The future of feedback: Synthetic users to accelerate innovation

Lynn Michaux — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 07:28:02 +0000

For decades, focus groups have been the primary method for innovation teams to understand users. Although they offer insightful information and authentic input, they also require time-consuming recruitment, incur high costs, and are prone to inherent biases that may affect outcomes. These disadvantages were tolerable in slower innovation cycles. These days, they create a gap since important decisions are frequently made before insights become available. Synthetic user research addresses this challenge by extending, rather than replacing, conventional methods.

From static personas to interactive counterparts

Synthetic users are AI-powered personas based on extensive language models. Unlike in traditional workshops, these personas are interactive, responding and reacting in real time. They create a digital version of the target audience based on multiple inputs, including demographics, behaviors, motivations, and ethnographic insights.

This approach changes how ideas are evaluated. Concepts can be tested right before validation, and features can be assessed prior to development. Unexpected resistance, such as hesitation, contradiction, or previously unconsidered concerns, frequently yields the most insightful discoveries.

By leading conversations, delving further, and analyzing responses, researchers maintain close involvement through a human-in-the-loop approach. The value is not found in automation alone, but rather in the combination of speed and human judgment.

A rigorous study logic

Identification and customization of personas are the first steps. Personas can be derived from a larger, structured database or constructed precisely around an idea, depending on the goal. Upon modification of behavioral characteristics and expectations, they are adjusted to reflect a specific setting or industry.

Interaction and simulation come next. A researcher introduces a value proposition, concept, or design trade-off. The synthetic user reacts, questions presumptions, and draws attention to areas of conflict, often bringing to light responses that would be challenging to predict internally.

A ‘human-in-the-loop’ approach comes into the stage to increase the level of depth and enhance the understanding. A human moderator interacts with the AI personas more in detail to examine answers and delve into underlying motives. This is crucial for determining the ‘why’ and not only what succeeds or fails.

From assumptions to structured exploration

This approach is especially powerful in managing uncertainty.

Instead of relying on assumptions, teams can run structured simulations. Multiple concepts can be explored in parallel across different personas, contexts, or markets.

This enables A/B testing much earlier in the process. Variations can be compared before developing a prototype:

Does a faster feature justify increased noise?
Is a lower price more compelling than improved repairability?
How does the same value proposition resonate across different markets?

By running these comparisons repeatedly, even at scale, patterns emerge. This shift helps teams move from instinct to evidence and reduce early-stage risk before real-world validation. It ensures teams build the right solution before refining how it is built.

An approach that travels across contexts

While this method is rooted in product development, its relevance extends far beyond it.

In healthcare, synthetic personas can help anticipate how less tech-savvy users interact with new devices.
In retail, they can reveal how messaging shifts between cultures or consumer mindsets.
In sustainability, they can surface how people navigate trade-offs between cost, durability, and environmental impact.
In UX and service design, they can expose friction in journeys that don’t yet exist.

These applications are unified by one logic: testing decisions against realistic, behavior-driven perspectives before finalization.

The post The future of feedback: Synthetic users to accelerate innovation appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

Nudging tourists to conserve water in Guadeloupe

Lynn Michaux — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 10:21:29 +0000

Despite regional efforts to cope with climate change, Caribbean islands like Guadeloupe are becoming increasingly vulnerable. As part of the TransformAr project, we’re trying to actively involve tourists to contribute to water conservation, one of the main challenges the island faces. Together with ADEME Guadeloupe, a local environmental protection organization, we co-organized a panel discussion and are conducting a nudging experiment to sustain food security and tourist infrastructure.

Vulnerability of the archipelago

Guadeloupe, like many Caribbean islands, faces high climate change vulnerability due to its geography, limited land area and reliance on tourism and agriculture. Combined with limited resources for adaptation, the island also struggles with biodiversity loss and water scarcity, exacerbating its climate challenges. How can we adapt to climate change and ensure the island’s long-term sustainability?

Reducing water usage by tourists

Every year more than 850.000 people visit Guadeloupe, and with an average water consumption of 84 to 2.000 liters per tourist per day, this poses a real threat to clean water availability. As part of one of the solutions implemented by the TransformAr project, we’re developing a nudging experiment together with ADEME Guadeloupe. This experiment aims to make tourists more conscious about their water usage and encourage them to use less water.

In preparation for the experiment, we hosted a panel discussion on the engagement of visitors with various stakeholders of the tourism industry, like hotel managers, tourist accommodation owners and industry representatives. This event also kicked off the full-scale nudging experiment aimed at reducing the water consumption of tourists in Guadeloupe. This experiment involves a ‘nudging kit’, comprised of a shower sensor, nudging stickers and an informational brochure, to be installed in hotel rooms. These materials will remind them and give some tips to conserve water.

Kick-off of the full-scale experiment

If you spend just 1 minute less in the shower, you’ll save about 10 liters of water. With that statistic in mind, the potential of this experiment could already have a big impact on the overall tourist water usage. Having concluded the pilot phase in February 2024, the nudging kit has now been installed in about 100 bathrooms across the island. This full-scale experiment will run until August 2024 and give valuable insights into the effectiveness of nudging strategies in promoting sustainable tourism practices in Guadeloupe.

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Lynn Michaux, Author at Verhaert Masters in Innovation