Researcher + strategist
People are
interesting.
Everyday life is full of things. I ask people about those things, then turn their answers into stories and interactive charts.
Join 500+ researchers, strategists, and marketers. A new question, most weeks.
I’ve made a career out of asking better questions.
For more than a decade, I’ve designed research, explained what the answers mean.
Read the career story →Agencies and brands
Research for 60+ brands and agencies, from Fortune 500 companies to startups and independent shops. Across that work: roughly 400 surveys and 100,000+ responses.
Ideas worth sharing
Published in Scientific American and invited to speak at IDEO.
Teaching
Former adjunct professor of Consumer Behavior and Persuasion at the City College of New York.
What I’m building today
New ways for people to answer questions.
Newsletter
I run original surveys on topics nobody asked about — then visualize the results.
See past newsletters →
The Giving Tree EKG
153 readers traced the closeness between the boy and the tree, page by page.
The Plot Device
A survey interface where answering the question and drawing the chart are the same act.
One Year of Saying “Yes” to Every Survey
I took 199 surveys to understand what researchers forget when they stop being respondents.
“Sam’s a deadly combination. A research wizard with the strategic and operational chops to create value without draining the war chest.”
“Some of the most methodologically clean survey work I’ve ever seen.”
“As an academic, I find Sam extremely annoying. He gets to do great work without having to submit for grants or fight with Reviewer 2.”
“Goldmine for marketers and researchers. Sam’s brilliant at breaking down the nuanced design elements that make a good survey question work.”
“My #1 resource recommendation for anyone who needs a fresh take on quant, from junior analyst to a senior marketer.”
“This is fantastic. I just forwarded this to the whole agency.”
Client work
Three long-running research partnerships.
2022–2024Long-term research partner
Three years helping Cleo get to know young Americans.
Cleo is a London-based personal-finance tool for Gen Z. As it expanded into the U.S., I became its recurring research partner—tracking the brand and studying customers, products, competitors, and value.
Three questions behind the work
BRAND · BARRIERS · COMPETITION
Water
Transit
Entertainment