How Edgewell is Driving Agile Insights and Next Gen Strategies with GenAI Tools on Discuss

“Discuss and Genie have become indispensable tools in our qualitative research toolkit, enabling us to stay agile, responsive, and ahead of consumer trends.”

Julie Katz, Senior Manager of Global Consumer Insights at Edgewell

Check out this brief video on how Edgewell is using GenAI to accelerate their insights.

Founded in 2015, Edgewell Personal Care is a global consumer goods company committed to enhancing consumers’ lives every day. With a diverse portfolio of well-known brands spanning personal care, beauty, and grooming, Edgewell is dedicated to delivering innovative products that meet the evolving needs of consumers worldwide. 

Challenge:

As the company continues to expand its presence in the global market, understanding consumer behavior and preferences through qualitative market research has become increasingly crucial. 

1. Slow Time to Insights – Conventional qualitative research methods, relying on manual data processing, posed challenges for timely decision-making and research effectiveness.
   
2. Manual Analysis – This challenge encompasses a variety of tedious, manual tasks including recruiting participants, scheduling interviews, recording and documenting interactions, extracting key themes and quotes, and finally, synthesizing findings into comprehensive reports and session recaps.
   
3. Lack of Stakeholder Engagement – Traditionally, it has proven challenging for stakeholders to observe consumer conversations and to engage with insights until project completion due to time-consuming manual processes.

Solution:

Edgewell adopted Discuss’ all-in-one platform, which features both asynchronous and live research elements packaged in a ‘research seat’ based model that enables unlimited use of the platform for all research users. This unlimited model also offers essential services and support for all of Edgewell’s research projects and includes the following.

Asynchronous Research
With Discuss’ asynchronous research capabilities, Edgewell can conduct video feedback through in-store shop-alongs, in-home usage testing, unboxing, unmoderated usability testing, video open-ends, and more.  

Live Research
Edgewell leverages Discuss’ platform for live virtual qual (IDIs, virtual focus groups, etc,) as a tool for an all in one approach including usage of the platforms’:

• Dedicated observer backroom
• Integrated discussion guides
• Interactive Stimuli Sharing
• Auto-clipping with ‘Save Moment’ button 
• Live polling and analysis 

Access to Genie, Discuss’ GenAI Assistant

Edgewell has found Discuss’ GenAI Assistant, Genie, beneficial in expediting and enhancing the research process by extracting key themes, validating hypotheses, refining conversations, and assisting in crafting executive summaries and reports. The organization also leverages the auto-generated video insights feature to efficiently extract key insights through AI-driven keyword searches, saving valuable time previously spent on manual analysis. 

Initially drawn to Discuss for its ease of use and efficient research services, Edgewell highlights how the platform has become an integral part of their research endeavors, noting, “Discuss and Genie have become indispensable tools in our qualitative research toolkit, enabling us to stay agile, responsive, and ahead of consumer trends.”

Unlimited Consumer Reach Offering for Global Brands

Services

For global brands like Edgewell, scaling qualitative research requires a comprehensive suite of services that goes beyond mere technological solutions. This entails live tech assistance throughout interviews, recruitment of high-quality respondents, and comprehensive aid in both pre- and post-interview stages, encompassing project setup, screener formulation, and report composition.

Results:

The integration of Discuss and its capabilities, including GenAI tools, brought tangible results for Edgewell:

1. Cut Analysis Time by 50% with the Power of GenAI.

Genie, Discuss’ GenAI Assistant, has accelerated Edgewell’s insight generation and enhanced the research process by:

• Instantly summarizing in-depth interviews
• Extracting key themes across interviews
• Validating hypotheses
• Refining conversations and interview questions mid-project, and
• Helping craft summaries and reports

“We often need quick summaries for stakeholders, sometimes before research is complete. Writing summaries manually and reviewing interviews takes time. Genie speeds up our processes and saves us a significant amount of time, a huge win.”

The automation of tasks with GenAI and consolidation of all research tasks within Discuss’ single platform, expedites Edgewell’s research and streamlines their time-to-insights, enabling the generation of reports in as little as a few days vs. a few weeks.

2. Stakeholders’ Involvement Doubled with Easier Sharing of Key Moments.

Expanding visibility of insights throughout the organization, Discuss’ capabilities have not only accelerated the generation of insights but also bolstered stakeholder engagement within Edgewell. The organization leverages Discuss’ platform to extract project summaries during live moderated sessions, ensuring quick delivery of clear insights to the entire team, including stakeholders who couldn’t attend the live interviews.

“Using Discuss’ GenAI tool, Genie, we quickly summarized an interview and shared it, along with a clip, with a key stakeholder. This not only encouraged her but also motivated other less engaged stakeholders to participate in subsequent interviews, fostering increased engagement and enthusiasm for the project.”

As stakeholders became more involved, Edgewell saw better alignment of their research with business goals, smoother implementation of recommendations, and improved transparency and collaboration, ultimately enhancing research effectiveness and informing strategic decisions for the business’ growth.

3. Real-Time Refinement Replaces Out-Dated Reactive Approaches. 

Through their utilization of Discuss, Edgewell has unlocked a new level of agility in refining conversations. By leveraging quick summaries and actionable insights following initial interviews, as mentioned above, the organization can confidently make timely adjustments to interview questions or the interview structure.

Conclusion

Ultimately, adopting an all in one platform, leveraging a seat-based unlimited model, and harnessing cutting-edge GenAI for qualitative research analysis has allowed Edgewell to ensure relevance and responsiveness to emerging trends and evolving stakeholder needs. Shifting from a reactive to proactive approach, Discuss’ platform facilitates more agile responses to market trends, clear actions, and faster decision-making, empowering Edgewell to stay ahead of the curve in understanding market dynamics and consumer behaviors while enhancing the efficiency of the research process.