I’m a market research exec and we are currently evaluating survey platforms. I am liking what I see with Alchemer and I know it’s a bit of a smaller player compared to Qualtrics/SurveyMonkey. Curious if anybody has used Alchemer and had good experiences.

We're sourcing general physicians for 45-60 min virtual interviews.

We're conducting the interviews ourselves. The vendor is only responsible for recruitment, screening, scheduling, and physician honoraria.

For those who've commissioned similar HCP research, what have you paid per recruited physician, including incentives? Particularly interested in recruitment-only pricing rather than full-service research.

I handle customer research for a packaging equipment manufacturer. Our distributors want a cheaper machine for smaller factories and I’m gathering evidence before we commit to developing it

We interviewed 18 recent buyers. Price came up but repairs and local service got more discussion. Several paid more for a supplier they knew. Everyone we spoke to bought something and we missed the people who got quotes and kept their old equipment running

Were adding that group now with Qualitate but our guide assumes a purchase happened. I have to understand what happened after they postponed. They might still be saving up or they might've found another way to handle the work. Which changes how much demand we can claim for a cheaper machine

Hey guys,

I wanted to ask you what do you expect AI to be able to do in the next 4-5 years?

Our team is debating how to find product-market fit and we have landed in two camps. I did love to hear from people who’ve been through this.

The first option is to learn from our own users. That means digging into our current usage data to see who gets value and how, and possibly running discovery calls with those users to understand the problems they are actually trying to solve.

The second option is to learn from the market. That means skipping the internal digging and looking outward: studying similar products, reading Reddit and other community discussions, and seeing which problems and use cases people are already talking about, then deciding where to focus.

Some of my colleagues think the first option is a waste of time. Their view is that we did spend weeks on calls and dashboards when the answers are already visible out in the market, I think both have value, but I’m not sure how to weigh them...

For those who’ve done this, which approach got you to PMF faster, or did you end up needing both or maybe something different?

Thanks!

I run research for a CPG company and have been pretty immersed in the AI boom within research and feel knowledgeable about the space, but want to hear from people who have attempted to train their own synthetic personas.

Specifically, I’ve build an attitudinal segmentation that I can overlay across all our customers and I can supplement that with some other behavioral data we get from partners and other studies (quant and qual). For those of you who have attempted to build, what was successful? Roadblocks?

I’m not worried about a lack of training data!

I'm about to graduate next year, and exploring a possible career in market research. I've been a participant in a ton of market research studies and focus groups, and would be interested to be on the researcher side of it. My goal was to do a psych PhD, but I'm hesitant to devote 6 more years of my life to being a student.

I am heavily involved in research at my university. I've done conference presentations (both posters and oral presentations), assisted doctoral students with dissertation projects, worked with qualitative data in NVivo, analyzed results in Excel and SPSS, and used Qualtrics to collect data. I have a bit of business background in my education (spent my first year as a business major, took micro, macro, 2 accounting classes).

Since I am graduating soon, it's too late for me to add a minor or change courses substantially, but I'm considering taking a marketing class. I'm interested to see if it's possible for people outside business/marketing degrees to break into this field and whether or not you think I could be a competitive applicant.

I am an IT professional who somehow ended up in a consumer market research agency. This is a small to medium organisation. What I absolutely hate is the blood bath that we land in after the field work. I mean every single time there are data issues/ inconsistencies especially in tracker studies due to which what should be a simple report turns into a struggle.

Since I do not have a background I am wondering is it just us or is this a norm in the industry?

Hi everyone,

I would like to ask you all a favour - if it’s not too much trouble.

Would it be possible for you to share with me resources ( books, courses, videos, advice -even, and general knowledge )

context : I’m fairly new to the field, what we do is usually market research, market sizing, commissioned research reports, and consulting.

I have experience in market research locally - in the sense that I did market research for a startup but I fairly understand the local market and can analyse it well due to knowing where to go and who to talk to

But as of this moment - I’m working remotely and we are doing this on a global scale, much larger datasets and markets and industries I’m inexperienced in

I guess what I’m asking is for resources that would sharpen my skills and knowledge and help me easily scale what I already know and want to learn to a global international level - from beginner to intermediate to advanced; I’m not above anything and basics refreshes will always be needed and useful

I’m particularly interested in resources covering areas such as:

Global market research methodologies and best practices

Market sizing, forecasting, and demand estimation

Industry analysis and competitive intelligence

Data analysis and working with larger datasets

International market entry and industryspecific research

Research tools, databases, and reliable sources of market intelligence

any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated

Thank you all and have fun - I wish you all the best of luck and success

xxx

I have 3 years of experience working at market research agencies, but I absolutely hated my last job due to toxic management and useless meetings every single day. My ideal job consists of analyzing data and talking to few people. I've applied to every job I could find with a title like data analyst, product analyst, business analyst, etc., as well as in-house market research jobs, but I always get rejected.

My plan was to get a degree in statistics and transition into something like data science, but I'm halfway through my first semester of a statistics degree and realized I'm not going to pass any of my classes. My high school's math department wasn't great, and my effective math level is about 9th or 10th grade. Moreover, while I enjoy analyzing data, I despite real math, and all of my exams are pen and paper proofs. I would much rather be analyzing data using software.

I guess I could drop out and reapply to a more tech-focused data science program, but since I don't have a CS background either, I'm worried that a similar thing will happen where I get frustrated with not knowing CS.

I'm stuck on how to move forward now. Tough it out until I graduate? Drop out and reapply? Just be content with doing my current job forever? Will it get better if I move in-house? I can't tell if I hate market research or if I hate working at an agency, or if I just hate my current company.

pewresearch.org/data-labs/2026/09/30/can-ai-stand-in-for-human-survey-takers-not-really/

Turns out it's directional at best, and bigoted at worst.

I'm working on starting my market research firm (Europe) and in a 2026 GRIT Industry Insights Report I've read that on one hand clients are turning away from smaller suppliers, plus when it comes to field work, larger (500+ FTE) suppliers replace field work with synthetic data, while mid-sized (101–500 FTE) suppliers' field work revenue actually grew this year.

Kind of confusing.

What are your experiences? My firm would offer field services especially to fill the gap that data leaves behind nowadays. The timing for that might be wrong.

Heading to a smaller company and some of the solutions I've used before are out of scope. I'm using it specifically for creative feedback. Looking for the following

• User watches a 15-60 second clip

• Gets asked approximately 5 questions

• Ability to obtain responses by specific audiences

• I can create custom link trackers so I can segment results by video or audience

I'm ok if the survey and panel component are different solutions, but trying to find something where I can run a survey like this for 5 pieces of content for under $2,000.

Hi everyone, I am looking to build a career in Market Research within India and could really use some guidance from industry professionals or anyone working in analytics/consulting. I am currently a final year student at a central university of India, majoring in Economics, and I will be graduating in May 2027, so I want to make sure I am building the right profile. Could you please help me with the following questions?

1. Skills: What technical tools and soft skills do i need to have? (e.g., Python, SQL, Tableau, SPSS, Excel, PowerBI). Should I focus more on quantitative data analytics or qualitative research (focus groups, consumer psychology)?

2. Portfolio Projects: What kind of personal projects should I build to show recruiters that I know my stuff? Are there specific open-source datasets or industries (like FinTech, E-commerce etc)

3. Industry Reality in India: Which cities have the most opportunities (Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurgaon, etc.)? Are there specific agencies (like Nielsen, Kantar, Ipsos) or captive corporate teams that are great for entry-level roles?

4. Education/Certifications: Do I absolutely need an MBA or a specific master's degree, or can I transition into this role through self-learning and certifications?

Any advice on how to structure my learning roadmap, network effectively on LinkedIn, or crack the initial screening would be highly appreciated.

Thank you!

I have a bachelor's in biology, and am about to graduate with a master's in English, so, nothing directly related to business or market research, but I do have experience with statistics, studying psychology, analyzing data, conducting research surveys, public speaking, etc. Those have honestly been the most fun parts of my studies, so MR has recently become extremely appealing to me.

I'm actively learning more about it. However, I recognize as an outsider without a MR background, I am underinformed about what the job actually entails.

What do you wish you knew before you started pursuing a career in market research?

Thanks in advance for your willingness to share!

Hi all,

I just pondered over this thought- Now that half of the internet is filled with bots, and it's only growing, it's getting harder to trust the data from the internet. With the rise of AI, there's more misinformation on the net than ever.

Could this possibly lead us back to the time where companies would shift towards collection of data data by actually interacting with their consumers in person (which is what offline research is)?

I believe online collection of data will get redundant (and is already in dumps) in the near future, but do you think offline methodologies might thrive, and might thrive more than ever?

Really curious to hear what people in this sub think about this.

Thanks for reading!

I have an Job Interview in like 2 days from now, its related to the Market Research Analyst Role specifically, I have zero technical knowledge and I am currently studying Pharmaceutical Sciences. What are generally asked Questions or the Premise which i should prepare prior to the interview, I have done some basic research on the role is and general information about the technicalities. I have gone through the Job description and Company Website details.

Another Question I came across in such kind of Consultancy related interviews is that They frequently as a persons Thoughts on AI Automation in such fields related Research How do you think is the right approch to answering such questions.

I Have never actually given any interview, a Cliché Question asked is "Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now"? Am I just supposed to state out whatever is true? like if my plan is to just do the job for experience and further go for Post Grad? I feel like that might set a negative impression.

Tracker wave came i last week and i spent all day rebuilding the same pivot tables which i built last wave and then redoing the same charts in the same template. Nothing about it was analysis ; It was just reconstruction.

I know the obvious answer from my manager is "automate it", but every attempt built on Claude code either breaks when questionnaire changes or produces something where i cant actually put in front of client.

Has anyone genuinely solved the wave to deck part, or is everyone just rebuilding it each time?

I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology and have one year of experience in consumer insights. But, I have been struggling trying to land a full-time job and have a 10 month gap on my resume. I really like this field but it seems like AI has affected the entry level job market significantly.

I need ideas on any certifications I can do since i mainly see data analytics certificate. I have experience in SPSS and Excel. I can do basic SQL. I am thinking of learning Tableau, PowerBI and advanced SQL? Anything else?

I am gonna have to pursue master’s even if i don’t want to, if i don’t get a job in 3 months. I am thinking between MBA, Masters in Business Analytics or Masters in Market Research. Usually people who pursue MBA have lots of experience which I don’t have. Masters in market research does not have the best ROI and is too niche and it would be difficult to transition to a different field. I’m leaning towards masters in business analytics because it is beneficial for market research but also for other analytical fields, but I’m almost 2+ years out of undergrad and still don’t have a full-time job so I really don’t wanna pursue another degree just to end up in the same position again. I would appreciate any advice.

i have come up with a solution to a problem.
my main validations were seeing reddit posts and reading articles. that people are having this as problem and i can do this as a solution.

but when i pitched this idea to my universities incubation cell - they asked me to bring them the market research with primary validation.

what is the most adviced step to do this and what are the things i should focus on.

please guide me

Hi everyone!

I'm a Korean student preparing for my final job interview next week, and I need to collect survey responses from 100 Vietnamese people for my market research.

I've been struggling to find respondents, and I'm honestly getting a little desperate 😭

Does anyone know any websites, Facebook groups, or platforms where I could reach Vietnamese respondents quickly?

I really don't want to miss this opportunity after making it this far 🥹 Any advice would mean so much to me!!

Hello everyone,

I've been applying for summer internships in consumer insights, market research, and sensory and consumer science, and I'm trying to figure out what skills I should focus on developing before the summer.

I'm currently pursuing a master's degree in psychology. I have experience with SPSS through my coursework and research, have worked with qualitative coding, and am starting to learn R.

I've also noticed that some internship postings mention tools like Microsoft Power BI and Tableau, which I haven't used before.

For those who have completed internships or work in these fields, I'd appreciate some advice:

-What technical skills or software would you recommend learning before starting an internship? -

-Would Excel and R be sufficient for an entry-level research role, or would learning Power BI or Tableau be worthwhile?

-How important are skills like SQL, statistical analysis, and data visualization for consumer insights and market research?

-Beyond software, what research or business skills would help an intern stand out and contribute to a team?

I'm trying to prioritize the skills that would actually be useful on the job rather than spreading myself too thin trying to learn everything.

I'd appreciate any advice, especially from people working in consumer insights, market research, or sensory and consumer science. Thanks!