Product Roadmap Update - October 2024

The user research landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years, but not all of the platforms in the space have kept pace with each other. One of the biggest options in the market, UserTesting is a clear example of that. Optimal's customers choose us because UserTesting relies on legacy infrastructure and has outdated pricing models, whereas they feel that Optimal represents the next generation of research platforms, built for modern teams that are prioritizing agility, insight quality, and value.

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What are the biggest differences between Optimal and UserTesting?

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Cost

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• ‍UserTesting is Expensive: UserTesting charges $5,000-$10,000 per user annually plus additional session-based fees, creating unpredictable costs that escalate the more research your team does. This means that teams often face budget surprises when conducting longer studies or more frequent research.‍
• Optimal has Transparent Pricing: Optimal offers flat-rate pricing without per-seat fees or session units, enabling teams to scale research sustainbly. Our transparent pricing eliminates budget surprises and enables predictable research ops planning.

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Return on Investment

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• Justifying the Cost of UserTesting: UserTesting's high costs and complex pricing structure make it hard to prove the ROI, particularly for teams conducting frequent research or extended studies that trigger additional session fees.
• The Best Value in the Market: Optimal's straightforward pricing and comprehensive feature set deliver measurable ROI. We offer 90% of the features that UserTesting provides at 10% of the price.

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Technology Evolution

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• UserTesting is Struggling to Modernize: UserTesting's platform shows signs of aging infrastructure, with slower performance and difficulty integrating modern research methodologies. Their technology advancement has lagged behind industry innovation.
• Optimal is Purpose-Built for Modern Research: Optimal has invested heavily over the last few years in features for contemporary research needs, including AI-powered analysis and automation capabilities.

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UserZoom Integration Challenges

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• UserZoom Integration Challenges: UserTesting's acquisition of UserZoom has created platform challenges that continue to impact user experience. UserTesting customers report confusion navigating between legacy systems and inconsistent feature availability and quality.
• Built by Researchers for Researchers: Optimal has built from the ground up a single, cohesive platform without the complexity of merged acquisitions, ensuring consistent user experience and seamless workflow integration.

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Participant Panel Quality

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• Poor Quality, In-House Panel: UserTesting's massive scale has led to participant quality issues, with researchers reporting difficulty finding high-quality participants for specialized research needs and inconsistent participant engagement.
• Flexibility = Quality: Optimal prioritizes flexibility for our users, allowing our customers to bring their own participants for free or use our high-quality panels, with over 100+ million verified participants across 150+ countries who meet strict quality standards.

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Customer Support Experience

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• Impersonal, Enterprise Support: Users report that UserTesting's large organizational structure creates slower support cycles, outsourced customer service, and reduced responsiveness to individual customer needs.‍
• Agile, Personal Support: At Optimal we pride ourselves on our fast, human support with dedicated account management and direct access to product teams, ensuring fast and personalized support.

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The Future of User Research Platforms

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The research platform landscape has evolved from basic testing tools and legacy systems to comprehensive user insight platforms. Today, teams responsible for reserach require platforms that have evolved to include:

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• Advanced Analytics: AI-powered analysis that transforms data into actionable insights
• Flexible Recruitment: Options for both BYO, panel and custom participant recruitment
• Transparent Pricing: Predictable costs that scale with your needs
• Responsive Development: Platforms that evolve based on user feedback and industry trends

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Platforms Need to Evolve for Modern Research Needs

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When selecting a vendor, teams need to choose a platform with the functionality that their teams need today, but also one that will also grow with the needs of your team in the future. Scalable, adaptable platforms enable research teams to:

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• Scale Efficiently: Grow research activities without exponential cost increaeses
• Embrace Innovation: Integrate new research methodologies and analysis techniques as well as emerging tools like AI 
• Maintain Standards: Ensure consistent participant, data and tool quality as the platform evolves
• Stay Responsive: Adapt to changing business needs and market conditions

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Research teams today need platforms that have successfully adapted to contemporary challenges: cost efficiency, rapid user insight and seamless workflow integration. The key is choosing a platform that continues to evolve rather than one constrained by outdated infrastructure and complex, legacy pricing models.

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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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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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As part of our beta release, you'll gain access to the newest enhancements to our Qualitative Insights tool (previously known as Reframer).
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1. Insights: A dedicated space to create, organize, and communicate your key takeaways. Create Insights on your own or with AI.‍
2. AI capabilities: Optional AI-powered assistance to create Insights from your observations to accelerate your analysis process.

Our new Insights and AI functionality streamlines your qualitative analysis process, allowing you to quickly summarize, create, and organize key takeaways from your data.

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Help documentation

1. How AI Insights clustering works in Optimal
2. ‍Create an Insight with and without AI
3. How AI generated Insights work in Optimal
4. Our AI guiding principles
5. How to set your preferences for AI
6. Analyzing & sharing your Insights
7. Learn more about Qualitative Insights
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Notes on AI Privacy & Security

Optimal uses AWS Amazon Bedrock, which is the fully managed service that makes large language models (LLMs) from Amazon and leading AI startups available through an API, for AI generation for Qualitative Insights.

Amazon Bedrock meets industry-leading standards for compliance, including: ISO, SOC, CSA STAR Level 2, GDPR, and HIPAA eligible. Learn more about Amazon Bedrock.

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We take your privacy seriously. When you use AI Insights: 

1. Your data stays within your organization
2. We don't use it to train other AI models
3. You control when to use AI for insights
4. AI features can be turned on or off anytime
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Questions & feedback

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If you have any questions, please reach out to our support team via live chat.

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We appreciate any feedback you have on improving your experience and invite you to share your thoughts through this feedback form at anytime. Our product team will also be in touch mid-late October to to gather further insights about your experience.