Building what the research needs

Working as a sole researcher, the lead in small teams, or in a consulting role has often meant building the infrastructure alongside doing the research itself.

I've established research operations around the practical problems teams were facing: finding and reaching the right participants, managing vendors and budgets, choosing fit-for-purpose tools, navigating compliance, and creating processes that make research easier to run consistently.

I focus on removing friction from good research while keeping the right safeguards in place.

Creating access to customers

A recurring challenge has been creating reliable ways to reach the right people, particularly when existing research channels didn't exist or participants are required across global markets.

This has included building participant communities, introducing new in-product research channels, working with specialist recruitment partners, and developing approaches for complex international studies.

• For a global travel company, I built and managed two panels - travellers and travel agents - with representation across the core markets, to ensure direct and consistent access to both B2C and B2B customers.

• For a European consumer app, I established a new in-app research channel across their 11 apps in four markets, which allowed them to seek feedback to surveys or recruit for interviews in a GDPR-compliant way.

• For a Canadian SaaS company, I built a continuous discovery framework for retailer and brand partners, enabling Customer Success teams to capture standardised feedback and feed it into Product with the right context and weighting, reducing reliance on anecdotes and the loudest voices.

Making research easier to do well

Not every question needs a researcher to run a full study. I've created lightweight frameworks, templates and guidance that allow Product and Design teams to answer appropriate day-to-day questions themselves, supported by coaching and feedback.

That gives teams faster access to evidence while allowing Research to focus on the questions where specialist expertise adds the most value.

What this looks like in practice

Participant access
Panels, communities, recruitment channels and specialist partners

International research operations
Local-language partners, translations, multi-market logistics and GDPR compliance

Tools & vendors
Selection, contracting, budget management and ongoing evaluation

Research enablement
Templates, frameworks, coaching and lightweight self-serve research

Governance
Consent, privacy, data collection and research standards

Scalable processes
Ways of working designed around the needs and maturity of the team