VP of Design
Lead user research and insights
What You Do Today
Direct the research function — user interviews, usability testing, surveys, analytics. Ensure the team builds products based on real user needs, not assumptions.
AI That Applies
AI-assisted research synthesis that transcribes interviews, identifies themes across sessions, and generates insight summaries that would take researchers days to compile manually.
Technologies
How It Works
For lead user research and insights, the system identifies themes across sessions. The processing layer applies the appropriate analytical models to the structured data, generating scored outputs that surface the most actionable insights. The output — insight summaries that would take researchers days to compile manually — surfaces in the existing workflow where the practitioner can review and act on it.
What Changes
Research synthesis accelerates dramatically. AI transcribes, codes, and identifies patterns across dozens of interviews in hours instead of days.
What Stays
Asking the right questions, building rapport with participants, and the creative leap from observation to insight — those require human empathy and analytical thinking.
What To Do Next
This section won't tell you what your numbers should be. It will show you how to find them yourself. Every instruction below produces a real, verifiable result in your organization. No benchmarks, no projections — just the steps to build your own evidence.
Establish Your Baseline
Know where you are before you move
Before adopting AI tools for lead user research and insights, understand your current state.
Without a baseline, you can't measure whether AI actually improved anything. You'll adopt tools without knowing if they're working.
Define Your Measures
What to track and how to calculate it
Time per cycle
How to calculate
Measure how long lead user research and insights takes end-to-end today, then after AI adoption.
Why it matters
The most visible improvement is speed. If AI doesn't save time, question whether it's adding value.
Quality of output
How to calculate
Track error rates, rework frequency, or stakeholder satisfaction scores before and after.
Why it matters
Speed without quality is just faster mistakes. Measure both.
Start These Conversations
Who to talk to and what to ask
your board chair or lead independent director
“What data do we already have that could improve how we handle lead user research and insights?”
They shape expectations for how AI appears in governance
your CTO or CIO
“Who on our team has the deepest experience with lead user research and insights, and what tools are they already using?”
They own the technology infrastructure that enables AI adoption
a peer executive at a company further along on AI adoption
“If we brought in AI tools for lead user research and insights, what would we measure before and after to know it actually helped?”
Their lessons learned are worth more than any consultant's framework
Check Your Prerequisites
Confirm readiness before you invest
Check items as you confirm them.