Qualitative insights: Reimagined and supercharged 🚀

Inspired by insights from Optimal users, we’ve reimagined study creation to bring you a beautifully streamlined experience with the new Study Flow tab.

With the new Study Flow, you’ll: 

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⚡ Enjoy faster study set up: Messages & instructions and Questionnaire tabs are combined in a single tab - called Study Flow - for faster editing and settings customization.

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✨ See it all at a glance: Easily visualize and understand the participant experience—from the welcome message to the final thank-you screen—every step of the way. 

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🎯 Duplicate questions: Save time and quickly replicate questions for surveys, screening questions, and pre- and post-study questions. 

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⭐ Experience enhanced UI: Enjoy a modern, clean design with intuitive updates that minimize scrolling and reduce mental load.

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🗂️ Collapse and expand sections: Easily navigate studies by collapsing and expanding sections, making it easier to build out specific parts of your study.

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This Study Flow tab is available across all Optimal tools, except for Qualitative Insights. 

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What’s next?

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We’re not stopping there. We have some significant improvements on the horizon designed to give you even greater flexibility and control.

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Advanced logic: Enhanced logic capabilities is one of our most highly requested features, and we’re thrilled to introduce new capabilities to help you build your ideal study experience – available for surveys and other tools. We will first introduce “display logic”, allowing for: 

• If answer is X for Question Y, then hide/show Question Z.
• If answer is X for Question Y, then hide/show specific answer options.

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Customizable sections: Organize your questions into different sections to build a better study experience for your participants. For example, segment your questions into relevant groupings, such as demographics or product usage. With custom sections, you can add new sections, rename, reorder, duplicate, and move questions between different sections.* 

*Note: Questions cannot be moved to/from the screening questions section.

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These upcoming features will empower you to create dynamic, tailored study experiences for different audiences with ease for more valuable insights. 

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Start exploring the new Study Flow now.

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The user research landscape has evolved significantly in recent years, but not all platforms have adapted at the same pace. UserTesting for example, despite being one of the largest players in the market, still operates on legacy infrastructure with outdated pricing models that no longer meet the evolving needs of mature UX, design and product teams. More and more we see enterprises choosing platforms like Optimal, because we represent the next generation of user research and insight platforms: ones that are purpose-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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Optimal has Transparent Pricing: Optimal offers flat-rate pricing without per-seat fees or session units, enabling teams to scale research sustainably. Our transparent pricing eliminates budget surprises and enables predictable research ops planning.

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UserTesting is Expensive: In contrast, UserTesting has very high per user fees 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.

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Return on Investment

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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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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.

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Technology Evolution

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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. Our new Interviews tool exemplifies this innovation, transforming hours of manual video analysis into automated, AI-powered insights that surface key themes, generate highlight reels, and produce timestamped transcripts in a fraction of the time.

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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.

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Platform Integration

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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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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.

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Participant Panel Quality

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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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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.

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Customer Support Experience

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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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Impersonal, Enterprise Support: In contrast, users report that UserTesting's large organizational structure creates slower support cycles, outsourced customer service, and reduced responsiveness to individual customer needs.

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The Future of User Research Platforms

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The future of user research platforms is here, and smart teams are re-evaluating their platform needs to reflect that future state. What was once a fragmented landscape of basic testing tools and legacy systems has evolved into one where comprehensive user insight platforms are now the preferred solution. Today's UX, product and design teams need 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 now 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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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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Recruiting high quality participants can be a hassle and 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.

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What does Optimal Recruitment offer?

With Optimal Recruitment, our in-house team makes it easy to connect with participants. We take care of all the details—from feasibility checks, recruitment, reminders, confirmations, and admin.

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Thanks to our four award-winning panel providers, we can tailor recruitment to every recruitment need, giving you access to a vast pool of high-quality participants from across 150+ countries.

• User Interviews: Rated the #1 top-rated panel software on G2, fully dedicated to quality user research
• PureSpectrum: Recognized as the Market Research Supplier of the Year
• Respondent: Ensures a consistent 95% participants show-up rate
• Cint: Winner of the Data Quality Award, 2024

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And this is just the beginning—our network will continue to grow, offering even greater targeting capabilities and expanded reach in the future.

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How does it work?

All you need to do is provide your participant criteria and our team will handle the rest! We’ll select the best panel for your needs and ensure everything in your study is set up perfectly so you can sit back and watch the results flow in. 
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Ready to dive in?

To get started, head over to the Recruit tab under an Optimal study.

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Need more info? Find out more about getting started or reach out to Support or your account team for more details.