end experience-research platform., Led Dscout through a $70 million Series C financing in 2022., Helped popularize mobile, in-context qualitative research through participant-recorded video, images, text, and diary studies.

## Career timeline

- **1990s-2000s** — Led product-development work at Bay Area startups and media companies, including WIRED.
- **c. 2002-2011** — Spent nearly a decade at gravitytank and served as managing partner, working across strategy and business development.
- **2011** — Dscout, incubated inside gravitytank, was spun out as an independent company.
- **2014** — Dscout announced a Series A financing led by Chicago-based Synetro Group.
- **c. 2015** — The company committed to a SaaS subscription model after several years testing service, pay-per-use, and subscription approaches.
- **2016** — Presented Dscout's mobile-touches research at Greylock's ProductSF, framing apps as either attention-seeking “best friends” or useful “employees.”
- **2022** — Dscout raised a $70 million Series C led by Guidepost Growth Equity.
- **2024** — Dscout launched AI Analysis for summarizing, theming, and organizing qualitative research material.
- **2025** — Used “and” rather than “or” as the theme of a talk about combining speed with depth and AI with human judgment.
- **2026** — Published and spoke about UX leadership in the AI disruption, including treating AI as a design material and linking research to business momentum.

## Achievements

- Founded Dscout, which grew from a gravitytank-incubated mobile diary-study tool into an end-to-end experience-research platform.
- Led Dscout through a $70 million Series C financing in 2022.
- Helped popularize mobile, in-context qualitative research through participant-recorded video, images, text, and diary studies.
- Co-authored and presented Dscout's 2016 mobile-touches research, which measured an average of 2,617 daily phone touches in the study.
- Served as an adjunct lecturer in Northwestern University's MMM Program and taught graduate-level concept-definition courses at IIT's Institute of Design.
- Led gravitytank as managing partner before the consultancy was acquired by Salesforce.

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Appeared at UXDX USA in sessions on the risk of moving quickly in the wrong direction and on whether product and engineering should sit under one leader.
- **2026-02** — Published “UX Leadership in the AI Disruption,” encouraging UX leaders to treat AI as a design material and move beyond polarized debate.
- **2026-01** — Joined Marvin CEO Prayag Narula for a discussion about becoming a strategic ally, channeling AI momentum, and connecting research with adoption.
- **2025-11** — Presented “The AI + Human Opportunity,” using the ampersand to argue for speed and depth, innovation and integrity, and AI and human judgment.
- **2024-07** — Announced Dscout's AI Analysis capabilities for research summaries, themes, and qualitative analysis support.

## Links

- Website: https://dscout.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-winnick-482293
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbc4KQ2nj3I

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/michael-winnick
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-28