Hands on with Synthetic Users: Customer Research's Future

Lightning Lessons

Practical skills & tools to accelerate your career

Hands on with Synthetic Users: Customer Research's Future

Hosted by John Whalen, PhD

143 students

What you'll learn

Generate realistic AI-powered users

Learn how to create synthetic users tailored to your needs and how to "interview" them and generate insights.

Test ideas with AI-driven personas

Use synthetic users to validate concepts before costly real-world testing. Anticipate what real customers might say.

Explore synthetic experts as research partners

Leverage AI for instant expert feedback in your domain. Create an expert partner in insights, branding, marketing, etc.!

Try them for yourself while I'm presenting

While I'll show more advanced and specialized tools too, I'll provide LLM prompts to get you started during our meeting.

Why this topic matters

Synthetic users are a new and powerful AI-driven tool for research, marketing and innovation, allowing you to pre-test user needs early. If you’re not exploring them, you’re missing a scalable way to gain insights in a fast low-cost, low-risk way. Mastering this skill helps you generate findings quickly, test concepts efficiently, and align teams faster. Learn a technique that sets you apart!

You'll learn from

John Whalen, PhD

AI for UX Expert, Fortune 100 clientele, CEO, author & speaker

I lead Insights & Innovation at Brilliant Experience, where I help global brands understand the psychology behind their customers' behaviors and bring successful products to market.

Initially skeptical about AI, my team and I conducted “AI vs. Humans” studies to pinpoint precisely where AI-enhanced research excels—and where human judgment remains irreplaceable. I became convinced that AI will transform how research will be done.

Now I've reviewed >100 AI-enhanced tools and regularly interview pioneering founders in the AI-for-UX space and (thoughtfully) leverage the latest AI tools to deliver Accelerated Insights: rapid, scaled, global insights for top brands.

With a PhD from Johns Hopkins, and author of Design for How People Think, I combine academic rigor with real-world pragmatism to help you harness the new realities of AI-powered research.

Clients Include