Research Services: survey design, stakeholder research, and data analysis
Rigorous research support, without the full engagement. You keep the conclusions.
Connect with Us Today- Survey Design & Administration
- Interviews & Focus Groups
- Data Analysis & Reporting
How it works
You define the question.
We do the work.
What you conclude from it is yours.
When organizations use research services
Sometimes you don't need a transformation. You need someone who can build the interview protocol, run the analysis, and tell you what the data actually says.
We provide standalone research support to organizations that need methodological rigor and additional capacity, but are not looking to hire a consulting firm. You may want to utilize research services when:
- You are launching a program and need baseline data
- You have survey responses or institutional data nobody has had time to analyze
- You need to understand stakeholder perspectives before a decision, not after
- You have been asked to produce a report and lack the capacity to gather the evidence
- You are applying for a grant and need supporting research
- You need an outside read that will not be questioned as internally biased
Why hire a research partner instead of doing it internally?
Where internal studies break down
Most organizations can technically run their own survey. The problems show up later: the instrument was poorly designed, so the data cannot answer the question. The analysis was done by whoever had time. The findings are contested because the people who ran the study have a stake in the outcome.
What we bring
We bring methodological rigor, capacity you do not have to hire for, and independence. The work holds up when a board, a funder, or a legislature asks how you know.
What We Offer
Our Research Services are fully modular and can be combined and customized depending on your needs.
Survey design and analysis
We build custom surveys or rebuild existing ones, distribute them, and analyze the results. Comfortable across major survey platforms.
Stakeholder engagement
Interviews, focus groups, and listening sessions, run independently or alongside your team. We can also build the full engagement protocol and preparatory materials for your staff to run themselves.
Data analysis
Qualitative and quantitative. Coding interviews, cleaning survey data, analyzing institutional datasets. We work with data you already have, or help you collect it.
Literature reviews and annotated bibliographies
Synthesis of scholarship and gray literature for grants, white papers, and internal projects. Key themes, active debates, and promising practices.
Document review
Analysis of existing internal materials: strategic plans, org charts, policies, reports. We surface patterns, alignments, and contradictions against your framing question.
What you receive
Every project differs. Common deliverables:
- Interview and focus group summaries
- Thematic coding reports
- Quantitative analysis summaries with tables, charts, and key insights
- Written reports or slide decks of findings
- Literature scans and annotated bibliographies
- Survey dashboards or summary briefs
We deliver what is useful in the format you need, not what is standard.
Scope and scale
Projects have ranged from a focused literature review to stakeholder engagement reaching hundreds of people across an institution. We scope to what you need and tell you the range before you commit.
Research Services FAQ
What are research services?
Research services are standalone research support: designing the study, collecting the data, and analyzing it, without the recommendations or implementation work of a full consulting engagement. Organizations use them when they need rigor and capacity but intend to draw their own conclusions.
How is this different from hiring a consultant?
A consultant tells you what to do. A research partner tells you what is true. We deliver findings, not recommendations, unless you ask for them. If you decide partway through that you want strategic support, that is a separate conversation and never a condition of the work.
Can you analyze data we already collected?
Yes. This is one of the most common requests. We work with survey data, interview transcripts, and institutional datasets that have already been gathered but never properly analyzed.
How long does a research project take?
It depends on scope. A literature review or document review can be completed in weeks. A large stakeholder engagement study takes months. We give you a timeline before the work begins.
Do we have to hire you for anything else afterward?
No. Research services are genuinely standalone. Many clients use them once and never return, which is fine.
Can you design a survey we administer ourselves?
Yes. We can build the instrument and the protocol and hand it to your team, or run the whole thing. Both are common.
Tell us what you need to find out
Bring us the question. Before you commit to anything, we will tell you what it would take to answer it, what it would cost, and how long it would take.