When Research Meets Decisions: A Discussion About Using Qualitative Data at Work

This session is a facilitated open conversation for practitioners who work with user feedback, research, or qualitative data inside organisations. Rather than a presentation, the goal is to create a space where participants can compare real experiences of how insights actually travel — or fail to travel — into decisions.

Many teams today collect large amounts of qualitative information: interviews, support conversations, NPS comments, usability tests, field observations, and internal feedback. However, across product and program teams, a common pattern appears: research exists, but decisions are still driven by intuition, hierarchy, or dashboards. This dialogue invites participants to collectively examine why that happens.

We will guide the discussion through a set of prompts, encouraging participants to share practices, frustrations, and workarounds from their own organisations. The facilitators will not present solutions; instead we will help surface patterns across roles, sectors, and team structures.

Areas we want to cover:

• How qualitative data is gathered: What kind of qualitative data is gathered, who actually does it, how is this data managed
• How decisions are actually made: how does quant talk to qual, at what points does qual become absolutely necessary, how is the information analysed, how is it presented
• How have team structures + processes changed with the influx of AI: what actual changes have happened in workflows because of AI tools? Real change or a lot of Linkedin theater?

Intended Outcome: Participants leave with a clearer understanding of how different teams handle qualitative knowledge, a shared language to describe internal challenges, and practical ideas drawn from peer experience. The session emphasises collective learning and reflection rather than instruction.