Trust, context, action: Leena Doshi on designing Surveys that drive decisions
October 7, 2025
Insights do more than just analyse what happened; they guide what to do next.
In this episode of The Curiosity Current, hosts Stephanie and Brianna Boyer sit down with Leena Doshi, Senior Manager of Research at Electronic Arts (EA). Leena shares how she built and scaled research functions at EA and uShip, why trust and context are the real drivers of influence, and how framing problems as a puzzle (one answer) versus a mystery (ambiguous, multi-answer) can change the way organisations use insights.
In this episode of The Curiosity Current, hosts Stephanie and Brianna Boyer talk with Leena Doshi, Senior Manager of Research at Electronic Arts (EA), whose career spans EA and uShip. Leena explains how insights teams differ from analytics by creating new data to answer human questions, and why framing problems as puzzles (one solution) versus mysteries (ambiguous, multi-solution) is essential in fast-paced industries like gaming. She shares lessons from leading a 10,000-respondent global study, why trust is the real driver of influence, and how her “one new thing per quarter” rule keeps her ahead of technology shifts. Leena also highlights the role of AI in processing unstructured data, the importance of sharp survey objectives (“you can’t boil the ocean”), and why insights must evolve from reactive validation to proactive strategy guiding tomorrow’s decisions.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to frame problems as puzzles vs. mysteries for sharper research decisions
- Why insights teams create new data while analytics teams analyse existing data
- How to navigate complex gaming audiences without oversimplifying differences
- Why trust and relationships are the real currency for scalable research functions
- How AI can handle unstructured data while humans provide context and judgment
- Why survey design starts with razor-sharp objectives (“you can’t boil the ocean”)
- How insights evolve from reactive reporting to proactive strategy that guides tomorrow’s decisions
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Episode Resources:
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