Verbatim, Issue 04: Research Beyond the Researcher
How our whole team started running research, an invite to our October webinar with ERGO NEXT and Kate Towsey, TMRE Denver, new on the blog, and September product updates.
We've been running a lot of research at Strella lately. The twist? It's not just our researchers taking the reins. It's the whole team.
What's changed?
Decisions across every function are more grounded in customer insight. And we understand our customers' day-to-day needs (and sometimes frustrations) a lot better.
What guardrails did we put in place?
First, we got clear on what good research looks like. Then we decided where AI can run on its own and where one of our researchers steps in to adjust a study. Same for analysis: we know when the AI chat or Claude can handle it, and when someone needs to review the interviews themselves.
Why now?
Why not? Plus, a few of our customers inspired us, and one of them is joining us live next month. Keep reading.
You're invited: research beyond the researcher
Many research teams we talk to have the same problem. The research requests continue to grow but the team has not grown at the same rate.
So they have to make some decisions: what do they hand off, what do they keep, and how do they protect research quality along the way? We're going to be talking to one of our partners live to dig into exactly these questions.
Research Beyond the Researcher: Inside ERGO NEXT's Research Model
Jordan will share how ERGO NEXT Insurance opened research up beyond the research team, and Kate will get into how you keep the quality high as more people join in.
- Jordan Brinkman, ERGO NEXT Insurance
- Kate Towsey, author of Research That Scales and founder of the ResearchOps Review
- Hosted by our own Maya Kennedy, Customer Operations at Strella and former UX Researcher
- When: Wednesday, October 21
If you've been listening to the How to AI UXR podcast, you'll recognize Jordan and Kate. This time you get to ask the questions. Save your seat here.
Meet the team: TMRE Denver
The Strella team heads to TMRE October 5 to 7. Genevieve, Ally, and Arman will be there all week, so come say hi at booth 511.
On Monday, Genevieve is presenting with Cint on the question we hear before almost every first AI-moderated study: "will participants open up to an AI moderator?"
Session: Ask AIMI: Are Participants Comfortable With AI Moderation?
When: Monday, October 5, 2:25pm
Where: Room 703, Track 5
To answer it, we ran a live concept test on a new yogurt. Participants reacted to different front-of-pack claims and told us what really mattered to them. How much they shared surprised even us.
Are tacos more your speed? We'll be hosting a few friends of Strella for tacos & margs at BarTaco, so let us know you'll be around. RSVP for tacos & margs here.
What we're researching: new on the blog
Why qualitative research gets skipped in CPG innovation
What I saw across my CPG strategy roles, and what changes when strategy, marketing and innovation teams can run qual themselves, early.
A Baby Brand I Love Asked for My Feedback. They Never Got It
Kelsey on why busy parents aren't unwilling to give feedback. The format just doesn't fit their day.
Usability Tests and Metrics with the Depth of AI-moderated Interviews
A tour of the newest usability tests you can now run in Strella, so every feature that product and design teams are working on can be tested.
In case you missed it: product updates
You can always check the changelog for the week-to-week. Here's what we're most excited about this month:
- Human moderation: You can now moderate your own studies in Strella. Let Strella handle the recruitment, scheduling and analysis while you ask the questions.
- Organization-wide defaults: Create the standards for how your team builds and conducts studies in Strella and apply them across the full organization.
- Bring your own data and context into analysis: Upload notes and spreadsheets and they feed right into your analysis alongside your interviews to provide the context for even better deliverables.
Behind the scenes: we researched our own merch
New team merch was on my list, so I did what I'd tell any customer to do. I ran a study with Strella and then analyzed the results using our Claude connector.
Here's the verdict: yes to Patagonia and subtle star branding, no to socks and fidget spinners. I can't say I'm surprised by most of the results, but there was a contingent insistent on a new wise owl mascot for Strella (we're coming for you Duo)!
If you got all the way here, thanks for sticking around. More next month.
Talk soon,
Melissa
