Day 1
Wed Jan 27
08:00 – 08:50
Networking 50 min
REGISTRATION AND WELCOME COFFEE
Wed Jan 27
08:50 – 09:00
10 min
OPENING REMARKS BY MERLIEN INSTITUTE & CONFERENCE CHAIR
Wed Jan 27
09:00 – 09:30
30 min
THE JUDGEMENT PREMIUM: THE QUALITATIVE ADVANTAGE IN 2027
- Challenging fast, plausible answers before they harden into business decisions
- Exposing the assumptions, contradictions and human context that data and automation can easily miss
- Distinguishing evidence that is useful for exploration from evidence strong enough to support action
- Moving qualitative value upstream: from producing findings to shaping the questions, evidence and decisions that matter
Wed Jan 27
09:30 – 10:00
30 min
MOVING QUAL UPSTREAM: SHAPING THE QUESTION BEFORE THE DECISION IS MADE
- Exploring how self-service research, AI-generated answers and faster decision cycles allow stakeholders to define the problem before qualitative researchers are involved
- Repositioning qual earlier to frame the question, expose assumptions and determine what human understanding is missing
- Identifying the roles, workflows and stakeholder touchpoints that allow qualitative researchers to contribute while strategic options are still open
Wed Jan 27
10:00 – 10:30
30 min
RESERVED for BOLT
Wed Jan 27
10:30 – 11:15
Networking 45 min
NETWORKING BREAK
Wed Jan 27
11:15 – 11:45
30 min
USING QUAL TO UNCOVER WHAT PASSIVE BEHAVIOURAL DATA CANNOT EXPLAIN
- Questioning whether digital journeys provide a complete picture of customer behaviour
- Connecting behavioural data with qualitative evidence.
- Exploring the motivations, emotions and context behind visible actions
- Resolving conflicting evidence to inform product, journey, communication or CX decisions
Wed Jan 27
11:45 – 12:15
30 min
RESERVED for Convosight
Wed Jan 27
12:15 – 12:45
Panel discussion 30 min
SHORT-TERM PRESSURE, LONG-TERM UNDERSTANDING: HOW DO QUAL TEAMS BALANCE BOTH?
- Responding to urgent briefs and pressure for faster answers without losing the deeper consumer understanding that should build over time
- Connecting new findings with past research and existing knowledge instead of starting from zero with every business question
- Deciding what AI, self-service and wider teams can take on, and where specialist qualitative expertise still adds essential depth and judgement
- Rethinking research roles and team structures so insight can move faster into decisions without becoming thinner, more fragmented or disconnected from the consumer
Senior Director - Design & Research
Thumbtack
Moderator
Principal Researcher
Change.org
Panelist
Head of Insights, Innovation and Co-Creation
OBOS Living Lab
Panelist
Wed Jan 27
12:45 – 13:45
Networking 60 min
NETWORKING LUNCH
Wed Jan 27
13:45 – 14:15
30 min
BUILDING FROM ZERO: HOW QUAL SHAPED A NEW PREMIUM PRODUCT AND A NEW WAY OF INNOVATING
- Starting with qualitative research to understand an unfamiliar premium customer segment when no previous data or product-development framework existed
- Combining interviews, perceived-value testing, sleep trials and diary studies with a customer and leadership hackathon, followed by quantitative validation
- Bringing senior decision-makers into direct contact with target customers and translating human evidence into product and innovation decisions
- Turning a successful 2026 launch into a repeatable research-led development methodology, while using AI to scale access and analysis without replacing human judgement
Senior Team Lead Consumer Insights & Experience
Emma - the Sleep Company
Speaker
Wed Jan 27
14:15 – 14:35
20 min
SESSION RESERVED FOR Conveo
Wed Jan 27
14:35 – 15:05
Presentation 30 min
NOT EVERY DIFFERENCE MATTERS: USING QUAL TO UNDERSTAND WHAT REALLY DRIVES CUSTOMER CHOICE
- Using qualitative Win/Loss research to understand the perceptions, trade-offs and competitive differences shaping customer choice
- Challenging initial assumptions around brand strength and what really matters when customers choose between providers
- Combining qualitative depth with quantitative validation to build a more nuanced evidence base around customer decision-making
- Bringing that stronger understanding into Product, Sales and Strategy discussions, helping teams interpret competitive differences with greater context and confidence
Senior Market Analyst, Research & Insights
JobRad
Speaker
Wed Jan 27
15:05 – 15:10
5 min
RECAP & REFLECT
Wed Jan 27
15:10 – 15:40
Networking 30 min
NETWORKING BREAK
Wed Jan 27
15:40 – 16:10
30 min
RESEARCH CRIMES WORTH COMMITTING: WHEN “GOOD ENOUGH” RESEARCH WINS
- Deciding when lightweight or unconventional qualitative enquiry is more responsible than allowing important product decisions to proceed without direct user perspectives.
- Applying a risk-based framework to assess what could go wrong, what contextual understanding teams might miss without speaking to users and what constitutes sufficient evidence for the decision.
- Learning from BBC cases involving research enablement for non-researchers, small purposive samples and proactive exploratory research conducted before a clear brief exists.
- Balancing speed, depth and essential research safeguards so teams can make informed decisions while being clear about what the evidence can, and cannot, support.
Design Research Manager
BBC
Speaker
Senior Design Researcher
BBC
Speaker
Wed Jan 27
16:10 – 16:40
30 min
WHEN INNOVATION MOVES FASTER: WHERE DOES QUAL STILL NEED DEPTH?
- Balancing deeper qualitative work with lighter, more agile approaches according to the decision at stake
- Keeping consumer reality visible as innovation cycles accelerate, without turning research into a bottleneck
- Using qualitative learning at the moments where it can still redirect an idea, experience or development decision
- Reframing the role of Consumer Science as research, analysis and idea generation become faster and increasingly technology-enabled
Senior Consumer Researcher
Mondelēz
Speaker
Wed Jan 27
16:40 – 17:10
Panel discussion 30 min
FROM PARTICIPANT RESPONSE TO BUSINESS ACTION: WHAT CAN WE TRUST?
- Spotting evidence shaped by AI assistance, repeat or professional participation, disengagement or identity misrepresentation
- Recognizing when shame, memory, language, social pressure or the research interaction itself is distorting what participants can tell us
- Deciding when what people say is enough, and when observation, sensory, behavioural or contextual evidence is needed to test the story
- Matching the level of verification and corroboration to the consequence of the decision, and knowing what needs checking before the business acts
Sexologist and Head of User Research
Lovehoney Group
Panelist
Lead User Researcher
GDS
Panelist
Wed Jan 27
17:10 – 17:20
10 min
CHAIR’S REMARKS & TRANSITION
Wed Jan 27
17:20 – 17:50
Roundtable 30 min
Topic 1: BUILDING A CAREER IN MODERN QUAL
Wed Jan 27
17:20 – 17:50
Roundtable 30 min
Topic 2: PROTECTING RESEARCHER WELLBEING
Wed Jan 27
17:20 – 17:50
Roundtable 30 min
Topic 3: HARD TO SAY, HARD TO OBSERVE: HOW DO YOU DESIGN QUAL FOR SENSITIVE EXPERIENCE?
Sexologist and Head of User Research
Lovehoney Group
Speaker
Wed Jan 27
17:20 – 17:50
Roundtable 30 min
Topic 4: TIME TO THINK: STAYING CURIOUS, CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE IN A BUSY ROLE
Wed Jan 27
17:50 – 18:50
Networking 60 min
HAPPY HOUR
Day 2
Thu Jan 28
08:30 – 09:00
Networking 30 min
WELCOME COFFEE
Thu Jan 28
09:00 – 09:10
10 min
OPENING REMARKS BY MERLIEN INSTITUTE & CONFERENCE CHAIR
Thu Jan 28
09:10 – 09:40
30 min
THE WORLD OF AND: WHY THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO STOP FORCING PEOPLE TO CHOOSE
- Moving beyond either/or thinking as consumers increasingly expect seemingly contradictory benefits at the same time, healthy and indulgent, convenient and authentic, human and AI.
- Treating contradiction as a source of insight rather than noise, uncovering the tensions that reveal unmet needs and new spaces for innovation.
- Using the AND Map to turn competing desires into human truth, identifying meaningful combinations that create possibilities beyond the choices consumers already have.
- Reframing the future of research as Human AND AI, defining the uniquely human role in interpreting complexity, making sense of contradiction and translating it into opportunity.
Global Consumer and Market Insight Director of Unilever Food Solutions
Unilever
Speaker
Thu Jan 28
09:40 – 10:10
30 min
FROM GLOBAL TO MEANINGFUL: USING CULTURE AND CONSUMER UNDERSTANDING TO DRIVE LOCAL RELEVANCE
- Recognizing why localization has become a strategic imperative as cultural expectations and consumer needs evolve across markets
- Combining cultural intelligence and consumer insight to identify opportunities for local relevance while maintaining a strong global brand
- Moving beyond demographics to understand the cultural context, motivations and needs shaping consumer behaviour in different markets
- Applying integrated cultural and consumer understanding to a practical Pandora example, showing how it informs localization decisions and strengthens relevance with consumers
Head of Global Consumer Insights & Marketing Analytics
Pandora
Speaker
Cultural Insights & Foresight
Pandora
Speaker
Thu Jan 28
10:10 – 10:40
30 min
ONE QUAL JOURNEY DOESN’T FIT EVERYONE: HOW LEGO ADAPTS RESEARCH ACROSS PEOPLE, MARKETS AND METHODS
- Adapting the qualitative journey across markets and audiences, including the different research challenges involved in understanding children and adults
- Using ethnography and direct observation when behaviour, context or research constraints mean other signals cannot provide the full picture
- Understanding when the say-do gap changes by audience rather than assuming the same research problem applies to every consumer
- Using persona bots to refine ideas and narrow concepts before returning to real people for the human evidence needed to move forward
Director Shopper Insights, Global Insights
LEGO
Speaker
Senior Insights Manager, Global Insights
LEGO
Speaker
Thu Jan 28
10:40 – 10:45
5 min
RECAP & REFLECT
Thu Jan 28
10:45 – 11:15
Networking 30 min
NETWORKING BREAK
Thu Jan 28
11:15 – 11:35
20 min
SIMULATING TOMORROW FOR COCA-COLA’S ADVANCED HYDRATION PORTFOLIO
• Understanding how future consumer needs and market conditions could shape Coca-Cola’s Advanced Hydration portfolio beyond today’s preferences
• Combining human insight, cultural foresight and creative methods across six markets to develop and explore innovation opportunities
• Using Twin Communities and Future Twin Communities to explore how ideas might evolve under future market conditions, with synthetic evidence complementing human research
• Translating the combined learning into an innovation playbook with three strategic platforms, six big-bet concepts and a clear portfolio architecture
Chief Innovation Officer
Human8
Speaker
Thu Jan 28
11:35 – 12:20
Workshop 45 min
BEYOND THE FIRST ANSWER: ADAPTING MODERATION TO HOW PEOPLE COMMUNICATE NOW
- Recognizing when standard questioning doesn’t get beyond the surface
- Adapting techniques through recall, visuals, projectives, games and storytelling
- Diagnosing whether shallow answers reflect trust, language, recall, social pressure or method mismatch
- Experiencing the session as moderator, participant and observer to see what creates reflection versus pressure or compliance
Lead User Researcher
GDS
Speaker
Thu Jan 28
12:20 – 12:50
30 min
DESIGNING FOR MANY: RETHINKING HOW WE UNDERSTAND AUDIENCES IN HEALTHCARE INNOVATION
- Challenging the idea that one “target audience” or segmentation model can guide every stage of healthcare innovation, when products must be safe, usable and effective for a broader intended population.
- Exploring how to balance the needs of diverse patient groups with focused commercial segments, recognising that the relevant audience changes according to the decision and the stakeholders involved.
- Showing how inclusive user research in early innovation can work alongside more granular segmentation for positioning, access, marketing and sales, without requiring a separate product or variant for every segment or market.
- Drawing on experience across pharma, medical devices, design consulting and consumer products to explore which elements of the total product experience to standardise or localise. The guiding question is: “Target audience for which decision, which layer of the product experience, and at what stage of the lifecycle?
Lead Design & UX Strategist
Novo Nordisk
Speaker
Thu Jan 28
12:50 – 13:50
Networking 60 min
NETWORKING LUNCH
Thu Jan 28
13:50 – 14:20
30 min
FAST SCORES NEED HUMAN CONTEXT: BUILDING LIVING DIGITAL TWINS FOR INNOVATION AT PEPSICO
- Starting with a new consumer behaviour opportunity that rapid consumer testing could identify, but deeper human understanding enables better decision making
- Combining always on qualitative research tools like digital ethnography, video diaries across brands and markets to capture the latent motivations, emerging shape of occasions and behaviours behind the numbers
- Building accretive learning digital twins that continue to learn from fresh human evidence rather than becoming static representations of the consumer
- Testing whether this additional human context improves innovation decisions, from identifying emerging occasions to judging brand stretch and strengthening concept evaluation
Culinary Insights Senior Director
PepsiCo
Speaker
Strategic Insights Lead, UK Foods
PepsiCo
Speaker
Thu Jan 28
14:20 – 14:40
20 min
RESERVED for Bilendi [provisional]
Thu Jan 28
14:40 – 15:10
30 min
FROM INSIGHTS TO OWNERSHIP: TURNING CONSUMER CONTACT INTO BUSINESS ACTION
- Closing the gap between consumer knowledge held by the insight team and everyday decisions made across the wider business.
- Bringing more than 100 colleagues across functions and markets into structured consumer conversations through Onduline’s Consumer Insight Week.
- Using guided store visits, paired interviews and shared reflection to build consumer understanding beyond the research function, while complementing, not replacing, formal qualitative research.
- Turning learning into action plans for communications, merchandising and social content, with an annual cycle designed to review progress and keep consumer understanding active
Head of Insights Europe & Asia
Onduline Group
Speaker
Thu Jan 28
15:10 – 15:15
5 min
RECAP & REFLECT
Thu Jan 28
15:15 – 15:45
Networking 30 min
NETWORKING BREAK
Thu Jan 28
15:45 – 16:15
30 min
LIVE AND LEARN: HOW HUMAN INSIGHT AND AI SHAPED EBAY LIVE
- Grounding the eBay Live proposition in qualitative research with real customers to sharpen the opportunity and establish the human truth behind the creative direction
- Using AI between research rounds to pressure-test and iterate early creative ideas faster, while keeping human evidence as the standard for decision-making
- Returning to qual at key validation points to uncover the emotion and meaning behind people’s reactions, not just which creative version performed best
- Building a repeatable human–AI workflow for creative development: using automation to accelerate iteration while qualitative judgement protects relevance, emotion and brand distinctiveness
Senior Campaign Insight Manager
eBay
Speaker
Thu Jan 28
16:15 – 16:45
Panel discussion 30 min
WHO OWNS THE JUDGEMENT? EVIDENCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE AGE OF AI
- Separating the research tasks AI can accelerate from the decisions researchers still need to own
- Knowing the difference between exploring a possibility, simulating a response, validating an idea and predicting real behaviour, and demanding different evidence for each
- Asking more of AI-enabled research partners: what is the output grounded in, how was it validated, where are its limits and where does human oversight sit?
- Defining the researcher’s future value around judgement, accountability and knowing what evidence is strong enough for the business to act on
Head of Insights, Analytics & Market Research
TalkTalk
Speaker
Data and AI Leader
Speaker
Thu Jan 28
16:45 – 16:55
10 min