UX Research Services
Stop building on assumptions. We uncover what your users actually think, feel, and do.
Since 2006
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$125M+ client revenue supported
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4+ year avg. client relationship
Most product decisions happen in conference rooms, driven by whoever has the strongest opinion. UX research changes that dynamic by replacing internal debate with direct evidence from the people who actually use your product.
Research is the difference between building what users ask for and building what they need
What people say they want and what they actually need are often different things. Traditional market research focuses on what users can articulate, but behavior is shaped by context, constraints, and subconscious patterns that surveys can't capture. Good UX research goes beyond stated preferences to understand the full picture - observing real behavior in context, uncovering unmet needs, and translating those insights into product decisions that solve actual problems.
Your team is shipping features users don't adopt.
Features that looked great in a roadmap review and tested fine in a demo go live and disappear into the void. Usage data shows low adoption. Support tickets pile up with confusion. The problem usually isn't execution - it's that the feature was built on an incomplete understanding of user behavior. UX research exposes those gaps before development starts, not after launch.
Stakeholder opinions are driving your roadmap.
When research is absent, the loudest voice wins. The CEO's intuition, the sales team's anecdotes, the support team's complaint queue - all of it becomes proxy data for what users actually need. That's not malicious, it's just what happens in a vacuum. Structured UX research gives your team a shared evidence base that depoliticizes prioritization and replaces opinion-driven debates with user-grounded decisions.
You're making expensive bets without validation.
A major platform redesign. A new onboarding flow. A pricing change. These are high-stakes decisions with months of engineering time and real revenue implications riding on them. Running research before committing to a direction isn't slowing down - it's the fastest way to avoid building the wrong thing at full speed. Even a two-week discovery sprint can surface the insight that reframes the entire initiative.
Services
Generative Research
Uncover unmet needs, mental models, and behavioral patterns before your team commits to a direction - through in-depth interviews, contextual inquiry, and diary studies that reveal the "why" behind user behavior
Usability Testing
Evaluate existing products and prototypes with real users to identify friction points, comprehension gaps, and failure modes before they ship - with moderated and unmoderated formats depending on your timeline and fidelity needs
Evaluative Research & UX Audits
Assess your existing product through a structured research lens - heuristic evaluation, expert review, and targeted user testing that identifies what's working, what's broken, and where the highest-leverage improvements live
Discovery Sprints
A focused 2-4 week research engagement designed to answer a specific strategic question: should we build this? Who is it for? What problem does it actually solve? Discovery sprints give product and engineering teams the clarity they need to move forward with confidence
Survey Design & Quantitative Research
Design and field surveys that generate statistically meaningful insights - with questionnaire design, sampling strategy, and analysis that goes beyond surface-level satisfaction scores to surface actionable patterns
Research Operations & Ongoing Retainers
Embed continuous research into your product development cycle - with a recurring cadence of user interviews, usability sessions, and synthesis that keeps your team connected to user reality as your product evolves
Process
1. Research Scoping
We start by defining the research question precisely. What does your team need to know? What decisions will this research inform? What's already known, and where are the real gaps? A well-scoped research question is the difference between a study that generates actionable insight and one that produces interesting-but-inconclusive data. We align with your team on scope, timeline, and success criteria before a single interview is scheduled.
2. Study Design
We select the methods that match your question and your constraints. Generative or evaluative? Qualitative or quantitative? Moderated or unmoderated? Longitudinal or point-in-time? Every methodological decision is made deliberately - not because a method is familiar, but because it's the right tool for what you need to learn. We design the research protocol, screener, and stimulus materials and review them with your team before fieldwork begins.
3. Fieldwork & Data Collection
We conduct the research - recruiting participants, running sessions, and capturing data with the rigor that makes findings trustworthy. For moderated research, we bring experienced facilitators who know how to probe without leading, surface unexpected insights, and adapt in real time when something interesting emerges. We handle logistics so your team can observe, not manage.
4. Analysis & Synthesis
Raw data doesn't answer research questions - synthesis does. We analyze findings across participants to identify patterns, map behavioral themes, and extract the insights that matter for your specific decisions. We don't bury the findings in a 90-slide deck - we structure them around the decisions your team needs to make, with clear implications and recommended next steps.
5. Readout & Activation
Research only creates value when it changes what a team does. We present findings in a format designed for activation - not just information transfer. That means clear recommendations, prioritized by impact, with direct connections to roadmap and design decisions. We stay involved through the decision-making process, helping your team interpret edge cases, weigh tradeoffs, and apply findings to the work in front of them.
Recent Case Studies
They're strategic and critical thinkers with a lot of experience, insights, and knowledge. They took their responsibilities beyond the scope of web development in everything they did.
Liza Streiff
CEO, Knopman Marks
FAQ
What is UX research and why does it matter?
UX research is the practice of studying how real users interact with products - their behaviors, needs, mental models, and pain points - to inform better product decisions. It matters because intuition and internal opinion, no matter how experienced, are a poor substitute for direct evidence from the people who use your product. Teams that invest in research ship fewer wrong things, reduce expensive rework, and build products that users actually adopt.
What types of UX research does Coalesce offer?
We offer the full spectrum: generative research (discovery, interviews, contextual inquiry), evaluative research (usability testing, heuristic evaluation, UX audits), quantitative research (surveys, behavioral data analysis), and ongoing research retainers. We select and combine methods based on what your team needs to learn, not on a fixed methodology.
How long does a UX research engagement take?
A focused discovery sprint typically runs 2-4 weeks. Usability testing or evaluative studies can often be completed in 1-2 weeks. More comprehensive generative research programs - longitudinal studies, large participant samples, multi-method designs - run 4-8 weeks. We scope every engagement to your timeline and decision-making needs rather than defaulting to a fixed duration.
How do you recruit research participants?
We handle recruitment end-to-end. For most studies, we recruit from panel sources and screen participants against your user criteria. For studies requiring specialized populations - clinical professionals, specific job functions, niche user segments - we work with your team to identify recruitment channels and manage outreach. We screen rigorously to ensure participants reflect your actual user base, not a convenience sample.
How does UX research connect to product and design work?
At Coalesce, research doesn't happen in isolation - it feeds directly into the Product Studio's design and strategy work. Research findings inform wireframes, prototypes, design system decisions, and roadmap prioritization. Because our researchers and designers work together on the same team, insights don't get lost in translation between a research report and a design brief. The same people who learn what users need are involved in designing the solution.
When in the product development process should we do research?
The honest answer: earlier than you think, and more continuously than feels comfortable. Generative research is most valuable before a major initiative begins - before the team has committed to a direction. Evaluative research is valuable throughout the build cycle, testing assumptions at low fidelity before they become expensive to change. And ongoing research cadences keep teams connected to user reality as products scale and user needs evolve. If you're asking "is it too late for research?" - it's probably not, but the sooner the better.
What's the difference between UX research and usability testing?
Usability testing is one method within UX research. It evaluates how well users can accomplish specific tasks with an existing product or prototype - identifying friction, confusion, and failure points. UX research is broader: it encompasses the full range of methods used to understand user behavior, needs, and context, including research conducted before any product exists. Both are valuable, but they answer different questions. We use usability testing when you need to evaluate something that exists; we use other research methods when you need to understand a space before building.
Find out what your users actually need
Start with a discovery sprint. In 2-4 weeks, we'll answer the research question that's blocking your team - and give you the evidence you need to move forward with confidence.