From "free-for-all" to all-in-one
How Sinch’s Product Design team consolidated 8 research tools & saved 35%
Nicki Snyder
Head of Product Design at Sinch
Sinch is a global leader in cloud customer communications for businesses (CPaaS – Communications Platform as a Service). Yet until recently, the way Sinch’s Product Design team communicated with its own customers for research was limited.
As Head of Product Design, Nicki Snyder leads a team of 33 designers responsible for Sinch’s expansive product portfolio. Stephanie Soo is a Staff Product Designer specializing in growth, having worked across multiple Sinch products including SimpleTexting, MessageMedia (now Engage), and Mailgun.
In 2024, Sinch switched to Great Question after struggling with tool sprawl, disjointed processes, and rising costs. The move consolidated their research operations, eliminated redundancies, and enabled their hybrid designer-researcher team to work more efficiently.
Research challenges at Sinch
Fragmented tools across a growing team
When Sinch’s SaaS and CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) teams merged in January 2024, it created a complex web of research tools with no clear ownership or standardized processes.
“We had different people over different tools. Sometimes it was a product person, sometimes it was a design person, and then nobody would maintain the account. Tracking down account admins was super challenging.”
The tool sprawl was vast. Between the two teams, they were juggling at least 11 research tools: UserTesting, Dovetail, Useberry, Tremendous, Respondent, Askable, Alchemer, Sprig, Gainsight PX, Lyssna, and Maze. (Not to mention Calendly, Microsoft Outlook, and other general purpose tools.)
“We tried a bunch of tools, but we never really landed one that everyone should use. We were kind of left to our own devices.”
A participant recruitment free-for-all
Without dedicated researchers or a research operations manager, Sinch’s product designers handled their own participant recruitment, a painfully manual and inefficient process.
“Before this, I would just reach out to customers over email and send them a Calendly link. For participant recruitment and tracking, there was really nothing.”
This ad-hoc approach created significant overhead for designers who were already balancing design work with research responsibilities. Email outreach, calendar coordination, and incentive management all fell on individual designers with no centralized system or support.
“When people wanted to talk to customers, it was really like a free-for-all.”
Skyrocketing costs with diminishing returns
The financial burden of maintaining multiple research tools was becoming unsustainable, especially as vendors aggressively raised prices.
“A lot of things were going up this year and last year for cost. UserTesting was going up. Dovetail was really going up, almost doubling what we were paying. When we started stacking everything up, it just did not make sense.”
Despite the high costs, the Sinch team wasn’t using the tools enough to justify what they were paying. UserTesting was particularly hard to justify given their team size and actual usage patterns.
How Sinch found the right fit
After evaluating other enterprise solutions that felt too complex for their research maturity level, Sinch discovered Great Question offered the right balance of functionality and simplicity.
“When we were trialing it, the participant recruitment piece was very easy to do. We had been doing it manually for so long that when we used Great Question, it would send out all the invites and then suddenly there’s meetings on our calendar. We just go to the meeting and run the interview.”
The platform’s ability to consolidate multiple tools (eight, to be exact) into one was a major selling point. Instead of managing separate contracts and relationships with numerous vendors, Sinch could centralize their research operations under one roof.
Significant cost savings through consolidation
By switching to Great Question, Sinch eliminated multiple expensive tools from their stack, including UserTesting and Dovetail. In all, Snyder reports 35% in cost savings.
“When we eliminated those, we were able to do more with Great Question with the same amount of money. We could fund more incentives to customers, recruit more participants, and talk to more panels.”
Time saved through streamlined recruitment
The automation of participant recruitment has been transformative for Sinch’s designer-researchers, particularly for Soo and others on the growth team who conduct frequent studies.
“I don’t have to worry about mail merge on Outlook anymore like before. Great Question’s integration with Outlook is easy.”
For designers who previously spent hours on manual outreach and scheduling, Great Question’s automated recruitment and calendar integration has freed up significant time to focus on actual research and design work.
“The screening feature inside Great Question has been really helpful to find the right people to talk to. We can screen out people we don’t want to talk to because of XYZ reasons.”
Great Question has also helped Sinch simplify incentive distribution. Instead of having to jump from platform to platform like before, now they can reach out to participants, gather insights, and pay out incentives in one place.
Better governance & team alignment
Perhaps most importantly, Great Question has brought structure and governance to Sinch’s previously chaotic research operations.
“Now we have a certain amount of admins and go-to people, and we know who can manage the account. There’s not that worry that it’s going to get shut down.”
With 13 creator seats and over 50 observers across the organization, Sinch has successfully democratized access to research while maintaining control over the process. Product managers can view research findings, designers can run their own studies, and Design Leaders can provide oversight, all within one platform.
“From a management perspective, it’s easy for multiple people to access and easy to maintain.”
What’s next for Sinch
While the team is still in the process of fully adopting all of Great Question’s features, they’re already seeing the benefits of consolidation. Looking ahead, Sinch plans to continue migrating data from their remaining tools and expanding usage across their 33-person design team.
Most importantly though, Great Question has already helped solve Sinch’s biggest research pain point.
“It’s really great for participant recruitment, which was a big hole in our process. Great Question has streamlined it for us.”
