Summary
"Redefining the Research Toolkit" not only applies to methods, but tools, too. The marketplace for research platforms continues growing and evolving, offerings professionals the opportunity to find a nearly perfect research match. This means that more teams are opting to "unbundle" their research stack, choosing best-in-class options for critical phases instead of an all-in-one. This session has two goals: 1) Highlight some of the of tools researchers are prioritizing for their stacks 2) Present a case study of a best-in-class stack in action Join to learn about the freedom of choice researchers have for their toolkits and some of the best-in-class options available.
Key Insights
-
•
All-in-one research platforms average $100,000 per year and may not flexibly adapt as research needs evolve.
-
•
BYO toolkits enable teams to select best-in-class tools tailored to their specific research methods and questions.
-
•
User Interviews specializes in upstream participant recruitment, maintaining an exceptionally low fraud rate of 0.3%.
-
•
AI-driven participant matching improves recruitment quality and reduces panel churn in User Interviews’ platform.
-
•
Calendly uses a BYO stack combining Sprig for in-app surveys and User Interviews for recruiting to address diverse research needs.
-
•
Flexibility in tool choice allows teams with limited headcount and budgets to scale research effectively.
-
•
BYO stacks support democratizing research by enabling controlled access for non-researchers like PMs and designers.
-
•
User Interviews offers direct integrations and flexible API partnerships, plus options to use any tool via URL links.
-
•
Effective fraud detection combines automated monitoring with researcher-controlled flags to maintain data integrity.
-
•
Focusing on a core strength—in this case, participant recruitment—and partnering with specialized tools leads to more effective research workflows.
Notable Quotes
"Budgets are tight across research, design, and product; all-in-one platforms are costly and often don’t fit those budgets."
"When you get a best in class tool, you are able to execute more rigorous research and show clearer ROI."
"We found a greater variety and depth of questions that require richer methodologies, so BYO works better for us."
"Our fraudulent participant rate is about 0.3%, compared to the industry average of 20 to 22%."
"We built AI that suggests projects to participants that pre-match what you’re asking for instead of mass blasting everyone."
"The world is your oyster with whatever tool you want to use, even if we don’t directly integrate with it."
"The only way to do research wrong is to not do it at all."
"BYO gives researchers more control over who gets access to the panel and where you want guardrails versus freedom."
"My time is more expensive than my money; fraudulent data wastes valuable time."
"We focus on getting top quality participants and let others specialize in testing or analysis tools."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We haven’t lost our power as a discipline — we just need to reclaim agency and make others recognize the power we already hold."
Eduardo Ortiz Robin Beers Rachael Dietkus, LCSW Bruce Gillespie Jess Greco Marieke McCloskey Renee ReidDay 3 Theme Panel
March 13, 2025
"Designers need better training to work with off-the-shelf enterprise software like Sitecore, Salesforce, and SharePoint."
Alexandra SchmidtEnterprise UX Playbook
December 1, 2022
"UX research teams spend significant time manually analyzing interviews, limiting capacity to focus on higher-value tasks."
Andy Barraclough Betsy NelsonFrom Costly Complexity to Efficient Insights: Why UX Teams Are Switching To Voxpopme
September 23, 2024
"Managing to outcome, not output, lets people own their way of working and leverages their best strengths."
Bria Alexander Laura Gatewood Corey Long Daniel Orbach Laine Prokay Deanna SmithThe Big Question about Resilience: A panel discussion
September 23, 2024
"Innovation has to fit within the tempo and rhythm of the organization and leadership."
Jon Fukuda Amy Evans Ignacio Martinez Joe MeersmanThe Big Question about Innovation: A Panel Discussion
September 25, 2024
"Only one internal hire on the UX team was a huge misopportunity for us."
Renee ReidBecoming a ResearchH.E.R (Highly Enterprise Ready)
June 3, 2019
"Equity is equal outcomes, not just equal access to a bicycle everyone can’t necessarily ride."
Jennifer StricklandAdopting a "Design By" Method
December 9, 2021
"Wiley Coyote is the master of iteration but he never really gets much closer to his goal because he fails to learn."
Jen BriselliLearning is the north star: service design for adaptive capacity
November 19, 2025
"Notes are preeminent things for thinking with because they expand our cognitive abilities."
Jorge ArangoAI as Thought Partner: How to Use LLMs to Transform Your Notes (3rd of 3 seminars)
May 3, 2024
