EP8: Why User Research Is Your Competitive Edge in Modern CX Strategy
May 12, 2026
In this episode of The CX Equation, hosts Chantelle Casey and Mark Clydesdale sit down with Emmanuelle Savarit, a senior research and strategy leader, to explore how embedding user research into everyday decisions drives measurable business impact. Emmanuelle shares how to position research as a core business function, align insights with stakeholder priorities, and scale research across organisations. She also explains how AI is enhancing, rather than replacing, researchers by freeing them to focus on strategic thinking and human judgment. Tune in to learn how to turn insights into action and build a culture where research truly moves the needle.
Key takeaway: Embedding user research into daily decision-making turns insights into measurable business impact.
In this episode of The CX Equation, hosts Chantelle Casey and Mark Clydesdale sit down with Emmanuelle Savarit, a senior research and strategy leader, to explore how embedding user research into everyday decisions drives measurable business impact. Emmanuelle shares how to position research as a core business function, align insights with stakeholder priorities, and scale research across organisations. She also explains how AI is enhancing, rather than replacing, researchers by freeing them to focus on strategic thinking and human judgment. Tune in to learn how to turn insights into action and build a culture where research truly moves the needle.
Key takeaway: Embedding user research into daily decision-making turns insights into measurable business impact.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to position research as a business function, not an afterthought
- Why triangulating qualitative insights with quantitative data creates a powerful story
- The "research maturity model" framework for scaling insights across organisations
- How AI is making researchers 40% more effective without compromising quality
- Why human oversight of AI models is non-negotiable in research
- How to embed research into everyday decision-making
Emmanuelle Savarit is a senior research and strategy leader with over 20 years of experience advising organisations on integrating AI, digital products, and UX research to drive responsible innovation and measurable business impact. She has built and led global insight functions across finance, technology, government, and consumer sectors, translating user understanding and data into product strategy and executive decisions. Her work focuses on AI governance, ethical adoption, and human oversight. Emmanuelle is the author of Practical User Research and The UX Research Powerhouse trilogy, and host of the UX Research Club podcast, where she explores research leadership and strategy.
Mark Clydesdale is the Head of Strategic Consulting at Tap CXM and a customer-obsessed marketing strategist who turns messy data and competing P&Ls into clear, scalable personalisation. He’s best known for championing relevance and bringing a strategic perspective on the importance of relevance in personalisation. Having worked across sectors from telco and banking to retail and media, Mark bridges the gap between customer insight, decisioning, and real-world execution.
Chantelle Casey is the Principal Solutions Architect at Tap CXM and a marketing operations and MarTech leader who builds the plumbing that makes personalisation work at scale. She specialises in unified customer views, decisioning, and “next-best-everything” logic. Currently, her focus is on supporting clients in transforming their business to best, optimising their customer experience, improving their agility, and developing better ways of working that are insight-driven and customer-focused.
Episode Resources:
- Emmanuelle Savarit on LinkedIn
- UX Research Club Podcast
- UX Research Powerhouse on Amazon
- Practical User Research on Amazon
- Chantelle Casey on LinkedIn
- Mark Clydesdale on LinkedIn
- Tap CXM Website