Design & Brand Experience · User research
Find out what users need before you build
We plan and run user research — interviews, usability testing, surveys and analytics review — and turn what we learn into clear findings and recommendations your team can act on in design, product and marketing decisions.
- Stakeholder alignment
- In-depth user interviews
- Moderated usability tests
Overview
Picking the right research method
Research methods answer different kinds of questions. Interviews explain why people behave as they do and what they are trying to achieve. Usability tests show whether people can complete a specific task with your design. Surveys measure how widespread an attitude or behavior is across a larger group. Analytics show what people did, not why. Choosing the wrong method produces confident answers to the wrong question.
The key trade-off is depth against breadth. A handful of interviews uncovers motivations and problems you did not know to ask about, but cannot tell you how common they are. A survey reaches many people but only answers questions you already thought of. We usually start qualitative to find the important issues, then quantify the ones that matter for a decision.
Good research is honest about its limits. We separate what participants said from what we observed, avoid leading questions, recruit people who match your real users rather than whoever is convenient, and state clearly how confident each finding is. Findings are written so your team can act on them, with the evidence attached and a clear note on which questions remain open for the next round.
Who it’s for
Built for teams like yours
- 01
Teams before a big build
Product teams about to commit engineering time to a new product or major feature, who want evidence that the problem is real and the proposed solution fits how people work.
- 02
Products with unclear churn
Companies seeing users drop off, cancel or stop engaging without a clear reason in the data, who need to hear directly from those users what went wrong.
- 03
Businesses entering new segments
Organizations targeting a new customer type, industry or region who cannot assume existing customers’ needs carry over, and want to learn before adapting the product.
Why it matters
Evidence instead of guesswork
Teams often build on assumptions about what users want, then learn the truth after launch, when changes are expensive. User research brings that learning forward. Talking to real users and watching them attempt real tasks shows where they struggle, what they value and which features would change their behavior, while design changes are still cheap.
We keep research proportionate: a few well-chosen sessions answering the right questions are worth more than a long report nobody reads. We focus on the decisions in front of you, recruit the right participants, and present findings your team can act on in the next sprint.
Every engagement includes
- Research plangoals, questions, methods, participant criteria and schedule agreed with you up front.
- Recruitment supportscreeners and outreach to your customers, or a panel when your audience is hard to reach.
- Session facilitationinterviews and tests run by experienced moderators, recorded with participant consent.
- Synthesisnotes coded into themes, with quotes and clips that show the evidence behind each finding.
- Findings readouta working session presenting prioritized recommendations and open questions to your team.
- Raw materialsrecordings, notes and artifacts handed over to you for future reference and reuse.
Features
Research methods we use
- 01
Stakeholder alignment
We agree on the decisions research must inform, so every session answers a question someone actually has.
- 02
In-depth user interviews
One-to-one conversations exploring goals, habits and frustrations, recorded and coded for recurring themes.
- 03
Moderated usability tests
Participants attempt real tasks on your product or prototype while we observe where they hesitate.
- 04
Surveys and screeners
Short, well-structured surveys to size patterns and recruit the right participants for deeper sessions.
- 05
Analytics and session review
Funnels, heatmaps and recordings reviewed to connect what people say with what they actually do.
- 06
Personas and journey maps
Findings distilled into practical artifacts that keep the user present in later product discussions.
In practice
Questions research can answer
Validating a new product idea
Before building, we interview people in your target market about how they handle the problem today, what they currently use, and what frustrates them, testing whether the need is strong enough to change behavior.
Finding friction in an existing flow
When a flow underperforms, moderated usability sessions show exactly where people hesitate, misread labels or give up. Watching five or six sessions often reveals the main issues worth fixing first.
Understanding why customers leave
We interview recently churned customers and those who downgraded, alongside a short exit survey, to separate product problems from pricing, timing or fit, so retention work targets the actual causes.
Prioritizing the roadmap
When stakeholders disagree on what to build next, we gather evidence on which problems users face most often and most painfully, giving roadmap discussions a shared factual basis rather than competing opinions.
Process
How we work
- 1
Research questions
We work with you to list the decisions the research must inform, then translate them into specific questions. Every method, participant criterion and interview question is chosen to answer those questions.
- 2
Recruiting
We write a screener describing the right participants, recruit from your customer list or an external panel, schedule sessions and handle consent forms and incentives in line with your policies.
- 3
Discussion guides
We draft interview guides or test scenarios with open, non-leading questions and realistic tasks, then pilot them in one session and adjust wording before running the full set. Tasks reflect real goals.
- 4
Sessions
We moderate remote or in-person sessions while a note-taker captures observations. Your team is invited to observe live, which builds shared understanding faster than any report could. Each session is recorded with consent for later review.
- 5
Synthesis and readout
We tag notes, cluster observations into themes, rank findings by frequency and severity, and present them in a working session that ends with agreed next steps for design and product.
Deliverables
What you receive
- Research plan with questions and methods
- Participant screener and recruitment summary
- Interview guides or usability test scripts
- Session recordings with timestamped highlights
- Synthesized findings ranked by severity
- Short video clips of key moments
- Recommended next steps for product and design
Tools & methods
Sessions
- Zoom
- Lookback
- Maze
- UserTesting
- Calendly
Analysis
- Dovetail
- Miro
- FigJam
- GA4
- Hotjar
Methods
- Contextual interviews
- Moderated usability testing
- Card sorting
- Tree testing
- Diary studies
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Anything else about User research? Ask us directly.
For usability testing, five to eight participants per distinct user group usually reveals the major problems, because the same issues repeat quickly. Interviews exploring needs may need a few more to see patterns across segments. Surveys need larger numbers. We recommend a sample size based on the decisions you are trying to make.
Let’s work together
Have a project in mind?
Book a strategy call and we’ll show you exactly how to turn your goals into a system that generates consistent results.