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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

1. From Product to Founder: Why Build Sprig – 01:00
2. What Legacy Survey Tools Get Wrong – 04:00
3. Sprig’s End-to-End Research Workflow – 07:30
4. Using Sprig to Build Sprig (Meta UX) – 09:45
5. AI as Intern: Supercharging Strategic Work – 22:00
6. The New Research Stack: Strategic > Tactical – 29:00
7. The Future of UX Research Teams – 31:00

Resources & Links

• Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn
• Sprig AI-Native Survey App

• Connect with Mark on LinkedIn
• Fuzzy Math - B2B & Enterprise UX Design Consultancy