About

I'm Nicole Arbuckle Abling. I am originally from Louisville, KY and have a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Sociology from Bellarmine University. I moved to Dayton in 2007 to earn a Master’s in Psychology from the University of Dayton. I met a boy in a bar and decided to stick around, or so the story goes...

After grad school I spent several years as a Research Psychologist at the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI). With my my specialization in Human Factors Psychology, specifically decision making in complex conditions, I was able to represent UDRI as a researcher on many contracts for the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control. Those contracts gave me experience understanding performance in environments such as spatial disorientation, hypoxia, long periods of sustained attention, healthcare, and autonomous systems.

I worked at UDRI until 2013 where I was lured away by the fast pace of industry and product development. I currently work at Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies (CTCT), a joint venture between Trimble Navigation and Caterpillar Heavy Equipment. I have served many roles in CTCT: User Experience Analyst, User Experience Manager, Customer Experience Manager and most recently Director of Customer Success. Currently, I lead a global team of approximately 40 practitioners of User Experience, User Assistance, Technical Documentation, Training, Industrial Design, Translation, Software Development, Simulation, and Support. We work with a fantastic global team that is responsible for the development and release of Trimble Earthworks and Cat GRADE, among other products.

My most recent achievement is the completion of an MBA in Marketing from the University of Dayton in June of 2020. This experience has given me an entirely new lens through which to practice Data Driven Design.

In my free time I like to enjoy getting dirty with my family: hiking, boating, fishing, exploring and working on our 8 acre hobby farm in Tennessee.