Dolby Scales Their Research and Design Practice with Dscout

When the team at Dolby needed more flexible research tools and a high-quality research partner, they had a long list of considerations to look at.

Would a new solution allow dynamic research with a wide variety of products—from TVs and PCs to VR and everything in between? What about recruiting niche audiences, all while accommodating the needs of various people in their organization, such as designers?

In this conversation, Dscout Customer and Community Marketing Manager, Colleen Pate, sat down with experts at Dolby to learn the special elements that brought them and Dscout together.

Watch the full webinar here along with Aya Healthcare and Discovery Education.

Dana Frostig is a Senior UX Research Strategist at Dolby.

James Manning leads the UX team in the entertainment group at Dolby.

Jump to…

• Challenges before making the switch
• The evaluation process
• Benefits since transitioning to Dscout
  • Research support prior to launching tests
  • A smooth process between recruiting and running diary studies
• Advice for teams considering Dscout
• Wrapping it up

Challenges before making the switch

Dana: When I came in, I looked at some of the past research the team had been doing to both familiarize myself with the ecosystem at Dolby and also understand our needs and where we can grow. I started to see patterns like using the existing tools we had in the most convenient way…but not necessarily the most strategic way.

That was a big factor in evaluating tools—is there a tool that lets us really be flexible and also can accommodate a whole portfolio of product areas across speakers, TVs, PCs, etc? We’re also starting to get into the AR/VR space. It's a growing landscape, so having a tool that lets us do something different for each area was valuable.

In addition to that, some studies require really niche populations. Making sure we find the right people and have methods to verify that they are who we're looking for was also high up on our list.

James: As a leader, it’s prudent to look at your toolkit and strategy regularly and think through what kind of problems we are trying to solve at this particular point in time.

We already had a solution as Dana said, and it's interesting what Christine said about joining for the diary studies and staying for the usability testing. We were doing much more usability testing before we came to Dscout. The diary study aspect was very interesting to Dana with her experience, and that's been super important as we think about more work in the innovation space.

At Dolby, we've put a big focus on the fact that in the last couple of years, we have multiple groups that are involved in driving that, and the idea of generative research has become very important to us.

In the short time that we've been using [Dscout], it's enabled us to open up our innovation teams to new ideas from participants. It's been very promising for us.

The evaluation process

Dana: You can look at a website for a tool and look at all the features and get excited, but it's another thing to be hands-on and use it. We were able to test [Dscout] with a fairly complex study, with a really niche audience that there isn’t language around yet. That was crucial to kind of test that, and I found myself immediately diving in.

What I noticed in testing it and building out the study was that I immediately recognized it. It just fit the way I thought about my study and the way I thought about my process. With a lot of tools you have to change your process to fit the tool, and I felt like this tool was fitting my process. I only noticed that when I had that hands-on experience.

I was impressed with the robust participant selection features. I could tell that Dscout invests a lot in their Scouts, in their panel, and in giving Scouts resources on how to be better participants. I noticed that with the participants who were submitting their answers through our diary study.

I was also able to see things like what it looks like to share clips with outside stakeholders. Are they opening them, or is it hard to get to?

While I'm the one deciding on the tool, I'm not the only one using it and accessing it. I wanted to make sure it was accessible to others. I wanted to make sure our designers had a chance to also play around with it because if I'm going to move them away from the old tool we're using, I want to make sure it fits their needs as well.

It was great to get their input. They sent me extensive lists of pros and cons. For the cons, we looked at what we can do to work around this, and still get what we need from it. That's where a lot of the cons even turned into pros.

As I said, our goal here is to scale our research capabilities. We could see ourselves doing that with Dscout.

James: I want to emphasize how pleased I've been with the team that has been working with us from Dscout. They've been fantastic to work with and were very motivated to help us evaluate the tool.

They were very curious about our process and the kinds of markets that we serve. They ensured that we were on the right tier that made sense for us. It didn't feel like a pushback. It didn't feel like something where we were being sold an upsell that we didn't necessarily need.

I've just been really, really happy with that relationship part of it, as everybody else has said.

Benefits since transitioning to Dscout

✔ Research support prior to launching tests

Dana: I want to briefly shout out the support team at Dscout. Some of the biggest impacts we've seen have been in having someone who can review a test before launch. It’s been really helpful for our team because I'm only one researcher, and I only have so much time in the day so that already takes some time off my plate.

If a designer on my team is launching a study and they want a gut check, the support team provides it and they don't have to wait for me, and I don't have to be a blocker on that. Your support team is awesome.

✔ A smooth process between recruiting and running diary studies

Dana: Having run some diary studies without a dedicated tool in the past, it is so much work to recruit and then constantly remind participants to hit their diary touchpoints and manage that. That was so smooth with Dscout. I was impressed.

What was awesome was we intended to do follow-up live interviews with a select number of scouts that participated in the diary study, and it was smooth to be able to move participants from those phases of the study.

On top of that, the screening tools and being able to have a video in the screening is valuable because we're going to invite these people to share their lives with us over two or three weeks. We want to make sure it's the right person for that duration, and that's valuable.

Advice for teams considering Dscout

Dana: Don't be afraid to get messy and experimental with the tool. What I love about research is you have these foundations of best practices and methods to use, but sometimes the best method is to mix and match and tweak things for your specific focus. Dscout enables that, so I highly recommend trying to break from any pre-existing patterns and embrace the creativity in the experimentation itself.

James: If you're not using a tool like Dscout, it's really important to do the due diligence to understand and articulate your goals. You need to understand the kind of research you want to do and the kind of problems you want to solve. That's an internal thing, and Dscout can help with that. For us that was a very important part of the process.

Wrapping it up

Dolby's research team felt supported throughout the vetting and transition process, with Dscout's account managers finding the right package for their needs without unnecessary upsell.

Using Dscout has enabled Dolby to…

• Source higher-quality, vetted participants
• Usher in new ideas and innovation from participants
• Review tests before launch with Dscout’s support team
• Collaborate seamlessly with stakeholders, designers, and other researchers

When it came to finding a new research partner, embracing a certain level of messiness and experimentation helped Dolby’s research team evolve.

Scale your research and design practice with Dscout

One tool that allows you to recruit, execute the research, and socialize your findings across the entire organization. Learn how Dscout can get your stakeholders engaged and ensure your insights make a real, measurable impact. Schedule a demo today.