FAQ

Before research begins, we run a kickoff and discovery phase to make sure key stakeholders agree on goals and priorities. For example, as part of our project kickoff meeting, we usually lead a discussion to help stakeholders brainstorm goals for the research, then assist them in prioritizing those goals, all while scribing on a digital whiteboard.

Before the final presentation, we share session recordings and encourage your team to watch how users interacted with your product firsthand. During the presentation, we play highlight reels so your team can see key moments where users struggled and why. We often wrap up with next steps ideation to make sure research leads to action.

We embrace pushback as part of the process, not a problem to manage. Our job is to represent the user's perspective. We let the evidence, particularly clips from research sessions, do the talking so that conversations stay focused on what users actually experienced rather than competing opinions. 

When applicable, we also draw from our experience conducting user research for other relevant organizations and cite UX best practices and studies. Understanding broader user behaviors can make stakeholders more open to unexpected findings and suggestions. And if a recommendation still doesn’t work for them, we’ll work to find an alternative that both reflects business goals and what the research showed.

We understand you're busy, so let us do the heavy lifting. We handle everything from conducting sessions to analysis, so your time commitment during research is light. You do not have to attend research sessions, since we record and share all interviews. We do encourage your team to watch at least one session before the final presentation to directly see how users interact with your product and better understand how our findings were shaped.

Yes, though there are some potential tradeoffs if you choose to do so. For most sessions, two researchers join, one to moderate and one to take notes and handle technical backup. Adding more people can feel overwhelming to some participants. Plus, the more attendees, the more difficult it becomes to schedule a time that works for everyone. For most of our clients, watching recorded sessions at their own pace works best. 

That said, live observation is possible. We'll walk you through a few observer guidelines beforehand so the session runs smoothly for everyone, and we can facilitate a quick debrief after to address any questions.

Start by identifying the key people who should attend the kickoff meeting. This typically includes team members who need to understand and act on the research, those who know your product and users best, and senior leadership whose goals are critical to the project’s success.

If you can share any prototypes, existing research, customer feedback, or analytics data ahead of time, that'll help us come into kickoff with more context and better questions.

The earlier you bring us in, the better. Research is usually more valuable before everything is set in stone, when there’s still room to make strategic decisions based on what we find. We’ve tested paper sketches, early-stage concepts, and trial copy in bare-bones documents. In all cases, clients appreciated having user input early in the process. 

If anything significant changes after research wraps and/or you want to see how users respond to a more sophisticated version of your product, we can always revisit with a follow-up round.

It happens! Sometimes prototypes take longer than expected, your new CEO decides to take the project in a different direction, and/or a new data changes everything. In those situations, our company size is an advantage. We’re not giving you a tiny window in an ever-churning queue. As a small team that works with a small number of clients, we’re well-positioned to pivot and modify the timeline as needed.

We generally plan to expect the unexpected. We build flexibility into our project timelines from the start, so minor delays on your end rarely derail the overall project. We also keep communication open throughout with regular check-ins and status updates, so we can flag and adjust early before a small slip turns into a bigger problem. If timelines do shift significantly, we'll work with you to reprioritize and reschedule without losing momentum.

It happens! Sometimes prototypes take longer than expected, your new CEO decides to take the project in a different direction, and/or a new data changes everything. In those situations, our company size is an advantage. We’re not giving you a tiny window in an ever-churning queue. As a small team that works with a small number of clients, we’re well-positioned to pivot and modify the timeline as needed.

We generally plan to expect the unexpected. We build flexibility into our project timelines from the start, so minor delays on your end rarely derail the overall project. We also keep communication open throughout with regular check-ins and status updates, so we can flag and adjust early before a small slip turns into a bigger problem. If timelines do shift significantly, we'll work with you to reprioritize and reschedule without losing momentum.

The core research process stays the same either way. With agencies, we're used to operating as a research partner within a larger engagement, adapting our outputs and communication style to fit seamlessly into your workflow and deliverables. 

With direct clients, we take on a more hands-on role in stakeholder alignment and internal communication, since we're working closely with the people who will act on the findings.

We keep onboarding simple and collaborative. It typically starts with a kickoff meeting where we align on project goals, audiences, and any existing context you can share. From there, we may conduct stakeholder interviews to deepen our understanding of your product, users, and internal challenges before research begins. By the time we move into research design and recruiting, we've already built enough shared context to hit the ground running.

We think about this from the start, not just at the end. We work with you to make sure the people who can act on the research join our kickoff meeting and final presentation.

During the presentation, we create space for your team to discuss findings, ask questions, and align on next steps together. Having the right people in that conversation makes it easier for insights to translate into action.

Our reports are also structured to be digestible for different audiences, with an executive summary for leadership and detailed findings for the teams acting on them.

We have quite a bit of experience recruiting and screening hard-to-find audiences through panels, including enterprise scientists, cybersecurity leaders, patent attorneys, parents seeking an au pair, and many more. To make sure we're talking to the right people, we build a screener survey tailored to your exact criteria and speak directly with candidates before scheduling sessions.

If a panel can't get us there, we explore other options. Our best bet is often recruiting directly from your customer or user lists. If we need to talk to your internal users, such as customer support agents or franchisees, we'll collaborate closely with you to find the right people. When internal contacts aren't available, we get creative with other approaches like LinkedIn outreach or intercept recruiting.

No-shows happen occasionally, and we plan for them. To minimize the risk of no-shows, our recruitment process includes thorough screening, scheduling confirmations, and reminder communications. We also build a buffer into our recruitment targets. If someone drops out last minute, we have backups ready to fill the slot without delaying the project.

Our recruiting process has two layers. First, prospective participants fill out a written screener survey and we filter down to the most promising candidates. We design our screeners carefully so that candidates don’t know who we’re targeting.

Next, we conduct a phone screen to ask follow-up questions and assess the participant before we schedule anyone. We include open-ended questions in our written and phone screeners and check for consistency between responses. We also review LinkedIn profiles and other online information for B2B studies. 

This whole process ensures that we're bringing the right participants to your sessions.

We take participant privacy seriously. We don't collect sensitive PII like ID numbers, medical records, or financial data. Any non-sensitive PII, like names and email addresses, are stored on encrypted, GDPR-compliant cloud servers. We mask sensitive personal information from session recordings and screenshots.

Our team obtains informed consent at each stage of the recruiting process and explain, in general terms, what they’ll have to do during the session. We only schedule participants who have explicitly consented to be recorded and to screenshare (if necessary). We also double-check with them at the start of each session before starting the recording. As part of our session intro, we make it clear that recordings are only shared internally and won't be distributed beyond that. 

If your organization has specific data-handling protocols or needs an NDA in place, we're happy to work within those requirements.

You’re shaping our screener questions from the beginning when you tell us about your target audience during the kickoff meeting and follow-up discussions. We summarize the audience definitions and recruitment criteria in a recap document, then give you a chance to weigh in before we start the recruitment process. 

From this point, we typically handle the whole recruiting process, including writing the screener questions. Based on many years of experience writing screener surveys, we have specific ways of asking questions to avoid leading prospective participants or making it too obvious what we’re looking for. The conditional logic required by some screeners can also be tricky to manage. That’s why we prefer to do the writing ourselves, based on what we’ve learned from you. 

If you'd like to take a look at our screener questions and share any feedback before they go live, we're always open to that. 

Recordings and session data are stored on encrypted, GDPR-compliant cloud servers and are only accessible to our internal team and your designated project contacts. Participants always have the right to request that their data be modified or deleted. If your organization has specific data retention requirements, we're happy to work within those.

Incentive amounts vary depending on the audience and session length, typically ranging from $50 to $200. For general consumers, incentives tend to be on the lower end, while more specialized B2B audiences typically require higher incentives to motivate participation. 

We distribute incentives through User Interviews, Tremendous, and/or Amazon gift cards, depending on the project. Our researchers handle incentive fulfillment and build expenses into the project budget upfront so there are no surprises.

Once you share the list, we’ll handle as much as possible from there, including writing the outreach email, managing responses, screening candidates, and scheduling sessions. We keep your brand in mind when crafting outreach messaging so it feels consistent with how you typically communicate with your customers. We can also revise our copy after a review from your team, although we might need to adjust the timeline if necessary.

In some cases, we may decide that a recruiting email will be more trustworthy and successful if it comes directly from an address within your organization. We can work with you on everything leading up to the send.

If response rates are lower than expected, we'll flag it early and work with you on additional outreach or alternative recruiting strategies.

Depending on the project, we think about diversity across multiple dimensions, including age, gender, ethnicity, geography, experience level, and role type. We also recruit for behavioral factors, such as how participants currently use your product or where they are in their journey. We consider all of these characteristics while designing our screener and recruiting so we're hearing from a representative range of voices.

Absolutely. Most of our research is conducted remotely via Zoom, which means geography is rarely a barrier. We can recruit across multiple cities, regions, or countries for the same study. Our team has experience recruiting internationally in Europe, Canada, Asia, Africa, and South America.

A few things go into determining the price: number of research rounds, sample size, recruiting difficulty, number of research methods, product complexity, research goal complexity, and deliverable requirements. 

An example of a lower-cost project: 1 round of qualitative usability testing for a McDonald's-like mobile app feature, with 8-10 participants from a broad consumer audience.

An example of a more expensive project: qualitative and quantitative information architecture research for a Salesforce-like application with multiple rounds of iterative testing, a mix of methods (e.g., card sort, tree testing, click testing), and multiple unique B2B audiences with large sample sizes.

Both are typically included in the total project cost. We can break them out as separate line items in our budget so you have full visibility into where the money is going. In any case, our expenses are factored in up front so there's nothing billed separately down the line.

Absolutely. We’re happy to start small. A lighter engagement is actually a great way to get a feel for how we work together before committing to something larger. We can adjust the sample size, number of sessions, methods, and deliverables to fit a tighter scope or budget, then build from there if that’s best for your situation.

Yes, and it's actually our preferred way of working. Our longest and most impactful client relationships have been ongoing research programs rather than one-time projects. 

A retainer contract with us typically offers a set number of studies per year with a consistent team. We establish regular communication rhythms, like a weekly check-in, and a deep understanding of your product and audience that grows over time. It's also the most efficient way to work, with less ramp-up, deeper context, and better value over time. 

Learn more about how we build ongoing research programs.

We try to anticipate potential scope changes during the discovery phase so we're not caught off guard mid-project. As a small team, we also strive to stay flexible; for example, an extra session or two typically doesn’t warrant a budget adjustment. If something significant does shift, however, we'll have an honest conversation about what it means for timeline and budget and adjust together from there.

For one-time projects, we typically invoice 50% of the fee upon contract signing and 50% upon delivery of our final report. For ongoing programs, we invoice at the end of each month. Payments are due within 30-45 days.

We start with one or more Zoom calls with you to capture and discuss key information about your project scope. We then use a detailed, spreadsheet-based process to estimate hours for each phase of your project: discovery, recruitment, research, analysis, and reporting. We use about 20 variables to arrive at the estimates. For example, we score recruitment difficulty on a 6-point scale and then factor in the sample size. Our project quotes combine the total cost of our time with any estimated expenses. We’re always open to sharing a detailed breakdown of our costs.

Over the last 15 years, we have consistently tracked our hours by task across a wide range of projects. We regularly update our estimation rules and assumptions based on this historical data to ensure our quotes are accurate.

Our ongoing research programs typically start at $20,000 per month. One-time projects start at $30,000.

It depends on the scope, but we’re generally competitive when you consider the full picture. Self-service tools may have a lower upfront cost, but they require you to take on a lot more work: study design, recruitment, moderation, analysis, and reporting. In-house research also demands significant time and investment in training and staffing to ensure quality. With us, you’re partnering with an experienced team that handles the process end to end, faster and with less lift on your side than building that capability internally.

Just let us know as early as possible so we can adjust our schedule accordingly. After the pause, we can usually pick up where we left off without losing momentum or starting over. If the pause is extended, we may need to revisit timelines and check in on whether any recruitment or scheduling needs to be adjusted, but we’ll work through that together.

Our typical timeline is 6-8 weeks from kickoff to final delivery for a one-time study. That said, we have completed studies within a few weeks for clients with an aggressive deadline. If speed is a priority, we'll be upfront about what's realistic and what tradeoffs come with moving faster.

Research and agile cycles work well together when planned intentionally. We have experience working within sprint-based environments and can structure studies to fit within or between sprints. Shorter, focused studies work especially well since findings can feed directly into the next sprint. The key is looping us in early enough so findings can actually influence what gets built.

Recruiting challenges are the most common source of delay, especially when we’re recruiting niche users from a client’s customer list. We try to avoid delays by drawing on past data and carefully calculating a reasonable amount of time for recruiting at the outset of the project. If necessary, we can speed up stalled recruiting by tapping multiple sources and channels. Nevertheless, finding the right participants takes time, and rushing the process usually compromises quality.

Delays in prototype development on the client’s side are another common cause of slowdowns. While these obstacles are usually beyond our control, building a buffer into our timeline and aligning on expectations up front helps us keep projects moving on schedule even when the unexpected comes up.

They can happen in parallel. Research is most beneficial when it’s integrated into your design and development process. We’ve run studies alongside active design and development work, where findings from one round feed directly into the next iteration. What matters most is setting up the timing so that insights inform decisions at the right moments rather than arriving too late to act on.

From the time you sign the contract, we can typically kick off your project within 2 weeks. If we’re particularly busy and need more lead time, we’ll let you know in our initial discussions. 

Typically 2 weeks. That covers writing and launching the screener survey, finding and screening candidates, and scheduling confirmed participants. For harder-to-find audiences or large sample sizes, we recommend budgeting 3 weeks.

Usually within 2-3 weeks of the last research session. Analysis takes time to do well, and we'd rather take a few extra days to get it right than rush to a surface-level presentation. That said, if you need a quick pulse check before the full report is ready, we can share preliminary observations shortly after sessions wrap or even partway through the research.

From our experience, the two biggest client-determined factors that can affect our timeline are access to your customer or user lists (if we’re recruiting from them) and having prototypes or products ready for testing. The sooner we have both, the better. Delays in either can affect the timeline.

Beyond that, timely feedback and approvals on research plans and discussion guides also help keep things on track. We’ll make sure you always know what’s coming.

In most cases, at least 2-3 weeks before sessions can be scheduled. We need to see a near-ready version of the prototype or product early in the project so we can design the research and write the interview guide.

We’d need the actual prototype or product ready for testing at least a few days before sessions begin to check that we can access it and share it with participants. 

‍In general, the earlier we have access to what we’re testing, the better. If changes are still happening close to session dates, we'll work with you to assess whether the timeline needs to adjust.

Discovery research is valuable even when you feel confident about the problem. It can confirm what you know while also surfacing the things nobody thought to ask about. We've run projects where the team had the problem mostly right, but talking to real users early revealed nuances that changed the direction in ways they didn't expect. UX research is a low-risk way to make sure you're building on solid ground. Plus, if there’s any disagreement among your team, seeing is often believing; watching users encounter the problem in real time is very persuasive. 

Absolutely. And early testing is often the most valuable. We've worked across all stages of development. We’ve even run sessions with nothing more than slides and concept sketches, which were enough to give our client’s team the clarity and direction they needed before committing to a full build. If users can see it and share their thoughts, we can test it.

A usability test puts users in front of a product or prototype to complete realistic tasks, while researchers observe where they succeed and where they get stuck. A user interview is more of a conversation to understand their current and past behaviors, needs, workflows, and pain points.

Which one makes sense depends on where your product sits in the development cycle, but we often combine both in each research session: brief interviews first to understand users’ context and behaviors, and usability testing later to observe how they interact with the product. 

To talk through what might work best for your project, contact us and we’ll follow up to schedule a call.

Yes. For most teams, we recommend using an iterative approach in which we test one design, make changes based on what we learn, and repeat the process.

In some cases, we advocate testing multiple design directions in the same round, such as when teams have generated competing designs from prior research and need to pick one quickly. In this case, we can put different versions of a design in front of representative users, observe where each one works and where it needs improvement, and give you evidence to inform the decision rather than relying on assumptions and opinions.

A survey works well when you want to broadly understand patterns among users and their behavior before going deep with qualitative interviews. It’s also an efficient add-on option if people on your team want to see larger sample sizes than we typically include in moderated usability studies. 

We also often use surveys as recruitment tools, where respondents who meet the criteria become a pre-screened pool for qualitative research sessions. A survey is not always necessary, but the two methods complement each other. The survey tells you what’s happening broadly, and the interviews tell you why.

When there are no existing users, we can talk to prospective users, people who match the intended user profile based on behaviors, roles, or needs. We can also speak with people who are currently using competitor products, which often surfaces more honest and unfiltered feedback on what's working and not working. 

We'd love to learn more about the product you’re building and start thinking about the right approach. Contact us and we’ll follow up to schedule a call.

We typically start research with a kickoff call, followed by stakeholder and SME interviews within your organization. Our team invests time familiarizing ourselves with your product, your user profile, and their key tasks before designing a discussion guide for sessions with experts. 

Something we often tell prospective clients is that Marketade researchers don’t have to be experts in a subject to find out what you need to know from experts. We do have extensive experience interviewing users from specialized domains, including scientific research, financial services, and government software. If you'd like to see relevant case studies, email or contact us.

Diary and longitudinal research aren't a core part of our current offerings. That said, our recurring research programs, where we run iterative rounds of studies over months or years, can give you a longitudinal view of how users’ needs evolve as the product changes. We’ve worked with several clients who tested their product across multiple rounds at different stages of the development cycle. 

Contact us to talk through whether we can find the right approach that fits your needs.

We design tasks and scenarios during the discovery phase, informed by a kickoff call, stakeholder interviews, and the products or prototypes we plan to test. We write tasks that encourage realistic user behavior rather than leading participants toward a particular outcome. For instance, we’d be more likely to say, “Imagine you couldn’t finish now and had to come back later. Show us what you would do.” than “When do you think you would click the Save button?” We can share the discussion guide with your team for review and feedback before sessions begin.

Yes, analytics data, prior studies, and customer feedback all help us prioritize what to test and identify hypotheses worth exploring in research sessions. We encourage you to share whatever you have. Reviewing existing materials is a standard part of our discovery phase.

Every high-priority finding in our deliverables comes paired with at least one specific recommendation, not just a description of what users did. We prioritize findings based on frequency and severity, and structure our reports so stakeholders can quickly grasp the top issues and understand what the research suggests they should do about them. 

We also distinguish between short-term fixes and longer-term opportunities, where applicable, so your team knows where to start. We don’t want to wrap up the project with a long list of findings and no direction forward. Our goal is for your team to leave the presentation feeling motivated to apply the research and excited to tackle clear next steps and solutions.

We pair each top finding with actionable recommendations, supported by video clips, participant quotes, and/or annotated screenshots, so your team leaves with a clear to-do list. Our team sometimes draws on best practices and pulls examples from competitor products or widely-frequented websites and apps. For more advanced engagements, we also create annotated prototypes with prioritized design recommendations.

For most projects, Marketade researchers conduct in-depth analysis internally to identify and prioritize the findings that we’ll deliver to your team. We don’t usually involve clients in this process. When helpful, we facilitate structured workshops using exercises like affinity mapping and solution prioritization to build team alignment around next steps. In that case, we'd recommend including team members who want to be part of shaping the direction based on our findings and recommendations.

Yes to both! We share session recordings as a standard deliverable for your team to review at any time. We also create and share highlight reels, short edited clips from sessions, which we include in reports to support important insights. 

We prioritize based on how frequently an issue appeared, how severely it affected users, and how well it aligns with your product goals. When applicable, we also differentiate between quick fixes and long-term opportunities so your team knows where to start without feeling overwhelmed.

Yes, and we’d encourage you to invite your leadership or executive team to our presentation. We structure presentations to lead with the most important findings in a way that’s easy to absorb and act on, regardless of familiarity with the research process. The more team members in the room, the better.

It happens more often than you’d think, and it’s not a bad thing. Some of the most valuable projects we’ve worked on were the ones that challenged what a team thought they knew.

We present findings as they are, supported by video clips, user quotes, and observed behavior, so the evidence speaks for itself rather than just our interpretation. When we sense that we’ve found something truly unexpected and gamechanging, we share findings with your team before the final presentation so nothing catches anyone off guard.

We know that a long document nobody reads doesn’t drive change. That’s why our default deliverable is a deck-based report, typically 50-70 slides, with an executive summary, prioritized findings, actionable recommendations, and plenty of screenshots and video clips. Along with the report, we share full session recordings and research artifacts such as the discussion guide and kickoff summary.

It depends on the type of research. Insights about core user behaviors and pain points tend to stay relevant longer, while findings tied to a specific design or feature can be more time-sensitive.

We also frame findings in two ways: short-term recommendations to tackle right away, and long-term opportunities to shape your product’s direction over time. The more regularly you conduct research, the better equipped your team is to act on both kinds of findings, which is why we advocate for ongoing research programs over one-time studies.

Yes, we’re still here for you after the final presentation. If questions come up about the findings or recommendations, we’re happy to jump on a call. 

If your team is looking for substantial follow-up analysis or additional research, we can scope out a small project or build it into an ongoing research program. Either way, we'd rather you come back with questions than sit on something you’re not sure about.