Research & Strategy
Know your market before you spend on it.
For founders and teams about to commit budget to a product, a brand or a launch. We talk to your users, map the market and hand you a plan you can act on.
18
student interviews across Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya shaped the Univacity redesign
The problem
You're about to spend, and the evidence is thin.
- 01
Building on guesses
The roadmap comes from opinions in the room, and nobody has asked the users.
- 02
An audience you can't describe
You know roughly who buys, but not why they choose you, stall or leave.
- 03
A crowded market
Competitors look alike, and you can't say in one line what makes you different.
- 04
No roadmap
There's a long list of ideas and no agreed order to build them in.
What's included
You leave with evidence, a position and a plan.
- 01
Market and competitor research
Who else serves your users, how they do it, and where the gaps are.
- 02
User interviews and testing
Conversations with the people you want to reach, in their markets and on their devices.
- 03
Product strategy
What to build first, what to leave out, and how you'll know it's working.
- 04
Positioning and messaging
The one thing you want people to remember, in words your team can use.
- 05
Digital roadmap
The order of work across brand, product and growth, sized for your team.
- 06
Analytics audit
What your current data shows, and what it can't tell you yet.
AI in this stage
AI takes the transcripts, so researchers can stay with your users.
What AI does
- Transcribes interviews and clusters recurring themes
- Speeds up desk research across markets and competitors
- Tracks competitor changes over time
- Drafts research summaries for a researcher to check
What our people do
- Plan the research and choose who to talk to
- Run every interview
- Decide which findings matter, and why
- Turn the findings into a strategy you can act on
More of your research budget goes on talking to users, and less on admin.
How it runs
From the first question to a plan you can build from.
- 01
Frame the questions
We agree what you need to know and which decision it will inform.
- 02
Desk research
Your market, your competitors and any data you already hold.
- 03
Talk to users
Interviews and tests with the people you want to reach. On Univacity that meant students in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, plus recruiters and visa agents.
- 04
Make sense of it
Findings, personas and journey maps, each one tied to what people said.
- 05
Strategy and roadmap
Positioning, priorities and a plan, presented to your team and handed over.
Questions
Before you commission research.
How is research priced?
It's scoped to the questions you need answered, how many people we speak to and in which markets. You get a written proposal with scope and cost after a discovery call.
We already know our customers. Do we still need research?
You know more than any outsider. Research checks the assumptions your plan depends on before you pay to build them.
Can research be done remotely?
Yes. The AfriCred interviews were all remote. We spoke to students, parents, people in the diaspora and lenders.
Who finds the people to interview?
We plan it with you. You know where your customers are, and we bring the screening questions and the interview format.
Start a project
Tell us what you're building. A few lines is enough.
We'll read them, ask what we need to know and suggest a sensible first step.