Founder of UserCall | Qualitative Research Practitioner | AI-Driven Research Systems Builder
Junu is a founder and qualitative research practitioner with 15+ years of experience in design, user research, and product strategy. He has led and supported large-scale qualitative studies across brand strategy, concept testing, and digital product development, helping teams uncover behavioral patterns, decision drivers, and unmet user needs. Before founding UserCall, Junu worked at global design firms including IDEO, Frog, and RGA, contributing to research and product design initiatives for companies whose products are used daily by millions of people. Drawing on years of hands-on interview moderation and thematic analysis, he built UserCall to solve a recurring challenge in qualitative research: how to scale depth without sacrificing rigor. The platform combines AI-moderated voice interviews with structured, researcher-controlled thematic analysis workflows. His work focuses on bridging traditional qualitative methodology with modern AI systems—ensuring speed and scale do not compromise nuance or research integrity. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/junetic/
Research Background & Experience
Over the past decade, Junu has:
- Designed and moderated in-depth interviews across consumer and B2B contexts
- Conducted multi-market qualitative studies across regions
- Led brand positioning research grounded in behavioral evidence
- Synthesized large volumes of qualitative data into strategic narratives
- Worked alongside product, design, and executive teams to turn research into decisions
He has seen first-hand the operational bottlenecks of qualitative research:
- Scheduling and moderation constraints
- Manual tagging that doesn’t scale
- Static insight repositories
- Delayed synthesis that arrives too late to influence product roadmaps
UserCall was built directly from these lived challenges.
Why UserCall Was Built
Traditional qualitative research delivers depth.
But it struggles with scale, speed, and operational efficiency.
After years of running and synthesizing interviews manually, Junu began experimenting with AI systems to support:
- Structured interview moderation
- Excerpt-level tagging
- Codebook-guided thematic clustering
- Cross-transcript pattern detection
- Faster first-pass analysis
UserCall emerged from this experimentation.
The platform combines AI-moderated voice interviews with researcher-controlled thematic analysis workflows—designed not to replace researchers, but to extend their capacity.
Research Philosophy
Junu’s approach to AI in qualitative research is grounded in three principles:
1. AI should accelerate, not replace, expertise
Human judgment remains essential in interpreting meaning, nuance, and context.
2. Methodology matters more than tools
Structured guides, disciplined coding logic, and clear learning goals determine insight quality—not just software.
3. Speed should not eliminate rigor
AI systems must preserve traceability, transparency, and excerpt-level grounding.
This philosophy informs both his writing and the development of UserCall.
Areas of Expertise
- AI Moderated Interviews
- Automated Thematic Analysis
- Qualitative Research Workflows
- Customer Insight Systems
- UX Research
- Market Research Technology
- ResearchOps & Insight Infrastructure
Writing & Thought Leadership
Junu regularly writes about:
- AI in qualitative research
- The limits and risks of automated analysis
- Scaling interview programs
- ResearchOps systems
- Comparing traditional tools like NVivo and ATLAS.ti to modern AI workflows
- How product and brand teams can build continuous insight loops
His work focuses on practical implementation rather than theory—grounded in real research operations and tool-building experience.
Professional Background
- IDEO
- Frog
- RGA
- Founder of Userlook (unmoderated user testing platform)
These roles involved research and design collaboration across global teams and diverse industries.
Connect
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/junetic/
Company:
https://www.usercall.co
