Understanding the AI Consultant

The AI Consultant is your research design partner inside Koji. It takes your research question and helps you build a rigorous, well-structured interview plan — much like working with an experienced qualitative researcher, except it's available instantly and never gets tired of revisions.

If you've ever felt unsure about how to structure a research study, which questions to ask, or what methodology to use, the AI Consultant is built for you.

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What the AI Consultant Does

At its core, the AI Consultant handles the part of qualitative research that usually requires the most expertise: research design. Specifically, it:

1. Reads and interprets your research goal — understands what you're trying to learn, even from a casually written description.
2. Asks clarifying questions — identifies gaps in the brief and asks targeted follow-ups to fill them.
3. Recommends a methodology — suggests a qualitative framework that fits your research type.
4. Drafts a research brief — creates a structured document defining objectives, audience, themes, and success criteria.
5. Builds an interview plan — generates a complete conversation flow with opening questions, core exploration, follow-up probes, and closing.
6. Incorporates context — reads any documents you upload (PDFs, text files, etc.) and weaves that knowledge into the research design.
7. Iterates on feedback — revises any part of the plan based on your input, as many times as you need.

The result is a research study that follows established qualitative methods, with questions designed to surface genuine insights rather than surface-level opinions.

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How the Conversation Works

When you create a new study, the AI Consultant opens a chat-style conversation. Here's the typical flow:

Phase 1: Understanding Your Goal

You start by describing what you want to learn. The Consultant reads your input and responds with a combination of:

• Acknowledgment — confirming it understands your goal.
• Clarifying questions — asking for details that will make the research more focused.
• Initial suggestions — early thoughts on approach and methodology.

For example, if you write "I want to understand why users churn," the Consultant might ask:

• "Which user segment are you most concerned about — new users, long-time customers, or a specific plan tier?"
• "Do you have any hypotheses about why they're leaving?"
• "What time frame are we looking at — users who churned recently, or over the past year?"

These questions aren't random. They're designed to narrow the research scope so the interviews produce actionable insights, not generic feedback.

Phase 2: Methodology Selection

Once the Consultant has enough context, it recommends a qualitative methodology. Koji's AI is trained on several established frameworks:

• The Mom Test — focuses on asking about real past behavior rather than hypothetical futures. Perfect for product validation because it avoids the trap of participants telling you what you want to hear. The Consultant structures questions around concrete experiences and specific examples.

• Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) — explores the "job" a user is "hiring" your product to do. The Consultant designs questions that uncover the situation, motivation, and desired outcome that drive adoption and switching decisions.

• Customer Discovery — a structured approach to understanding problems, needs, and existing solutions in a market. Great for early-stage research when you're still defining the problem space.

• Exploratory / Phenomenological — open-ended conversation designed to deeply understand a lived experience. Used when you're researching a topic you know little about and need to build foundational understanding.

• Evaluative — focused on assessing reactions to a specific concept, prototype, or experience. The Consultant structures questions around specific touchpoints and comparison frameworks.

You don't need to be familiar with any of these. The Consultant explains why it's recommending a particular approach and what it means for the interview structure. If you have a preference — maybe you've used JTBD before and want to stick with it — just say so.

For a deeper comparison, see Choosing a Methodology.

Phase 3: Research Brief

The Consultant drafts a research brief that captures everything agreed upon:

• Research objectives — clearly stated goals for the study.
• Target audience — who should be interviewed and why.
• Key themes — the main areas the interviews will explore.
• Methodology — the chosen framework and how it applies.
• Success criteria — what good interview data looks like for this study.

This brief is important because it becomes the guiding document for the entire study. The interview questions, the AI interviewer's behavior, and the analysis framework all flow from this brief.

Review it carefully. If something feels off, tell the Consultant. It's much easier to adjust the brief now than to realize after 10 interviews that the questions were pointed in the wrong direction.

For more on the brief structure, see Understanding the Research Brief.

Phase 4: Interview Plan

With the brief finalized, the Consultant generates the interview plan — the actual conversation structure that Koji's AI will follow during interviews.

The plan includes:

• Warm-up section — easy, conversational questions to build rapport and set the participant at ease.
• Core questions — the main research questions, sequenced to build on each other logically.
• Probing prompts — follow-up directions the AI should explore based on participant responses.
• Transition logic — how the conversation moves between topics naturally.
• Closing section — questions that capture final thoughts, reflections, and anything the participant wants to add.

The interview plan is adaptive. During an actual interview, Koji's AI uses this plan as a guide but responds dynamically to what the participant says. If a participant shares something unexpected and insightful, the AI will follow that thread before returning to the planned questions.

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Giving Effective Feedback

The quality of your study design depends on how well you collaborate with the Consultant. Here are tips for making the most of the conversation:

Be Specific About Changes

Instead of "make it better," try:

• "Add a question about how they evaluated alternatives before choosing us."
• "The opening questions are too formal — make them feel more like a casual conversation."
• "I want to spend more time on the post-purchase experience and less on the discovery phase."

Challenge the Recommendations

The Consultant is knowledgeable, but you know your business better. If something doesn't feel right, push back:

• "I don't think JTBD is right for this — we already know the job. I want to understand satisfaction, not motivation."
• "Our users wouldn't respond well to that question. Can you rephrase it to be less direct?"

Share Context Generously

The more the Consultant knows, the better the research design. Share:

• Previous research findings that are relevant.
• Internal hypotheses your team has about the topic.
• Constraints (e.g., "Our participants will only have 10 minutes").
• Business context (e.g., "We're deciding whether to sunset this feature").

You can type this information directly in the chat or upload documents (PDF, TXT, DOCX, JSON, MD) for the Consultant to reference.

Iterate Without Hesitation

There's no penalty for multiple iterations. The Consultant doesn't get frustrated, and the quality of the output genuinely improves with each round of feedback. Most users find that 2–3 rounds of revision produce an excellent interview plan.

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What the AI Consultant Is Not

To set expectations clearly:

• It's not a survey builder. Koji is designed for qualitative, conversational research — not quantitative surveys with multiple choice answers.
• It's not the interviewer. The Consultant designs the research. A separate AI system conducts the actual interviews with participants. They're optimized for different things.
• It's not a replacement for human judgment. The Consultant makes recommendations based on methodology expertise, but you should always review and adjust based on your specific context and knowledge of your audience.

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Getting the Most from the Consultant

Experienced Koji users develop a rhythm with the Consultant that consistently produces strong research designs. Here are the patterns that work best:

1. Start with the decision, not the topic. Instead of "I want to research onboarding," try "We need to decide whether to simplify or add more steps to onboarding. I want to understand what users actually experience." This gives the Consultant a decision anchor.

2. Share what you think you know. Telling the Consultant your existing hypotheses helps it design questions that test those assumptions rigorously rather than just confirming them.

3. Read the interview plan out loud. Before publishing, read through the questions as if you were a participant. Do they flow naturally? Do any feel awkward or leading? Share that feedback.

4. Upload context. Even a simple one-page document with product context helps the Consultant generate significantly more relevant questions.

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Next Steps

• Creating Your First Study — put this knowledge into practice by creating a study.
• Understanding the Research Brief — deep dive into the brief structure and how it guides your research.
• Choosing a Methodology — compare qualitative frameworks to pick the right one for your next study.