We’ve published a lot of content since we launched xminstitute.com, so I thought this was a good time to share some insight into how XM Institute approaches its research and the thought leadership content we produce from it. 

Research is foundational to everything we do. The Institute’s goal is to inspire XM leaders and equip them with the skills and knowledge to drive the most value from their efforts. We believe that this requires us to constantly push the envelope on our thinking. Here are some of the macro questions we aim to answer with our research:

  • What is the future of XM and how should XM leaders prepare for it?
  • How can organizations embed XM across their day-to-day operations? 
  • How can we better understand people, and apply that knowledge to all of the experiences that an organization creates?
  • What are the most effective ways to initiate and evolve XM efforts to drive value?

There’s no simple way to address these questions, and the answers actually change over time. To keep a pulse on this shifting XM landscape and uncover best practices that help XM leaders succeed, our research taps into a variety of different sources, such as:

  • Consumer studies. We do large scale annual consumer surveys, leading to some quantitative findings that inform our other research. From that, we gain insight into customer and employee experiences including data points like the correlation between CX perceptions and future purchase intentions and respondents’ satisfaction with employers.
  • Organizational studies. We also do annual studies to get a picture of XM leaders’ efforts to meet experience expectations and the challenges they face along the way. We survey XM leaders to understand things like the positive business impact of CX and EX management on revenue growth, profitability, and employee retention. We also survey both CX leaders and EX leaders to understand things like program maturity levels.
  • Interviews with XM leaders. To uncover best practices for everything from developing foundational XM competencies to maturing, modernizing and maximizing the value of XM programs, we do in-depth interviews with XM leaders and practitioners. In those discussions, we test our research hypotheses and look for examples of both best practices and pitfalls to avoid.
  • XM subject matter experts. One of the great things about Qualtrics is that we have many of the world’s best XM experts in different roles across the company. They’re a valuable extension to our XM Institute team. In addition to tapping into this in-house expertise, we interview people at XM advisory, services, and technology organizations that work with XM leaders, including those within the Qualtrics’ Partner Network.

We analyze those different research inputs to deliver a variety of outputs, including:

 

Bottom line: XM Institute’s research is meant to help and inspire you.

Moira Dorsey is an XM Catalyst with the Qualtrics XM Institute