Mission & Vision

We founded Gradient to be the research company we wanted to see in the world. We dedicate ourselves to being a consultative research partner for our clients and to bringing objective clarity to our partners' most important strategy challenges by pushing methodological boundaries.

We want to be a premium research brand sought after for our methodological prowess by every global top tier organization. Our clients will recognize and choose Gradient for our sophisticated methodologies and for the bespoke, consultative, and personal partnership we bring to each engagement.

The following pillars shape Gradient’s business personality on a macro and micro level: They inform our value proposition in the market research sector; they inform how we conduct our daily business operations. Each of these pillars is a foundational strength of a Gradient partnership and is evident in every project we work on.

Each part of this pillar is essential to who we are. If we had to pick our superlative pillar, it would be the custom research partnership (luckily, we don’t have to pick). Gradient is not your grandparents’ research company or an off-the-shelf solution. We design custom research methodologies for every client and deliver tailored insights to cater specifically to our clients' needs and strategic questions. We partner with our clients at every step of their research journey and cultivate lasting relationships characterized by friendliness, humility, and humor.

We aren’t content to use the same statistical models that have told the same generic numbers story since the beginning of market research. Instead, we build many of our methodologies from scratch or iterate and improve upon existing methodologies to answer our partners’ strategic questions as accurately as possible. Our models are innovative, adaptive, and statistically rigorous; their results generate robust, comprehensive insights about a partner’s audience.

We place equal value on data science and social science. As a result, we develop for our partners richer consumer profiles than merely regurgitated demographics. Our reports aren’t reams of inscrutable spreadsheets, there is no data dumping. Sure, we can identify the racial and age market share of a partner’s audience, but through our methodologies we also help our clients understand what uniquely defines their buyers: their anxieties, needs, and wants. Our blend of data science and social science manifests in both our expertly-crafted, thorough reports and in our data-packed but accessible “Trendlines” newsletter.

At the beginning of every partnership we listen to our clients’ needs and help them articulate the strategic research objective(s) they want to answer. We then work backward to surface that answer. We draft the final report (the “ghost deck”) before a project even enters the field so all stakeholders understand what outcomes to expect; we test the accuracy of the chosen methodology by first using a predictive model with dummy data. This lean process is free of errors, surprises, and extraneous questions.

The Gradient team is transparent with each other and our partners regarding our work process and professional and personal needs. This looks like every Gradient employee having access to our P&L reports; being honest with clients (and each other) about our capabilities and shortcomings; and finding a tactful way to tell uncomfortable truths if they are supported by data.