UX Leadership By Design UX Research Must Be Fast and Strategic to Survive
Dec 18, 2025
35:13
In this episode of UX Leadership by Design, Mark Baldino talks with Ryan Glasgow, CEO and founder of Sprig, about the future of UX research in an AI-first world. Ryan shares how Sprig was built to replace legacy survey tools like Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey by enabling real-time, in-context feedback and powerful AI-driven analysis. The conversation dives deep into how modern research can scale with fewer resources, why AI should be seen as an intern—not a threat—and how researchers can thrive by shifting toward strategic influence within organizations. If you’re in product, design, or research leadership, this one’s for you.
Key Takeaways
- Legacy research tools are broken – They’re disconnected from user behavior and painfully slow—Sprig fixes that by embedding surveys in key workflows.
- AI isn’t here to replace you—it’s your intern – The most successful teams treat AI like an eager junior teammate that accelerates insights and frees up strategic thinking.
- UX research is evolving toward strategic impact – Tactical research is being democratized across teams; researchers who shift toward company-level strategy will thrive.
- Tool bloat is real—consolidation is the future – Many orgs are replacing 3–5 survey tools with Sprig to reduce costs and streamline workflows.
- You can’t scale great product experiences without scaling insights – Research embedded across the product journey is the only way to keep up.
- Designers and Product Managers are sharing research responsibilities – It’s now table stakes for cross-functional teams to gather, analyze, and act on feedback.
- Sprig uses Sprig – The team applies its own product to optimize A/B testing, feature development, and in-product recruiting—truly eating their own dog food.
Chapters
- From Product to Founder: Why Build Sprig – 01:00
- What Legacy Survey Tools Get Wrong – 04:00
- Sprig’s End-to-End Research Workflow – 07:30
- Using Sprig to Build Sprig (Meta UX) – 09:45
- AI as Intern: Supercharging Strategic Work – 22:00
- The New Research Stack: Strategic > Tactical – 29:00
- The Future of UX Research Teams – 31:00
Resources & Links