Designing a study that will actually answer your question is the hardest part of research, and the easiest to rush. The Motives AI research agent helps you draft the perfect plan. An expert researcher reviews it before the interviews begin.
A Motives research plan spells out the question the study has to answer, the sample that can answer it, the stimuli it needs to show and the questions and follow-ups that get you there. Recruitment, interviews, and analysis all begin here.
Pick from a library of templates (creative concept test, brand perception, consumer journey mapping, packaging test, and more), or design your study from scratch.
Demographics, cells, and comparisons made simple.
Chat with our assistant who builds your background, objectives, and recruitment criteria in real time. One click generates the discussion guide.
Edit the guide, share with your team, submit. A Motives researcher reviews each one before recruitment begins.
Designed by qual researchers for qual researchers. The following principles are the foundation of every Motives research plan.
The AI agent asks clarifying questions to refine the brief — what "switching" means, who the audience is, what the stimulus is — before any questions are written.
Recruitment is structured against the decision being made. Segments are defined before the panel is approached.
Guides optimise for the depth at which each topic is explored, not the number of questions asked.
Leading-question checks, open/closed question balance, balanced stimulus order. Applied by default.
Every main question carries planned follow-up guidance.
Multi-market guides are adapted, not translated. Phrasing and stimulus tuned per market.
We drafted the discussion guide on the Monday. We had the results on the Thursday afternoon. Six locations in Indonesia, run from the UK.
PZ Cussons came to Motives to study St. Tropez self-tan — a category people use alone, at night, in their bedrooms, and rarely open up about in focus groups. The plan: one-on-one, in-home, AI-moderated interviews. Method, sample, and discussion guide settled in less than a day. End-to-end study completed in less than a week.
Read the full Case Study →From early discovery to last-minute validation, Motives seamlessly fits into your design process at any moment.
Get under the skin of who buys from you, why they do it, and what would make them do it more.
Test ideas, packaging, and positioning before committing budget. Identify the directions worth carrying forward.
Understand what's landing with your audience, what's not, and where the strongest signal sits.
