Two Audiences, Two Messages: Launch Research for a News Platform
Summary
A civic tech company was preparing to launch a news platform built to counter misinformation, and it needed to know who would adopt the product first, what would earn their trust, and what to say to each of them. Two phases of research produced two distinct audience profiles, a tested message for each, and a clear set of product priorities for launch.
The Client
A civic technology company building a platform that distills the news from multiple sources into a neutral, verifiable format, designed for people who no longer trust what they see online.
The Challenge
Trust was the product's entire value proposition, and trust is not uniform. The company needed to know how different kinds of users decide what to believe, which product elements build credibility and which undermine it, and whether one message could carry the launch or different audiences required different appeals.
What We Did
The first phase surveyed 385 members of the target population, weighted to represent it, covering pain points, motivations, sharing behavior, and message preferences. The second phase put the product in front of twenty users in moderated sessions, observing how they evaluated credibility element by element and where the experience produced delight or doubt.
The research traced how users move through the product, from first encounter to habitual use, and identified the emotional state and the trust question at each stage. It also tested competing taglines and vision statements head-to-head across audience types.
The Outcome
Two distinct audience types emerged with different reasons to trust. One audience doubted the accuracy of everything it read and responded to neutrality, sourcing, and the absence of spin. The other doubted its own expertise and responded to credible sources it could verify and carry into professional conversations. Message testing confirmed the split: each audience chose a different winning message, and the gap was decisive. The research also produced concrete product findings, including which design elements were quietly costing the product credibility and which feature was its strongest differentiator.
Strategic Impact
The client launched with two tailored appeals instead of one generic pitch, reordered its design priorities based on what actually drove trust, and entered the market knowing which audience to win first. The findings gave the team evidence that it could show funders when explaining its launch strategy.