Know the user, know the magic, connect the two with Google
The team was exploring user perception around a new initiative. The challenge wasn’t a lack of insight, but how to get it in a way that was quick enough to match sprint cycles, yet deep enough to stand up in rooms where decisions are made. “We were really looking at a solution that could provide us with the necessary depth, but crucially also for a very quick turnaround.”
With Ideally, that shift became possible. “I believe that ultimately what the project facilitated was the ability to test user perception and sentiment towards our product and give us a more robust and quantified understanding of what they want and trade-offs involved in that process.,” says Yashan.
That foundation became central to how the team worked across the sprint: testing, reviewing, and refining at speed. “We would effectively use the tool overnight to generate feedback and then make changes based on that feedback.”
Instead of the usual compromise, fast but flimsy, or slow and solid, they found a third way. “Typically you’re always talking about trade-offs with your stakeholders. Quick and dirty versus deep but time intensive. In this instance, I feel like we were able to get something that was robust but clean.”
That experience helped the team expand their research toolkit and build a new kind of capability.
This isn’t just about pace. For a company that puts user needs first, the ability to reflect those voices in real time creates a stronger foundation for decision-making. “There’s a phrase that we use within the business which is ‘know the user, know the magic, connect the two’. So fundamentally, knowing our users, what they want, this is yet another tool that we have in our locker to really make sure that the decisions we make are user-first.”
It’s not just that the results were fast. The process itself became more streamlined. “The fact that this is a platform-first solution means that when it comes to not just running the research but actually delivering the learnings, there’s less of a heavy lift… effectively it gets us to an 80% state and then maybe we’re looking to package the final 20%.”
The team now sees Ideally as a tool they’ll continue to use, across functions, across sprints, and as a complement to their more traditional insight processes. “It’ll allow us to also collaborate with folks not just within marketing, but more broadly across the business.”
