Remesh’s self-service research solution takes off with Prolific’s help

Focus groups deliver depth but lack scale. Surveys reach thousands but often miss nuance. Remesh found a way to bridge this gap with AI-powered digital focus groups where hundreds interact in real-time. But when it wanted to let clients run these sessions independently, it needed reliable participants without staff oversight. That's where Prolific made all the difference.

What does Remesh do?

Remesh creates technology that works like an online focus group but with AI-powered analysis. Participants can respond to questions and also vote on other people's responses in real time. The platform then organizes all of this feedback to highlight key themes and sentiments.

"We ask individuals questions, and they're able to respond to other people's responses in the same setting," Andrew Santana, Head of Panel Management at Remesh, says. "The AI on the backend develops all of that for a singular output, so clients can get a clear picture even with hundreds of people participating."

Clients include consumer goods companies, healthcare organizations, and tech firms looking for deeper insights than traditional surveys can provide.

The self-service challenge

Remesh started by offering a staff-supported research service, but they saw an opportunity to expand. They wanted to launch an additional OnDemand Recruit service that would put the platform directly into researchers' hands.

"Clients can now go onto our platform and do most of it themselves, without needing to interact with staff,” Andrew explains. “They can place recruitment orders by choosing from a wide range of pre-set criteria, set custom criteria, and add in quota caps."

There was one major hurdle to overcome, however: how do you maintain quality when clients are recruiting participants independently?

"If we have bad responders, it's very apparent because they float to the top with off-topic answers," Andrew says. "With our typical process, we have checks at every step. But with self-service, we needed a participant source we could trust without question."

Why Prolific delivers better data quality

This is where Prolific's mission to provide the highest-quality human data served as the perfect fit.

Andrew has his theories about why Prolific delivers better participants: "There's an innate bias in market research panels because we're incentivizing people for responses," he explains. "I think the delay that Prolific has for allowing people into your panel creates a big buffer against bad actors, because typically bad actors want money now."

He also points to Prolific's verification systems and fair payment policies as contributing factors.

"Prolific pays fair wages—it's one of the core elements of the project setup. It's actually flagged if we're not," Andrew says.

Finding the best source of high-quality participants

Cost also played a role when evaluating research panel providers, and Andrew initially noticed Prolific's price advantage.

"The cost was very exciting—about a third to half of what we usually see from other providers," he notes.

But what surprised him was that the lower price didn't mean lower quality. In fact, quite the opposite happened.

"Even though the dollar amount is less, we're not losing quality with Prolific. We're actually gaining more quality than we've ever seen before," Andrew says. "Our removal rates are incredibly low, probably about a tenth of what we typically see in other panels."

Speed and simplicity mean more time saved

Beyond cost and quality, Andrew was blown away by how quickly Prolific delivers results.

"It is the quickest that I've ever seen. We have projects that require 300 qualified participants that we can achieve in an hour," he says. "Speed-wise, it’s optimal, if not first place."

Prolific’s usability has also saved Andrew countless hours of work.

"If I need to modify something, it's very simple to duplicate, modify, and launch again. That process can take 20 to 30 minutes with other tools. Here it takes two to five minutes," he explains. "Bottom line, it's ease of flow, ease of use, and fewer clicks, because my life is literally based on the number of clicks I do for a process."

Real research, real impact

One recent project shows the benefits of having engaged, thoughtful participants. Remesh ran a large-scale study on US healthcare systems, connecting a healthcare executive directly with over 600 consumers across three sessions.

The results were eye-openingly raw and honest.

"What I could summarize it being was vitriol— it was anger," Andrew recalls. "Having that actual data show there was true anger from consumers about how healthcare systems have treated them shows us that something needs to change."

This kind of unfiltered, authentic feedback is exactly what Remesh's clients need to make better decisions.

Growing together through partnership

What started as a vendor relationship has evolved into a true partnership. Andrew particularly values how Prolific responds to feedback.

"The feedback process and update process is incredible. From day one, everything we've requested has either been in the works, taken into consideration, or resulted in a complete overhaul to meet our needs," he says.

"If Prolific is doing this for us, there's no doubt it has been doing it for other clients too. That alone is valuable enough to use Prolific."

The integration has allowed Remesh to enhance their offering in several ways:

• Clients can now run research more independently
• Projects complete faster with higher-quality data
• Costs are lower, making research more accessible
• Sessions yield richer, more thoughtful responses

"We've allowed the power of Remesh to be given straight into our clients' hands, and it's a very fluid process," Andrew says. "It's pretty much just a few clicks, and then you can launch a project."

Partner with Prolific

Could your research platform or tool benefit from access to Prolific's pool of verified, engaged participants? We work with partners like Remesh to expand their offerings and deliver better results to their clients.

Partner with Prolific to learn how you can integrate Prolific's participant pool into your solution.