User research & interview synthesis

Synthesis is where research dies — recordings pile up un-watched and insights never make it to the roadmap. The tools here split into two jobs: capture (transcribe and structure raw calls) and synthesis (find themes across many sessions). The honest truth is that a general LLM handles synthesis of a handful of interviews beautifully; you reach for dedicated research platforms when the volume, tagging rigor, or team collaboration justifies the cost.

One change worth knowing about, checked 2026-08-03: Dovetail dropped its self-serve $15/user/mo tier. The pricing page is now Free (one channel, one project) or Enterprise “contact sales”, so we’ve unpinned it as this category’s pick and scored it down to 3 — the product is unchanged, but a shortlist for PMs has to account for whether you can actually buy the thing without a procurement cycle.