Embedded UX Research · Denver, CO
Rigorous mixed-methods research, embedded in your product team. We build the practice, run the studies, and help your team make sharper decisions — faster.
Your AI is only as accurate as your freshest user data. We build the pipeline that keeps it true.
Read the case study → How we built Rolling Research at Thumbtack
What we do
Most product teams don't need a full-time researcher — they need a system. Sibling Systems embeds a high-velocity research practice into your team, builds the operational infrastructure to keep it running, and delivers fast, reliable user insights when decisions are on the line.
How Rolling Research works
Teams submit research questions through a simple Google Form. No lengthy briefs. No kickoff overhead. Just a clear question and a timeline.
We review and prioritize requests every Friday, kick off projects on Mondays, and run moderated sessions throughout the week. Most projects complete in two weeks or less.
Outputs are concise, actionable documents — an executive summary and direct answers to your core questions. No 60-slide decks. Just what you need to move.
We stay close to your team through Slack, share work-in-progress insights, and surface exemplary sessions so even busy stakeholders stay connected to users.
We understand where AI speeds things up and where humans need to stay in the loop. Research outputs are structured and dated so your AI and RAG systems can ingest them — keeping your assistant's knowledge current as users and markets move.
Our instructional design background perfectly prepares us to help your team learn key processes, build adoption plans, assessment rubrics, and teach your team to learn to learn from users.
Proof of concept
We built and ran Rolling Research at Thumbtack in 2025, taking an agency-run pilot fully in-house. In nine months:
Source: Thumbtack Rolling Research Program, 2025. Read the full case study →
Services
Most companies shipping AI assistants have no process for verifying that what the AI believes about their users and policies is still true — no owner, no cadence, no accountability for the corpus. That gap is what the AI Ground Truth Audit is designed to close.
We inventory everything feeding your AI (help docs, personas, research repos, policy documents, support tickets, AI-generated summaries), date-stamp it, verify that the knowledge your retrieval layer draws from matches current reality, flag AI-feeding-AI recursion loops, and map drift risk by decision exposure. Deliverable: a Flash Findings report with a prioritized fix list and recommended cadence design.
Audit fee credited 100% toward a Setup Sprint if signed within 60 days.
What's included →A half-day remote workshop teaching your team how to build and run a high-velocity embedded research program. Built on the Thumbtack proof case. Ideal for research leads, PMs, and founders ready to invest in research infrastructure. Private-team option available: half-day remote for up to 12 people, using your team's real intake and triage problems as working material.
We build the infrastructure — intake forms, triage rituals, Slack workflows, output templates, CSAT loops — and hand it off ready to run. Ideal for teams that want to own the practice internally once it's established. Optionally includes AI Corpus Integration: structuring your research outputs so your AI and RAG systems can ingest them — dated, tagged, and retrieval-friendly, so fresh findings actually reach the machine that needs them.
An embedded, ongoing research practice for your team. Includes intake system setup, weekly triage, moderated research sessions (interviews, usability tests, concept evaluations, surveys), and Flash Findings outputs. Built to scale with your team and outlast our engagement.
Ongoing senior oversight for teams that built the practice and want experienced eyes on it. Includes weekly office hours, triage attendance, and async review — no session delivery. For teams that have the practice running and want a principal researcher thinking alongside them.
What collaborators say
"Their commitment to human-centered design, thoughtfulness towards asking the most important questions, and ability to detect the critical signals among all of the data really helped our team with some high-priority decisions. Ian's research informed our team's roadmaps going forward."
"Ian did SUCH an incredible job running the rapid research sessions for iPad. These were some of the most useful studies we have done on iPad so far. It was so easy to get really clear feedback and conclusions out of the study because of how they were run."
About
I'm a Principal UX Researcher with 10+ years of mixed-methods research experience. I've led 85+ product research projects and moderated over 900 interviews and usability tests across industries including fintech, healthcare, agriculture, marketplace, and design tooling.
When you work with Sibling Systems, you work with me — directly. I build the infrastructure, run the studies, and stay embedded in your team. As programs grow, I bring in trusted collaborators who can step in and keep things running.
I care about evidence, rigor, and helping product teams make decisions they can stand behind.
Tell us what you're trying to learn, and we'll tell you if Rolling Research is the right fit.
Get in touch