Signal & Noise blog
Skimle's blog dedicated to high quality analysis using modern methods
Analysing Zoom and Teams call transcripts: a practical guide for product and research teams
Turn your call transcript library into a structured qualitative dataset. A practical guide to call transcript analysis for product and research teams.
End-to-end workflows - Importing and exporting data with Skimle
We're big believers in building a tool that integrates with the day to day work of knowledge professionals. In this post we explain what is possible with Skimle and what is coming next!
Analysing interviews and other documents in multiple languages with Skimle
You interviewed people in French, German, English and Swedish, and need to analyse also some Finnish text and Spanish emails as well. How to cope with multiple languages?
Practical end-to-end setup for interviews using audio recording, transcription and AI-assisted analysis
A step-by-step guide to recording, transcribing, and analysing interviews efficiently using your iPhone, cloud storage, and AI tools. Stop taking frantic notes and start capturing better insights.
Synthetic respondents in research - promise, pitfalls and when to use in 2026
AI-generated personas that answer surveys and interviews are becoming mainstream in market research. But can synthetic respondents replace real humans? Here's what works, what doesn't, and when to use...
Self-serving qualitative data - How AI enables democratisation of insights
During the past ten years, dashboards have unleashed a wave of self-serve quantitative analyses. LLMs are now enabling that for qualitative data. What will this mean in practice & how to benefit?
How to analyse open text responses at scale - without losing your mind
The dreaded open text answer box on the last page. Researchers fear the cumbersome data it will create, and respondents worry if anybody is listening. Is there a smart way to turn answers to insights?
How consultants and investors use expert network calls — and how to get more from them with Skimle
Expert network calls cost 500 to 2500 EUR each. Most teams waste the investment. Learn how to treat expert network calls as structured qualitative data.
How to write the perfect interview guide - 10 practical tips for preparing your questions
A well-crafted interview guide is the foundation of successful qualitative research. Learn how to structure questions, iterate as you learn, mix question types strategically, and use AI to test your g...
How many interviews do you need for qualitative research? A practical guide to sample size.
You're planning to do a series of interviews to gather information to solve a business problem, write an academic paper or perform due diligence. Many researchers and business people strugle to identi...
Complete guide to thematic analysis - from raw data to actionable insights across academic and business settings
Master thematic analysis with this comprehensive guide covering academic research, business consulting, policy analysis, and market research. Learn systematic methods for identifying patterns in inter...
How to do thematic analysis - A practical step-by-step guide for business people
Learn how to analyse reports, interviews and other qualitative data by borrowing the best bits of academic thematic analysis methods. This practical guide shows you how to find patterns in customer in...
How to summarise interviews - 5 steps from expert call notes to client-ready insights
A practical guide to synthesizing expert, client or customer interviews for consultants and analysts. Learn how to extract key insights, identify themes, and create client-ready deliverables from inte...
How to analyse interview transcripts - 5 steps from raw data to powerful synthesis
Learn how to analyse interview transcripts in a business setting with this 5-step approach developed based on my experience at McKinsey. Turn 200 pages of data into actionable insights in hours, not w...
Effective business interviews - Tips and tricks from a former McKinsey Partner
Before founding Skimle I was a Partner at McKinsey and did more than 1000 interviews. Here I share my interview guide and top tips.
Board meeting preparation - how to come prepared for the big meeting
Board meetings, official hearings, executive reviews. They all share one thing: hundreds of pages of pre-read materials and little time to digest them before the important moment. Here is what I have ...
Why ‘RAGs to riches doesn’t work’ - structuring data instead of dumping embeddings
Developers are starting to realise that even after optimising embeddings, chunking logic, reranking and models, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented-Generation) falls short in many real world applications