The Insight RoomThe Insight RoomRooms →

Need research?
I've got a room for that.

Behind every door is the insight you need.

I'm Dale — a senior UX researcher. Pick the Room that matches your question, or just talk to me: twenty minutes on what you need to know, and I'll tell you the right way to find out.

Find your RoomNot sure? Ask The Room

Free — a 60-second research planner. No email required.

For agenciesWorking at an agency? Need an extra pair of research hands?
Rooms 01 — 04

So, what are you trying to figure out?

Four rooms, four questions. Open the one that sounds like yours — methodology comes later, and I'll handle it.

A panelled wooden door standing ajar onto a warm room with patterned tiles

Room 01 · Discovery Room

Are we solving the right problem?

Teams at the start of something, or teams who suspect the roadmap is built on assumptions.

Book a call about this Room

What we'll answer

  • What people are actually trying to get done
  • Where the real friction sits today
  • Which problems are worth your quarter

Approach

Exploratory interviews and contextual conversations, with a working session to turn what we hear into opportunities you can prioritise.

Example questions

  • “Where does this workflow break down today?”
  • “What would make someone switch?”
  • “Which problem is expensive enough to pay for?”

Typical participants

6–10 people from your target audience

Timing

Around 2–3 weeks end to end

Deliverables

  • Playback session with the team
  • Prioritised opportunity map
  • Evidence-tagged findings

Timings, methods and participant numbers are flexible estimates based on averages across past studies. Pricing is agreed after we've discussed the question.

Two cane chairs facing each other in a warm, quiet room

Room 02 · Interview Room

We need to understand our customers.

Teams who have a product and an audience, but no shared picture of who they're building for.

Book a call about this Room

What we'll answer

  • Who your customers actually are
  • How they decide, buy and stay
  • The language they use for your product

Approach

In-depth interviews across segments, analysed into a small number of decision-ready customer stories — not a wall of personas.

Example questions

  • “Why did you choose us over the alternative?”
  • “What nearly stopped you signing up?”
  • “How do you describe us to a colleague?”

Typical participants

8–12 customers or prospects

Timing

Around 2–3 weeks end to end

Deliverables

  • Customer story set
  • Verbatim quote library
  • Messaging and positioning implications

Timings, methods and participant numbers are flexible estimates based on averages across past studies. Pricing is agreed after we've discussed the question.

Brass handle detail on an aged wooden door with window light on the plaster wall

Room 03 · Usability Room

Something isn't working.

Teams watching drop-off, support tickets or confusion they can't explain from the data alone.

Book a call about this Room

What we'll answer

  • Exactly where people fail and why
  • Which problems are blocking versus cosmetic
  • What to change first

Approach

Moderated usability sessions on your live product or prototype, with severity-rated findings and specific fixes.

Example questions

  • “Where do people abandon this flow?”
  • “Is the pricing page the problem, or the plan names?”
  • “Can a new user finish this unaided?”

Typical participants

5–8 representative users

Timing

Around 1–2 weeks end to end

Deliverables

  • Severity-rated issue list
  • Clipped session evidence
  • Recommended fixes, sequenced

Timings, methods and participant numbers are flexible estimates based on averages across past studies. Pricing is agreed after we've discussed the question.

A sunlit archway leading through to another warm room

Room 04 · Concept Room

Will people actually want this?

Teams holding a bet — a new product, feature or pricing model — before committing engineering time.

Book a call about this Room

What we'll answer

  • Whether the value lands
  • Which parts people care about
  • What would need to be true to buy

Approach

Concept and proposition testing with prototypes or stimulus, probing comprehension, value and willingness to act.

Example questions

  • “Do people understand what this is in ten seconds?”
  • “Which version would they pay for?”
  • “What's missing before they'd switch?”

Typical participants

6–10 people in the target market

Timing

Around 2 weeks end to end

Deliverables

  • Go / refine / stop read
  • Comprehension and value findings
  • Concept revisions to test next

Timings, methods and participant numbers are flexible estimates based on averages across past studies. Pricing is agreed after we've discussed the question.

Not sure which Room you need?

That's fine. Ask The Room instead.

You shouldn't need to understand research methodologies to know where to start. Tell The Room what's going on and I'll suggest what I'd research, how I'd approach it, how long it could take and roughly what it might cost. Takes about 60 seconds.

Ask The RoomFree. No email required.

Research that moves at product speed.

  1. Today

    Book a conversation

  2. This week

    We agree the question

  3. Next

    I speak to your users

  4. Then

    You know what to do

Dale Husband, senior UX researcher and founder of The Insight Room
Dale Husband · Senior UX Researcher

Who you actually work with

Your researcher is your researcher.

  • 01You talk to Dale.
  • 02Dale runs the research.
  • 03Dale analyses it.
  • 04Dale presents it.

No account managers, no hand-offs, no junior team appearing after the call. When a project needs extra expertise, markets or languages, I bring in trusted collaborators — and tell you exactly who they are.

More about Dale

Credits & index

Six years of research, across the industries that move fastest.

  • Fintech
  • Travel
  • International airline
  • Food delivery
  • Entertainment
  • SaaS
  • Ecommerce
  • Enterprise platformProduct research
  • MarketplaceCustomer & rider experience
  • Digital bankBusiness banking journeys
  • Major international airlineLoyalty & booking experience
  • Loop UXResearch partner
  • AskableResearch partner

Research delivered directly or through research partners. Some work sits under NDA and is discussed in conversation rather than published here.

Loop UXAskable

Selected work

Research only counts if something changes.

A quiet desk by a window with a laptop showing an onboarding screen and an open notebook of session notes

Why are qualified signups stalling before the first workflow?

A
What I did
Eight moderated sessions with new users on the live onboarding, plus a review of support transcripts.
What we learned
People understood the product but not the first decision it asked them to make — the plan names didn't match how they described their own team.
What changed
Tiers renamed, first-run reduced to one decision. Activation improved within the following quarter.
A sunlit plaster wall covered with paper cards arranged in columns, like a research affinity map

Should we build the marketplace feature, or fix search?

B
What I did
Discovery interviews across two customer segments, then concept testing of both directions with stimulus.
What we learned
The marketplace answered a problem customers didn't have. Search failure was costing them time every single day.
What changed
Marketplace shelved for the year; search rebuilt. A quarter of engineering time redirected.
A folded paper map, two passports and an espresso cup on a wooden table in warm afternoon light

Does this proposition land outside our home market?

C
What I did
Interviews in English and Italian across two markets, with comprehension and value probing.
What we learned
The value proposition translated; the pricing model didn't. Trust signals needed to be local, not global.
What changed
Market-specific pricing and localised trust content shipped ahead of launch.

In the community

Also found in the wider research room.

  • UXR Minds Podcast

    UXR Minds Podcast

    Host · Conversations with researchers

  • Value UX Conference

    Speaker & contributor

For agencies

Agencies — I work with you too.

If you need extra research capacity for a client project, I can lead the research, join your team, or simply take some of the load. No lengthy onboarding, no agency attached.

Agency research support

Room 05 — Reception

Got a question?

Come in.

Book a call with DaleOr write instead