When should we do customer research rather than usability testing?

It comes down to whether you already have something to test. Usability testing needs an artefact. A live product, a prototype, even a rough sketch of a flow. You put it in front of someone and watch where they struggle. It answers “does this work?”...

How do you use AI in your own research?

We use AI openly, but with strict bounties. We use it for transcription on most projects, and transcripts are part of what you get. One honest caveat: recordings made in the field are messier than remote interviews, so on contextual work we use a mix of transcripts...

Can AI replace UX research?

No, but it has changed how research gets done, and researchers who ignore it will be replaced by researchers who don’t. AI is good at analysis. Give it a pile of transcripts and it will find the patterns quickly. It is much weaker at synthesis, which is the part...

How do we avoid building the wrong thing?

Test the assumption before you build on it. Most wasted development spend does not come from bad code. It comes from building something well that nobody needed, or building the right thing in a shape people cannot use. Both are visible before development starts, and...

How do you recruit participants, especially hard to reach ones?

We write a recruit brief with you, then work through a network of professional recruiters to find people who match it. You approve the criteria before anyone is contacted. The harder question is what happens when the people you need are not on a recruiter’s...