2024: A Year of Transformation at Optimal Workshop

When people come to us, we often hear the same story. The platforms they’ve used are clunky. Outdated. Confusing. Like navigating a maze of tabs, jargon, and complexity. Just to run a simple study.

‍

That’s not what user testing should feel like.

‍

At Optimal, we believe finding insights should feel energizing, not exhausting. So we’ve been working hard to make our platform easier than ever for anyone – no matter their experience level – to run meaningful research, fast.

‍

We also know that the industry is changing. Teams want to do more with less, and platforms need to be able to empower more roles to run their own tests and find answers fast.

‍

As pioneers in UX research, Optimal has always led the way. Today, Optimal is more powerful, intuitive, and impactful than ever, built to meet the needs of today’s teams and future-proofed for what’s next.

‍

Our Vision is Built on Three Pillars

Access for All
We believe research should be accessible. Whether you’re a seasoned researcher or just getting started, you should be able to confidently run studies and uncover the “why” behind user behavior without facing a steep learning curve. All our latest plans include unlimited users, giving your whole team the ability to run research and find insights.

Speed to Insight
Time and budget shouldn't stand in your way. With smart automation and AI-powered insights, our tools help you go from question to clarity in days, not weeks.

Communicate with Impact
Great insights are only powerful if they’re shared. We help you translate data into clear, actionable stories that influence the right decisions across your team.

What’s New

We’re entering a new era at Optimal, one that’s even faster, smoother, and more enjoyable to use. 
‍

Here’s what’s new:

• A refreshed, modern homepage that’s clean, focused, and easier to navigate
• Interactive demos and videos to help you learn how to get set up quickly, recruit, and gather insights faster
• One-click study creation so you can get started instantly
• Streamlined navigation with fewer tabs and clearer pathways

‍

This year, we also launched our new study flow to reduce friction with study creation. It helps you easily visualize and understand the participant experience, from the welcome message to the final thank-you screen, every step of the way. Learn more about the Study Flow. 

Our refreshed designs reduces mental load, minimizes unnecessary scrolling, and helps you move from setup to insight faster than ever before.
‍

Haven’t Looked at Optimal in a While?

We’ve gone well beyond a new homepage and design refresh. Now’s the perfect time to take another look. We’ve made big changes to help you get up and running quickly and get more time uncovering the insights that matter.
‍

Using Optimal already? Log in to see what’s new.

New to Optimal? Start a free trial and experience it for yourself.
‍

This is just the beginning. We can’t wait to bring you even more. Welcome to a simpler, faster, more delightful way to find insights.

‍

As we approach the end of 2024, it’s a great time to reflect on the progress we’ve made as a community and at Optimal. This year, Optimal users launched over 100,000 studies with over 1.2 million participants sharing insights to drive better business decisions and experiences.

Here's how we’ve worked to make research more accessible, speed up insight discovery, empower enterprise teams, and grow our platform’s capabilities in 2024.

‍

Democratizing Research

‍

Research for All
Research shouldn’t be limited to specialists or select teams—it should be accessible to everyone. In 2024, we focused on breaking down barriers to user research so that individuals across all divisions and teams can uncover actionable insights. Our tools are built to help anyone make confident, user-centered decisions, and this year, we’ve seen Optimal users from across all different types of teams, including product, marketing, content, research, design, information architecture, and education. We work to make our platform easy to use and learn, ensuring everyone can dive into research without barriers, regardless of their role or experience.

‍

A Milestone Year for UX Maturity
Understanding and improving UX maturity became a key focus for organizations this year. We launched our comprehensive UX Maturity Framework, complete with assessment tools that help teams identify their current state and plot a path forward. To support this journey, we developed detailed playbooks for each maturity level, offering practical guidance for teams looking to level up their UX practice. ‍‍‍

‍

Demonstrating the Value of UX
The conversation around UX value also took center stage in 2024. Our groundbreaking research into quantifying UX impact provided organizations with concrete data to support their UX investments. Through our popular webinar and blog series, we explored different approaches to communicating UX value to stakeholders, giving practitioners the tools they need to advocate for user-centered design.

‍

Accelerating Insight Discovery

‍

Prototype Testing
This year, we introduced Prototype Testing, enabling teams to test designs early and often. Teams can iterate quickly and ensure their ideas resonate with users before committing to development.

Video Recording (Beta)
We added a new feature to Prototype Testing that captures screen, audio and nonverbal cues—such as frustration—providing deeper insights into your users' experiences.

‍

Figma Integration
We also launched Figma integration for First-Click Testing and Prototype Testing, allowing users to connect design prototypes directly to Optimal studies. This integration makes it easier than ever to test, refine, and align designs with user needs—all without leaving Optimal.

‍

AI-Powered Insights
Our AI-Powered Insights help to uncover patterns and themes in qualitative and interview data. By analyzing large datasets, AI helps you discover key trends and accelerate decision-making.

‍

Optimal Recruitment
Recruiting high-quality participants can be a huge hassle and very time-consuming. That’s why we’ve relaunched Optimal Recruitment with expanded profiling capabilities, enhanced quality controls, and full-service support—to let you focus on what matters most: powerful insights to drive better business outcomes

Enabling Enterprise Teams

‍

Workspaces
For organizations with complex structures, we’ve introduced Workspaces and Projects to give admins greater control, improved organization, and increased privacy controls. Whether you're part of a large enterprise or a growing team, these enhancements simplify governance and amplify impact.

‍

Expanding Platform Capabilities in 2025

‍

Looking Ahead
As we head into 2025, our roadmap is packed with exciting features and improvements to make research more accessible, efficient, and impactful. Expect advancements across our platform, including video recording for prototype testing, a brand new survey tool with improved usability, advanced logic, and AI-powered capabilities to meet the evolving needs of teams worldwide. The best is yet to come - stay tuned and see you in 2025!

We're thrilled to announce the re-launch of our Qualitative Insights tool, formerly known as Reframer. This powerful upgrade brings new features designed to revolutionize your qualitative data analysis process, making it faster, easier, and more insightful than ever before.

‍

‍

Introducing the new Qualitative Insights 🔍

‍

Qualitative Insights has always been your go-to tool to help you plan and organize interviews, take notes, tag, and analyze rich, unstructured data. Now, we've taken it to the next level with two game-changing additions:

‍

• Insights feature: A dedicated space to capture, organize, and communicate your key takeaways.‍
• AI capabilities: Optional AI-powered assistance to accelerate your analysis process.

‍

‍

Discover insights effortlessly 💡 

‍

The new Insights feature transforms how you work with qualitative data:

‍

• Centralized hub: All your analytical discoveries in one place.
• Structured insights: Each insight includes a title, detailed description, and associated observations.
• Flexible viewing: Toggle between overview and deep-dive modes.
• Efficient organization: Tag and categorize insights for easy retrieval.
• Collaboration tools: Share and discuss findings with your team.

‍

‍

How it works 🛠️ 

‍

Manual insight creation

‍

1. Filter your data using keywords, tags, affinity map groupings, tasks, segments, and sessions.
2. Select relevant observations.
3. Craft your insight with a custom title and description.

‍

AI-Powered Insight Generation (Optional)

‍

1. Click "Generate" to activate our AI assistant.
2. AI analyzes existing observations to produce new insights.
3. Automatically generates insight titles, summaries, and attaches relevant observations.
4. AI-generated insights are marked with an AI star symbol for easy identification.
5. All AI insights remain fully editable.

‍

‍

AI: Your analysis assistant 🤖

‍

Our AI capabilities are designed to enhance your abilities, not replace them. Use AI to:

‍

• Speed up insight discovery
• Reveal hidden patterns in your data
• Jumpstart the analysis process

‍

Remember, your expertise is crucial. Always review and refine AI-generated insights to ensure accuracy and capture nuances that only human understanding can provide.

‍

‍

Your data, your choice 🔒 

‍

We prioritize your privacy and data control:

‍

• Your data stays within your organization
• We don't use it to train other AI models
• You control when to use AI for insights
• AI features can be turned on or off anytime

‍

‍

Get started today 🌟 

‍

Ready to experience the power of the new Qualitative Insights? Learn more and dive in. Upgrade your qualitative analysis workflow and uncover deeper insights faster than ever before with Qualitative Insights!