STE Corporation

Policymakers, corporations, and advocacy groups needed an up-to-date, reliable measure of U.S. public opinion about tariffs on goods from China and South Korea. Rising geopolitical tensions and shifting trade policy proposals created uncertainty about consumer sentiment, political risk, and likely public reaction to any new tariff measures. The stakes were high: misreading public opinion could lead to ineffective policy, damaged reputations, misallocated lobbying spend, poor corporate communications, and costly supply-chain or pricing decisions.

Immediate pain: would consumers accept higher prices from newly proposed and implemented tariffs on goods from China and South Korea, or would they shift purchases and punish brands? Our confidential client—a stakeholder in the trade policy and retail sector (retail brand and trade association interests)—faced that urgent, revenue‑critical question while policymakers actively debated tariffs. With pricing, supply‑chain and public affairs decisions pending, misguided assumptions could mean lost sales, reputational damage, and costly procurement errors. Could robust, MRS‑quality quantitative polling and segmentation deliver a defensible, timely snapshot of U.S. public opinion broken down by party, age, region and product category to guide strategy?

Immediate issue: new users repeatedly abandoned iTracks Board during onboarding because core actions were hard to find — a usability bottleneck threatening trial-to-paid conversion.

iTracks, a work-management SaaS serving enterprise and mid-market teams, faced mounting qualitative complaints from customers and frontline teams. Customer success and sales flagged the same urgent pain: the Board interface felt confusing, first-time activation stalled, and support volume spiked. User research (including MRS and usability testing) was commissioned to diagnose the problem.

The stakes were clear and urgent: without a clearer, more discoverable experience, platform adoption, client retention and new-sales momentum were at risk; a successful redesign could cut support costs, boost conversion and protect iTracks’ competitive position.

Question to solve: How might we redesign iTracks Board so that new users immediately understand core workflows, complete onboarding without help, and convert from trial to paid while reducing churn?