How we turned “blind spots” into clear insights and built a repeatable playbook for understanding all your guests.
The Client
National Quick-Service Restaurant Chain
The Problem
Leaders were flying blind on how Black and Hispanic guests experienced the brand. Existing data had no context and no explanations.
The Play We Ran
The "Mixed-Methods Research Playbook": Triangulation beats guessing.
The Win
A clear, funded research program that turns data into decisions and builds lasting inclusion into the business.
The leadership team knew they had a problem, but they couldn't see it clearly. They had data, but data without context is just noise.
The core issue:
They needed a coach to show them the “film”, but not just one angle. They needed triangulation.
We didn’t rely on one research method. We built a playbook that stacked multiple research “drills” to show the complete picture:
We showed up at representative restaurant locations and watched. Not from an office. In the field. We documented real behaviors across full guest journeys and synthesized patterns into actionable insights. This is the “film”, what actually happens when cameras aren't rolling.
We conducted in-depth interviews with screened Black and Hispanic guests to explain observed behaviors and validate emerging themes. We asked the questions the data couldn't answer: “Why did that happen? What would make this better?”
Once we knew the themes, we added measurement. Privacy-safe sentiment sensors to quantify positivity, dwell, and traffic, no PII captured. And quantitative surveys to size issues and compare against competitors. Numbers that matter, gathered the right way.
Finally, we facilitated workshops with communities and stakeholders to co-create solutions and align on next steps. Research that sits in a drawer is research that changes nothing. We made sure this research drove action.
We didn't just deliver research. We delivered a system that works, scales, and gets adopted.
A phased research plan with concrete deliverables that executives could fund and staff immediately. No ambiguity, no surprises.
Priority guest frictions and opportunities became visible across multiple restaurant locations. Decisions that used to take months happened in weeks.
Qualitative insight + directional quantitative signal, without compromising guest privacy. The best of both worlds.
Workshop formats and research methods that drive alignment and produce actionable roadmaps every time. This became how the brand makes decisions.
When your decisions affect diverse customer groups, one research method isn't enough. Observation + interviews + measurement + collaboration creates a complete picture and reduces blind spots.
Observed behavior explains "why." Surveys size "how many." Run them in the right order. Qualitative first, then quantitative to validate and scale. Reverse the order and you'll measure the wrong things.
Insights that sit in a drawer change nothing. Structured collaboration converts research into adoption and ongoing practice. Build the workshop into your playbook from day one.
Let's build a research playbook that turns insight into action.
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