Recent Work
Client Stories
How Tailscale’s Industry Research is Making Zero Trust More Accessible
Tailscale, a leader in secure connectivity and networking, already had an engaged customer base and a growing reputation for simplifying complex infrastructure. To build on that momentum and extend its reach, Tailscale launched a large-scale educational research initiative designed to share insights with—and learn from—the IT and security community.
In partnership with Kelsey White Research, Tailscale surveyed 1,000 developers and engineers across the U.S. and Canada to understand how modern organizations are approaching Zero Trust networking. The results uncovered common pain points with traditional VPNs, gaps in security posture, and opportunities to make secure access simpler and more reliable for teams of all sizes.
The findings became the foundation for a multi-channel thought leadership campaign. Tailscale published a detailed report, both as a dedicated webpage and downloadable PDF, alongside a blog post, sales enablement briefs tailored by industry, and targeted outreach through social, search, and email. This data-driven content didn’t just generate leads; it armed IT decision-makers with practical knowledge to advance their own security strategies.
The campaign drew coverage from industry outlets such as Security Boulevard, IT Pro, and other trusted sources among Tailscale’s buyer audience, and fueled new speaking opportunities, including a feature interview with Tailscale’s CEO on a popular industry podcast.
Day 1 results: 5% increase in LinkedIn followers, 1500 impressions
Within 48 hours: 2000+ report PDF downloads
Significant earned media exposure and new thought leadership positioning in the zero trust networking space
Total reach of over 780,000 in social media and press
By pairing educational research with an already strong marketing engine, Tailscale not only expanded its audience but also deepened its authority as a trusted partner in making Zero Trust security accessible, usable, and effective. The company continues to use the findings for sales enablement materials, video content and other engagement - increasing the value of the research.
The research report had 2,000+ downloads within the first 48 hours.
Reach of over 780,000 across press and social media.
Lob: Turning Legacy Surveys Into a High-Impact Brand Asset
For several years Lob has conducted annual studies evaluating the state of direct mail from both a consumer and business leader perspective. They wanted to streamline the process, improve data quality and drive more narrative-based storytelling.
We now partner on their annual reports where I deliver faster, higher-quality research with a clearer strategic narrative.
I redesigned and streamlined their surveys, reorganizing and simplifying them to preserve year-over-year tracking while significantly reducing respondent burden and confusion. The result is a cleaner, more focused instrument that is easier to field and better aligned with Lob’s evolving brand and messaging priorities.
On the back end, I deliver analysis in a clear, intuitive format built around their hypotheses and communications goals. That structure enables their team to draft the final report more efficiently and confidently, with insights already organized for storytelling.
I’ve also joined their webinars as a guest speaker. The consumer-focused event drew more than 500 registrants, while the business leader edition approached 700, both featuring lively Q&A and multiple follow-up requests for deeper insights.
For the first time, Lob pitched the research findings to media, resulting in coverage on Apple News, extending the impact of the study beyond owned channels.
“Working with Kelsey transformed our annual research into a true brand asset. She streamlined and sharpened our survey while preserving year-over-year continuity, delivered clear, insight-driven analysis aligned to our messaging priorities, and helped us move from data to final report in record time. The findings fueled a 500+ registrant webinar, generated strong engagement, and even earned media coverage in Apple News. Kelsey is a thoughtful, strategic partner who is deeply invested in both the quality of the research and the impact it drives.”
—Kira Sparks, Director of Brand and Content (Contract), Lob
Validating a Founder Wealth Framework Across Three Global Markets
My client, a serial tech founder and CEO, had developed a proprietary blueprint for thinking about wealth management, business growth, and investing; one that had worked extremely well in their own journey, but that they didn’t want to assume was universally applicable.
They wanted to vet their assumptions with other tech founders in three global markets, leaders who had no relationship with them and no exposure to their framework. They partnered with me to design and execute a study for this purpose.
I designed a qualitative research strategy from the ground up:
Developed a tailored discussion guide built specifically to probe, challenge, and expand the client’s priors
Sourced and recruited 20 Series B+ tech founders across three global markets
Conducted in-depth, one-on-one conversations with each founder
Facilitated conversations to uncover decision frameworks, tradeoffs, blind spots, and lived experiences
I identified cross-market themes, patterns, and deviations, highlighting:
Where the client’s blueprint was strongly validated
Where assumptions held only under certain market conditions
Where founders diverged meaningfully in approach
The language founders actually use when describing wealth, risk, growth, and future planning
I delivered structured insights alongside powerful verbatim quotes and real-world examples. The client used this intelligence to refine and update their proprietary framework, strengthening it with global perspective and lived peer experience.
Linking Behavior Change to Business Performance
Crucial Learning, a provider of corporate learning solutions, wanted to understand whether the skills and behaviors taught in their courses could reliably predict organizational performance. The goal was twofold: to have reliable data that would answer client’s questions around the impact of the courses on their bottom-line results, as well as demonstrate how clients could find additional ROI when training more than one Crucial Learning course.
They partnered with me to refine their survey instrument and conduct the statistical analyses needed to test the relationship between key behavioral competencies and organizational outcomes.
Our research uncovered the human behaviors that most enable an organization to both execute on its current mission and innovate to stay relevant.
Crucial Learning used the study results to create sales messaging and materials that enable client advisors to answer client questions around the ROI of the company’s learning solutions, issue a press release, hold a webinar with 3,200 registrants that also generated 200 marketing qualified leads, create a research report of the data, and support an email campaign.
This research gave the organization new evidence to support its value proposition and a data-driven way to guide clients toward high-impact learning solutions.
The research report was shared to 75,000 clients and prospects via an email campaign and generated 75+ marketing qualified leads.
Generating “Proof” for a New Data Quality Approach
The CEO of Data Quality Co-op, a startup improving transparency into insights data quality, approached me to design a foundational survey and methodology to understand the impact of data quality for current insights practitioners.
They needed a robust, credible study that demonstrates how different quality variables influence survey outcomes, establishing their authority in the space and serving as a proof of concept in conversations with prospective clients.
The study needed to meet several criteria:
Include a variety of research techniques
Collect data suitable for a broad range of statistical analyses
Focus on a topic relevant to the general population
Be adaptable for long-term use across countries and cultures
To meet these goals, I developed a comprehensive 15-minute survey covering topics commonly measured by brand decision-makers. These included:
Package design evaluation and testing
Brand trust measures
A product attribute battery
A MaxDiff exercise for product messaging
Additional attitudinal and psychographic questions
Once data was collected, I created an analysis framework to evaluate quality across multiple dimensions, incorporating technical indicators, in-survey behaviors, and sample source variables. Together, we developed over 50 distinct quality variables and conducted a segmentation to identify respondent quality profiles based on these inputs.
The study helped position Data Quality Co-op as a leading contributor in the industry’s ongoing conversation about data quality. It was presented at Ignite: Data Quality 2025, hosted by the Insights Association, and developed into a white paper, supporting press and marketing efforts.
Unlike purely promotional studies, this research advanced meaningful thought leadership by offering a rigorous, replicable approach to understanding and measuring data quality, helping the client set a new bar for transparency in the insights industry.
Today, the baseline study continues to serve as a proof of concept for Data Quality Co-op in sales conversations, supporting both customer acquisition and the startup’s broader credibility in the market.
Strengthening a New Product Release with Research
As Crucial Learning prepared to launch a new product for workplace teams, they wanted to understand the statistical link between relationships among team members and overall team performance. I partnered with them to develop and field an online survey distributed across industries, organization sizes, and team types. The goal was to examine how interpersonal dynamics stack up against other commonly cited factors in influencing team success.
The analysis revealed that nearly half of what makes a team perform well (or poorly) can be attributed to relationship quality. Factors like feeling understood, holding favorable opinions of teammates, and resolving interpersonal conflicts quickly had the strongest ties to team performance. By contrast, team characteristics often assumed to be influential, such as size, function, location, or even diversity, had no measurable impact on performance.
Crucial Learning used these findings to reinforce the value proposition of their new team-focused course and to sharpen research-based product positioning and marketing messaging for the large-scale product launch. They created sales messaging and materials that enable client advisors to position the Crucial Teams course as a learning solution that would drive measurable results and improve team performance.
The research generated 2 high-leverage media placements, including a story on Inc.com.
The research report had 2,400 downloads and generated 120+ marketing qualified leads.
Webinar had 3,500+ registrants and generated 217 marketing qualified leads.
Bringing Clarity to the
State Budget
The Utah Taxpayers Association had previously published an annual report on the state budget but found it didn’t gain much traction. The methodology wasn’t clear, the analysis raised questions, and it lacked a strong message or actionable takeaways.
While the Utah legislature offers excellent transparency around state finances, that information lives in many different places, making it hard to get a clear, high-level view of the most important trends in state spending.
I developed a new budget report for the Association that clearly outlined where money comes from, where it’s spent, what areas are growing, and what priorities are driving the numbers this year. It also provided a platform for the Association’s president to weigh-in on the governor’s new GRIT initiative regarding public spending.
We published the report just ahead of the new fiscal year and shared it with local media, earning coverage in political newsletters and KSL news radio, all of which quoted the Association president. The report made it easier for journalists, Association members, and engaged citizens to quickly understand and reference key budget facts.
The report strengthened the Association’s role as a trusted tax watchdog, providing timely information to advance its mission and enhance transparency and accountability around state spending.
The report earned coverage in political newsletters and KSL news radio, quoting the Association president.
