by Making Existing Products Work Harder: How qual research unlocks opportunity in mature products
At Qual360, we bring together experienced practitioners who are shaping how qualitative insight drives real business decisions. In this edition, we speak with Rob Adams, Principal UX Researcher and Victoria Hollis, PhD, Sr. Staff UX Researcher at Adobe, who share a pragmatic perspective on delivering impact when innovation is constrained by existing products and platforms.
QUAL360: Without giving too much away – what is the core message of your talk and what would you like delegates to remember?
Rob & Victoria: The central point of our talk is an approach to evaluate how existing technologies can solve for a changing landscape of user needs or behaviors, especially when teams can’t build something completely net new.
We hope delegates walk away with a clear understanding of how to implement this alternative to beta programs and that it’s possible to uncover new opportunities even when constrained to current products or platforms.
QUAL360: What motivates you to join the Qual360 North America conference, and what are your expectations?
Rob & Victoria: We’re excited to see how other leaders in the field are driving decisions with qual research. We’re looking forward to candid lessons learned on what has worked or hasn’t in leveraging qualitative evidence to shape business decisions. In the face of pressure to automate insight generation, we’re also interested in hearing how others are preserving research rigor and new methods that leverage AI in creative ways.
QUAL360: How are you effectively landing qualitative insights in the business decision-making ecosystem?
Victoria:
In Adobe Firefly, we’re able to land insights effectively by building trust and embedding research directly into the forums where product or design decisions are made.
Rather than operating as an external consultant to teams, we work as core members of the leadership group. This enables us to be in the room where priorities are shaped and bring user evidence into those conversations in real time.
Rob:
For Adobe Express, we have consolidated insights across hundreds of individual studies and reports into synthesized and simplified qual data dashboards that articulate issues, suggest directions for solutions,
and most importantly, connect the issues we’ve uncovered to their impact on business metrics such as retention, activation, and conversion, prioritizing issues with the largest impact on our OKRs.
QUAL360: As the research landscape evolves, so does the role of the researcher. What are two new skills qualitative researchers should be adding to their arsenal, and why?
Rob & Victoria:
Two skills that are a major advantage for qualitative researchers are data analytics fluency and insight accountability.
Data analytics fluency: This doesn’t necessarily mean becoming a statistician, but it does mean being able to confidently interpret and integrate quantitative signals alongside qualitative findings. This can enrich research planning (e.g., to shape hypotheses or sampling) and strengthen mixed-methods storytelling to connect with different decision-makers.
Insight accountability: Great qualitative research can, unfortunately, have little impact if recommendations live in a deck without follow-through. Expanding skills to ensure accountability include converting insights into clear, actionable, role-specific steps, and following through to ensure those actions have been resolved. Depending on the team dynamic, this can be done through working sessions, integration with project management systems, or in how recommendations are framed in research reporting.
QUAL360: How are you responding to the availability of big data and the proliferation of AI tools when managing your qualitative consumer research?
Rob & Victoria: We have seen huge unlocks in researcher efficiency in AI-powered secondary research reviews, as well as supporting the analysis of transcripts and raw notes from qual sessions. Our researchers find it much easier to find supporting and contradictory evidence for proposed insights within studies, and we are exploring ways to consolidate raw data to enable analysis that crosses studies. These technologies have also made it much easier to connect qual insights with relevant quantitative survey and analytics results to build a bigger picture for stakeholders.
We’ve also seen greater use of our research in decision-making as we’ve expanded access to AI-driven search and summary agents to the organization at large. We’ve leaned into communal spaces such as Slack channels, where questions to the AI agent can also prompt discussion between researchers and stakeholders.
QUAL360: Apart from work, what should delegates talk to you about at Qual360 North America– do you have any particular personal interests, hobbies or extracurricular activities and engagements?
Victoria: Outside of my day job, I’m a visual artist and have installed pieces at festivals in California and Nevada. I love chatting about illustration, design, or how to set up a lasercutter in a tiny SF apartment without burning it down.
Rob: I’ve been reconnecting with my love of rock climbing after a hiatus driven by the pandemic and the birth of my daughter. Also, I’m always looking for recommendations for new dark fantasy novels.
Favourite recommendations to make to industry colleagues for inspiration, innovation, guidance and leadership:
Must read – Book: The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge – fantastic summary of systems thinking and organizational change.
Inspiring song recommendation – Song: Inspector Norse by Todd Terje.
QUAL360: Thank you so much, Rob, and Victoria. We look forward to hearing more from you at the event.
Leading Qualitative Research Gathering is Just Around the Corner!
📅 Qual360 North America 2026 | March 11–12 | Washington, D.C., USA
Join qualitative leaders from top-tier companies to explore innovative research approaches, discover the latest methodologies, and learn how to leverage new types of insights.
Connect with industry peers and experts—this year’s attendees include qualitative leaders from Mondelez International, Amtrak, Warner Bros. Discovery, Marriott International, Nestlé, Adobe, Amazon, and more. Explore the line-up here.
👉 Register today to lead the way in insights!
