The Decline of Long Surveys and Ad Hoc Research: A Q&A with La Z Boy’s Jorge Calvachi

Still sending out long surveys? Running research projects that are one-off and disconnected?If you answered "yes" to either of these, it might be time for a change.

Jorge Calvachi, Director of Insights at La-Z-Boy Incorporated, has some thoughts on where market research is headed-and what's getting left behind. When I reached out for his take for the Market Research Trends 2025report, he shared some key shifts happening in the industry right now.

I couldn't include everything in the report, so here's the full conversation. From the rise of experience management platforms to the potential decline of focus groups, Jorge explains what's in and what's on its way out.

Q&A with Jorge Calvachi

a. Besides AI, what tools or technologies do you see becoming important in 2025 and why?

Experience management platformsare becoming indispensable as companies focus on connecting touchpoints across the consumer journey. Tools like CX dashboards that aggregate data from surveys, reviews, and customer interactions help brands identify pain points and opportunities in real-time. This trend is driven by the need to understand the consumer holistically-across channels and over time-to deliver seamless and personalized experiences. By integrating feedback at every stage, businesses can move beyond reactive problem-solving to proactively designing experiences that delight.

b. What types of AI innovations or applications are you most excited about?

Synthetic Respondents for Rapid Testing

AI can simulate diverse consumer personas with realistic preferences and behaviors, allowing brands to test products, ads, or messaging without traditional focus groups. These synthetic respondents can accelerate the feedback loop while reflecting a wide array of demographics.

Hyper-Personalized Insights

Through AI-driven data fusion, companies can integrate disparate data sources-purchase histories, online behaviors, and survey feedback-to create hyper-specific consumer profiles. This granularity allows businesses to tailor strategies to micro-segments, ensuring relevance at every touchpoint.

c. What methodologies or approaches do you see declining in 2025?

As the consumer insights field evolves, some traditional methodologies and approaches are likely to decline due to inefficiencies, lack of scalability, or an inability to provide the depth of insights modern businesses require.

Traditional Focus Groups

Focus groups have been a cornerstone of market research, but they have significant limitations-small sample sizes, groupthink bias, high costs, and travel. Agile and smart organizations are shifting toward virtual methods, behavioral tracking, or immersive technologies like VR to observe real-world behaviors rather than rely on moderated discussions.

Long-Form Surveys

Surveys with dozens of questions are losing favor as consumer attention spans shorten. Respondents often disengage, leading to lower-quality data. Agile, mobile-friendly micro-surveys and passive data collection methods are emerging as replacements, delivering quicker, more reliable insights.

Manual Data Analysis

The manual crunching of numbers or coding of open-ended responses is becoming increasingly obsolete. Automated tools that offer real-time processing and pattern detection are far more efficient and scalable, allowing insights teams to focus on strategy rather than data wrangling.

One-and-Done Research Projects

Ad hoc research that provides a snapshot in time is being replaced by continuous, longitudinal approaches. Companies now seek always-on solutions that track evolving consumer behaviors and sentiments, offering a more dynamic and actionable understanding of the market.

Final Thoughts

A huge thanks to Jorge for sharing these insights! He makes a solid case for why some long-standing market research practices need a serious update.

Long surveys, for example, have been a hot topic in our industry for years. But with AI-powered tools, conversational surveys, and the power of ongoing insight communities, the change is finally within reach. We need to move away from outdated approaches and embrace smarter, more efficient ways to gather meaningful feedback.

And here's the key takeaway: We, as insights professionals, need to champion these changes.It's about prioritizing the participant experience. If we do that, we'll continue to get the high-quality data we need-and the actionable insights that drive real business impact.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.