Outset

We need to shift away from a mindset of research scarcity to research abundance. That's one of the key takeaways from Christopher Monnier, Principal UX Researcher at Microsoft AI, in yesterday's episode of The Insight Scoop. Hear what it means for user research and be sure to check out his article on this! https://lnkd.in/gA3epMqz Watch the full webinar: https://lnkd.in/gHi8qpxF

We're so excited to be returning to Quirk's Media Chicago Conference! Stop by our setup near the registration booth and talk to Michael Hess and Robert Crayton III all about how you can incorporate squal research (scaled qualitative research — you heard it here first) into your workflow. Let us know in the comments if you're going!

Join Aaron Cannon in the first edition of The Insight Scoop; a new web show where Aaron will sit down with guests from around the AI research space to discuss insights on the industry, emerging trends and tools, and so much more. And he'll be reviewing a different flavor of ice cream with each guest at the end (that's the insight SCOOP)! This week he'll be sitting down with Christopher Monnier, Principal UX Researcher at Microsoft AI, to discuss all the hot topics in research today -- from synthetic users, democratization, the role of the research in the age of AI, etc. Feel free to BYOB (Bring Your Own Bowl). We want to see some reviews in the chat!

We've talked a lot about how AI moderated research enables research teams to gather deep insights at scale, but recently Erik Kiaer explored another useful aspect of Outset: reaching remote populations for interviews. Over a couple days, he was able to conduct over 40 interviews with 25 shepherds scattered around the North and South Islands of New Zealand—a famously rural country. This contributed to the complete development of Atamai—a farmer-controlled repository for farm data with detailed personas, user flows, and feature sets—all in under 4 months. Read the full piece:

Two new features in a week?! We’re excited to announce a brand new interface for our customized AI synthesis! Building a narrative is a critical part of user research, but as researchers know, dissecting, intersecting, segmenting, and manipulating the data is a necessary prerequisite. With Custom Reports, users can pose any question they want and let AI quantitatively breakdown responses and qualitatively pick out the most critical nuggets and video clips. The new experience is faster, smoother, and more focused on connecting high level insights to raw clips of your participants. Building a narrative just got faster than ever.

Qualitative research has traditionally struggled with scalability. But with Outset’s AI-driven approach, scaling research is not only possible—it’s now more precise than ever. Today, we’re excited to introduce?Quotas, a powerful new feature that ensures your participant pool meets the exact distribution you need for confident, well-rounded insights. This goes beyond defining simple demographic criteria — Quotas allows for?complex, nested criteria, enabling multi-layered participant segmentation. For example, you can ensure a?50/50 split on employment status?while maintaining an even distribution across education level. High-quality research depends on?listening to the right people,?diving deep into their insights, and synthesizing findings effectively.?Quotas help you take a major step toward ensuring your participant mix is intentional, representative, and aligned with your research goals. Start using Quotas today and elevate the precision of your qualitative research. ??

As we heard last week in the User Interviews webinar with Joanne Locascio from Intuit, AI moderated research is enabling research teams to iterate at light speed. This means UX research teams can get insights where they matter before they matter and these insights are now able to be generated at every step of the design process. Still don't see how? Read on to find out...

Nestle, the world’s largest food and beverage manufacturer, is behind thousands of brands—but before any new product hits the market, it needs to pass one crucial test: consumer approval. Instead of spending months on traditional research, Nestle has turned to Outset’s AI-powered moderator to validate, refine, and prioritize product concepts faster than ever. In just nine months, they’ve tested?100+ ideas across seven brands in five countries, cutting a process that typically takes over a year down to just weeks. Michael Widenmeyer, Consumer Insights Sr. Manager at Nestle, shared exactly how this AI-driven approach is reshaping their innovation pipeline. Read on to see how Nestle is using Outset to bring breakthrough products to market—faster than ever:

We’re excited to introduce the two newest additions to our go-to-market team, Sarah Runkle and Robert Hess! Sarah joins us as our Founding Customer Success Manager. She comes from Bain as a Manager, where she conducted research and advised clients on a variety of GTM and Operations topics across industries. Prior to that, she received her MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and was an analytics manager in the healthcare space. After working with us in a contract role for over a year, Robert is now stepping into a more versatile full-time position focused on sales, marketing, and customer success, while continuing to provide support on administrative tasks as needed. His adaptability and dedication have already made a huge impact, and we’re looking forward to seeing him thrive in this expanded role! To fit with the Outset theme, we asked them both a fun question: If you could send an Outset interview to everyone you pass on your morning commute, what would you study? Sarah: I would study croissants - definitely. I'm 100% a croissant fanatic (For example...I've organized several full-day croissant walking tours in other cities before). I would love to get people's input on the best croissants and bakeries in San Francisco. Robert: I would want to find out what kind of hobbies people are into. I'm looking to find more things to do around the City, like pickup games or meetup groups, but it’s pretty hard to find those groups without stumbling across them.

Following the User Interviews webinar last week featuring Joanne Locascio, PhD and our very own Aaron Cannon, we decided to put together some of the key takeaways from the session.