Bye-bye Beta 👋🏼 Hello Prototype Testing 🚀

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Smaller research teams frequently gravitate toward lightweight tools like Useberry when they need quick user feedback. However, as product teams scale and tackle more complex challenges, they require platforms that can deliver both rapid insights and strategic depth. While Useberry offers basic prototype testing capabilities that work well for simple user feedback collection, Optimal provides the comprehensive feature set and flexible participant recruitment options that leading organizations depend on to make informed product and design decisions.

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Why Choose Optimal over Useberry?

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Rapid Feedback vs. Comprehensive Research Intelligence

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• Useberry's Basic Approach: Useberry focuses on simple prototype testing with basic click tracking and minimal analysis capabilities, lacking the sophisticated insights and enterprise features required for strategic research programs.
• Optimal's Research Excellence: Optimal combines rapid study deployment with comprehensive research methodologies, AI-powered analysis, and enterprise-grade insights that transform user feedback into strategic business intelligence.
• Limited Research Depth: Useberry provides surface-level metrics without advanced statistical analysis, AI-powered insights, or comprehensive reporting capabilities that enterprise teams require for strategic decision-making.
• Strategic Intelligence Platform: Optimal delivers deep research capabilities with advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and AI-powered insights that enable data-driven strategy and competitive advantage.

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Enterprise Scalability

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• Constrained Participant Options: Useberry offers limited participant recruitment with basic demographic targeting, restricting research scope and limiting access to specialized audiences required for enterprise research.
• Global Research Network: Optimal's 100+ million verified participants across 150+ countries enable sophisticated targeting, international market validation, and reliable recruitment for any audience requirement.
• Basic Quality Controls: Useberry lacks comprehensive participant verification and fraud prevention measures, potentially compromising data quality and research validity for mission-critical studies.
• Enterprise-Grade Quality: Optimal implements advanced fraud prevention, multi-layer verification, and quality assurance protocols trusted by Fortune 500 companies for reliable research results.

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Key Platform Differentiators for Enterprise

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• Limited Methodology Support: Useberry focuses primarily on prototype testing with basic surveys, lacking the comprehensive research methodology suite enterprise teams need for diverse research requirements.
• Complete Research Platform: Optimal provides full-spectrum research capabilities including advanced card sorting, tree testing, surveys, prototype validation, and qualitative insights with integrated analysis across all methods.
• Basic Security and Support: Useberry operates with standard security measures and basic support options, insufficient for enterprise organizations with compliance requirements and mission-critical research needs.
• Enterprise Security and Support: Optimal delivers SOC 2 compliance, enterprise security protocols, dedicated account management, and 24/7 support that meets Fortune 500 requirements.

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When to Choose Optimal vs. Useberry

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Useberry may be a good choice for teams who are happy with:

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• Basic prototype testing needs without comprehensive research requirements
• Limited participant targeting without sophisticated segmentation
• Simple metrics without advanced analytics and AI-powered insights
• Standard security needs without enterprise compliance requirements
• Small-scale projects without global research demands

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When Optimal Enables Research Excellence

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Optimal becomes essential for:

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• Strategic Research Programs: When insights drive product strategy and business decisions
• Enterprise Organizations: Requiring comprehensive security, compliance, and support infrastructure
• Global Market Research: Needing international participant access and cultural localization
• Advanced Analytics: Teams requiring AI-powered insights, statistical modeling, and predictive analysis
• Quality-Critical Studies: Where participant verification and data integrity are paramount
• Scalable Operations: Growing research programs needing enterprise-grade platform capabilities

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Ready to transform research from basic feedback to strategic intelligence? Experience how Optimal's enterprise platform delivers the comprehensive capabilities and global reach your research program demands.

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We've been hard at work enhancing your research capabilities, and we're excited to share what's new at Optimal. Here's what we've shipped to help you uncover even deeper insights:

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What’s new at Optimal? 

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Prototype Testing gets more powerful ⚡

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Since launching the Beta, we've been collaborating closely with hundreds of Optimal customers to gather feedback and run usability testing. Your support has been invaluable, and we’re excited to announce these latest updates for Prototype Testing:

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Improved security with password management: A new "Password settings" button allows users to manage stored passwords, which participants receive before starting their Prototype Study. Additionally, users are prompted for a password when importing protected prototypes.

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Improvements to usability: Your feedback was taken onboard, and we’ve updated the buttons, including "Re-sync to file" and "Change prototype," to improve usability.

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Results sharing: You can now easily share specific sections (e.g., analysis, tasks, clickmaps) via a URL with your stakeholders in just a few clicks. With the added protection of a password for secure access.

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Participant data view: To speed up your data analysis and improve your workflows we’ve added task metrics in the "Results > Participants" table, showing tasks completed, skipped, and success percentage.

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Notes tab in analysis: Users can now take notes directly in the Analysis section for Task Results, Click Maps, Paths, and Questionnaires.

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Smarter data exports📊

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This release makes it easier for users to analyze data faster with flexible export options and an improved format for questionnaire and survey downloads. Find out more about the updates below.

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• Additional download export options: Access new download questionnaire data options. Choose to download questionnaire data by pre-study, post-study, and screening questions.

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• Organized question tabs: Navigate your data more easily with each question exported to its own tab in the download spreadsheet. Each question tab will mirror the question and answer format/structure found under the Questionnaire section.

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• Dedicated screening question tab: Review screener questions - now separated in a dedicated tab - with the added option to exclude them from your export.

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• Added index numbers for survey analysis: An index number column (e.g. 1, 2, 3) has been added next to the labels for radio, Likert, and checkbox question types in the "Participant data" download for easier analysis. A new tab has been added to display answer indices for fixed set questions (e.g., radio, checkbox, multi-select), while matrix questions will still export with their values.

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To get started, navigate to the Downloads tab under Results. Results Downloads are available for all tools except for Qualitative Insights.

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What’s coming next?

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Introducing the shiny new Qualitative Insights tool (the artist formally known as Reframer)✨

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We’re just days away from the re-launch of our Qualitative Insights tool, previously known as Reframer. This upgrade brings powerful new features to streamline and enhance your qualitative data analysis, making it faster, easier, and more insightful than ever.

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With the new Insights feature, you can capture and organize key takeaways from studies more efficiently. Each Insight — which includes a title, description, and linked observations — will live under the new Insights tab, allowing you to quickly gather and manage critical findings. You can create Insights directly from your observations or leverage AI to accelerate insight discovery, surfacing hidden themes within your data.

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AI-Driven Insights with full control: You and your organization retain complete control over AI usage. All AI-generated results are fully editable, giving you the flexibility to adjust or even turn off AI support for your studies. Use AI as much or as little as needed, with peace of mind over your data management.

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Surveys 2.0 🌟

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Enhanced usability
Our survey relaunch focuses on significantly improving usability, making creating, editing, and launching surveys easier than ever. Key releases coming late 2024 include:

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• Simplified setup: Manage your entire survey flow - welcome, screening, pre-study, study questions, and thank you - on one page.

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• Question grouping: Create and manage question groups for better organization.

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• Question mobility: Move individual questions or groups within a study effortlessly.

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• Flexible question placement: Add questions at any point in the survey flow.

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• Question cloning: Easily duplicate questions to save time.

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Video Insights: Coming end of 2024 🎬

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By the end of the year, we’ll be adding Video Recording to our Prototype Testing tool. This new feature will allow you to better understand user experiences, and gain even deeper insights during a Prototype test. Video recording will be browser-based, with no plug-in required, eliminating setup complexities. Participant consent to record screen, face and voice is all taken care of by Optimal and captured upfront in the testing process. 

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Help shape what comes next 🫵

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Join our research panel and influence Optimal's future! You'll get early access to new features and thank-you gifts for your time. Interested? 

Email product@optimalworkshop.com

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When evaluating research and insight tools, a proven track record makes a difference. Askable is beginning to expand into unmoderated testing, while Optimal brings over a decade of enterprise-ready experience supporting the full research and product development lifecycle.

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Why choose Optimal instead of Askable?

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Platform Scope and Capabilities

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• Askable's Limitations: While Askable recently expanded into unmoderated research, the platform lacks depth in this area, missing critical analytics, advanced visualizations, and essential survey capabilities like complex question types and conditional logic. ‍
• Optimal's Advantage: With over a decade of unmoderated research expertise, Optimal delivers a mature platform refined through years of customer feedback and innovation. The platform offers comprehensive analytics, robust survey logic, and advanced AI features, approachable enough for those new to research yet powerful enough for teams experienced with UX research.

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Global Reach and Participant Quality

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• Regional Limitations: Askable's participant panel concentrates heavily in Australia and New Zealand, limiting global research capabilities. For enterprises requiring international insights, this geographic constraint becomes a significant bottleneck.
• Worldwide Coverage: Optimal partners with 100+ million verified participants across 150+ countries, enabling global research at scale. Advanced fraud prevention and screening protocols ensure participant quality regardless of location.

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User Experience and Customer Support

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• Inconsistent Support: Users have described Askable's interface as confusing, with insufficient onboarding resources and limited technical support. ‍
• Intuitive Design with Robust Support: Optimal combines an intuitive, user-friendly interface with comprehensive onboarding and dedicated technical support. Advanced AI features accelerate analysis and insight generation.

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Why Enterprises Choose Optimal Over Askable

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1. Proven Unmoderated Research Expertise. Optimal brings over a decade of specialized experience in unmoderated research, where powerful analytics meet a user-friendly platform, helping teams test, validate assumptions, and ship with confidence.
2. Advanced Research Capabilities. While Askable has centered on participant recruitment, Optimal includes: Built-in UX testing tools, AI-powered analysis and insights, Automated reporting and visualization, Survey and prototype testing capabilities‍
3. Enterprise-Grade Support. Optimal provides dedicated account management and comprehensive fraud prevention assurance, whereas Askable offers standard support options without the specialized enterprise features global brands require.‍
4. Scalability for Growing Teams. As teams need more sophisticated testing and analysis capabilities, they must invest in additional tools. Optimal grows with research programs from basic recruitment through advanced insight generation.

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Ready to see how leading brands including Lego, Netflix and Nike achieve better research outcomes? Experience how Optimal's platform delivers user insights that adapt to your team's growing needs.

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