User Research

Discovery Research

Discovery research answers the question you need to ask before you can ask anything else: what problem are we actually solving, for whom, and in what context? We run interviews, contextual inquiry, diary studies, and competitive analysis to build a shared understanding of the problem space before a single screen gets designed. The output is a research synthesis — not a stack of transcripts, but a point of view.

Usability Testing

Watching people use a product is humbling and productive in equal measure. We run moderated usability studies — in person or remote — at every stage of development: early concepts, mid-fidelity prototypes, and production builds. Issues are documented by severity, not just occurrence, so the team can make informed triage decisions rather than treating every finding as equally urgent.

Heuristic Evaluation

When you need a fast read on an existing product’s usability, a heuristic evaluation delivers in days rather than weeks. We assess the interface against established usability principles, document violations by severity, and provide actionable remediation guidance. It’s not a replacement for testing with real users, but it’s a reliable tool for surfacing known categories of problems quickly.

Research Synthesis

Raw data doesn’t drive decisions — synthesis does. We analyze qualitative data systematically: affinity mapping, theme development, journey mapping, and persona construction grounded in observed behavior rather than demographic assumptions. The deliverable is a clear, prioritized set of findings that the team can act on, presented in a format that travels well in stakeholder meetings.

Synthesis and Mapping

Research findings don’t drive decisions — synthesized findings do. After fieldwork, we structure what we’ve learned into artifacts that make patterns legible across the whole team: Customer Journey Maps that trace what users actually do, think, and feel at each stage of an experience; Service Blueprints that map the processes and systems behind each touchpoint; and mental model diagrams that show how users categorize and reason about a problem space.

These artifacts are designed to be used, not archived. They become the shared vocabulary for product, design, and engineering to reason from the same picture of user reality — which is where good strategy starts.

Research Operations

Research has more impact when it’s a continuous practice rather than a one-time event. We help teams build lightweight research infrastructure: recruiting pipelines, consent and privacy workflows, shared repositories for past findings, and templates that make it easy for anyone on the team to run a basic study. The goal is a team that can answer its own questions without always needing an outside researcher.