Past Works
Research for a global premium beer brand
A global premium beer brand partnered with us to explore the role of non-alcoholic beer in modern China consumer lifestyles and to identify whitespace opportunities for innovation, supporting strategic growth in the NAB (Non-Alcoholic Beer) category.
We conducted a 4-day online forum with 18 participants and 2 ‘contrast pairs’ interviews to immerse in real consumption scenarios. Discussions unpacked the layered motivations behind non-alcoholic beer consumption—from functional needs to personal expression—while also mapping out key consumption moments and the psychological or situational barriers that limit uptake.
By analyzing consumer language, we distilled tangible and actionable innovation pathways—offering a demand-driven lens to guide future product development and marketing strategies for the NAB portfolio.
Research for a leading global beverage brand
A leading global beverage brand engaged us to explore how drinks fit into Chinese dining occasions and what influences consumer choices, with the goal of enhancing brand relevance in mealtime contexts.
24 participants completed a pre-task, with selected individuals joining 4 remote focus groups of 4 participants each. We examined decision drivers, functional and emotional expectations for beverages across various dining scenarios, as well as entry barriers and communication opportunities for the brand. We also tested the resonance of brand hypotheses with target consumers.
This project delivered a culturally grounded insight framework aligned. It not only validated the market relevance of initial hypotheses but also uncovered strategic entry points and optimization levers from a consumer-centric perspective.
UX research for a global consumer electronics brand
A global consumer electronics brand engaged us to explore premium gifting norms in China and digital gifting expectations, aiming to guide the design of a locally resonant online experience.
The research included two phases: remote focus groups (2 sessions, 5 participants each) and in-person creative workshops (2 sessions, 8 participants each). Drawing from real gifting experiences, we explored decision drivers, current platform pain points, and co-created an ideal digital solution with users.
The findings revealed emotional and social drivers behind gifting across segments. Through co-creation, we defined essential design principles to help the brand deliver a digital gifting experience that resonates culturally and emotionally.
Research for a heritage Japanese automotive brand
A heritage legacy Japanese automotive brand partnered with us to explore how AI is being integrated into consumers’ everyday lives. The objective was to pinpoint where the brand could create meaningful differentiation through AI innovation.
The study included 20 interviews—split evenly between remote and in-home—in China and Japan. Through direct observation and narrative exploration, we examined how consumers engage with AI in apps and smart home environments, with a focused deep dive into AI interactions across the entire car usage journey.
The findings provided a clear, grounded view of real-world AI usage and unmet needs in both markets. These insights gave the client tangible direction for designing AI-powered features that unlock strategic opportunities.
B2B research for a global advertising service provider
To accelerate growth in China, a global advertising service provider commissioned us for three-phase research aimed at refining its ad tools, winning back disengaged users, and capturing untapped demand.
We conducted 50 remote in-depth interviews with SMB Chinese cross-border sellers in e-commerce, gaming, and app sectors. The research unfolded in three phases:
Phase 1: Mapping the end-to-end ad journey across industries
Phase 2: Identifying key pain points in platform usage
Phase 3: Benchmarking user experience against rival platforms
The insights revealed how advertisers interact with the platform at each stage of the campaign lifecycle, guiding the client to optimize product features and craft sharper, more resonant value propositions.
Ethnographic study for top-tier whiskey brand
A global whisky brand engaged us to uncover how young Chinese consumers drink and the emotional connections they form with alcohol, aiming to strengthen its relevance with the next generation.
We ran a 5-day online forum with 30 participants and hosted 6 immersive hangouts to capture authentic drinking moments. Our analysis focused on two areas. One explored how next-gen lifestyles shape their connection with alcohol during carefree moments. The other compared brand perceptions across competing whisky labels.
This ethnographic study offered the client a vivid window into the youth culture and emerging consumption trends in China. The insights inspired fresh, culturally relevant strategies for brand youth-focused and scenario-based marketing.
Shape the future Chinese home and kitchen
A German kitchenware brand asked us to investigate Chinese people’s habits, preferences and expectations in home and kitchen, in order to make necessary steps for the future kitchenware designs.
We recruited kitchen users from a large variety of backgrounds and conducted both in-home immersions and quantitative surveys across big cities in China, to understand people’s decision-making, pains, wishes and needs during their interactions with kitchen at home.
The quantitative data and qualitative results we received helped our client to uncover white spaces for developing marketing strategies and to shape the design framework for future products.
#Kitchen #German #China #Design #In-home #Future
#Immersion #Survey #Quantitative #Concept design
Innovation design evaluation for future retail store
We assisted in evaluating future retail store design for a French sportswear company via workshops with focus groups of a mix of KOLs from diverse backgrounds.
Provided with various stimuli and immersive scenarios, KOLs were able to evaluate and co-create multiple ideal events of online and offline product research, learning, purchase and usage journey in-and-outside retail store with us.
The design intentions generated from the workshops served as the bases for our client to develop and settle the design plan for its retail store in China.
#Sportswear #French #China #Store design #Luxury #Future retail
#Focus group #KOL #Workshop #Concept design
Exploratory research for future bathroom design in China
We helped a German sanitary ware brand to develop future product and marketing strategies for a luxurious and sustainable bathroom for Chinese users. To achieve the goal, semiotics research and qualitative fieldwork were conducted over 2 months across China.
In the semiotics research, we investigated more than 60 luxury global and domestic brands across 10 categories, and reviewed more than 300 ads and social posts to discover and interpret codes of luxury and sustainability.
We conducted 4 in-home immersions, 7 stakeholder interviews and 3 workshops for designers and users to understand the holistic customer journey and user needs of an ideal bathroom experience.
Collectively, our learnings helped build up the foundation of concept design for clients in the next phase.
#Bathroom #German #China #Product design #Luxury #Sustainability
#Immersion #Stakeholder #Workshop #Concept design
B2B UX research for a global web advertising service provider
A major global web search platform and advertising service provider requested us to analyze the workflows, pain points and expectations of APAC digital ad managers to optimize its ad platform for APAC market.
We conducted around 30 remote in-depths interviews for both in-house and agency ad managers in Australia, India, Japan and Singapore, asking them to show us their routine of ad management across multiple advertising platforms, social media and desktop office tools via screensharing.
The insights we gained from the interviews allowed our client to update its understanding and knowledge of user journey in various regions, and thus to optimize its ad tools that fit its users’ local requirements.
#Web #Global #Advertising #B2B #Platform optimization
#UX research #Ad manager #Multi-market
2030 Innovation portfolio planning in China for a Japanese tech company
A Japanese tech company and CHW partnered together to develop its innovation roadmap for China market via market immersion, consumer research and design workshop.
During the market immersion, we invited Chinese top industrial designers and UX leaders from different industries for expert discussions.
For consumer research, we visited homes of KOLs, “super consumers” and trend leading youth to contextualize the learnings.
In the design workshop, we helped our client to sketch out actionable future directions for innovation in China.
#Innovation #Japanese #Product planning #Portfolio planning #2030
#Immersion #KOL #Expert #Workshop #Market entry
Strategic planning for a car maker:
EV in 2020, Designed for China
The HQ of a European car maker tasked us to help them understand the premium EV user needs and customer journey in China, and ultimately create a strategic road map for its future product development and marketing in 2020.
We recruited and immersed with the trend leading EV owners in their homes and later engaged them with the HQ designers and our strategists in our week-long workshops.
The result has been used for helping the HQ to create its future product and marketing strategy in China.
#Auto #European #Product design #Marketing strategy #Premium EV
#Immersion #Workshop #Market Entry #Exploratory study
Web & Mobile UX localization
for a US consumer tech brand
A major US consumer tech brand tasked us to evaluate and localize Chinese users’ check-out behaviors and shopping flow on its web and mobile shopping app.
We conducted 7 days of extensive one-to-one UX research and livestreamed the fieldwork with across 4 time zones.
The result has precisely optimized and solved the hiccups of the original user flow to create more localized digital user experience while maintaining the brand’s core design language.
#Web #Mobile #US #China #Tech #Shopping flow #Platform optimization #UX research #Fieldwork #App
EVTOL static and in-flight HMI experience study for a global auto brand
The R&D team of a global German automaker leveraged our expertise in user research and HNWI recruitment in China market for developing the HMI experience in their future EVTOL product.
The project covered 100 high net worth individuals (50 million yuan in asset and more) across China. 60 interviews were carried out in a test facility with the interactive prototype in place. We also travelled to 4 cities to visit 40 users in their homes or workplaces.
Through this extensive research, we were able to help identify target customer personas, uncover potential pain points and needs in mobility, and gain first-hand feedback and evaluations of the EVTOL prototype HMI design.
#EVTOL #German #China #Product design #HMI
#Immersion #HNWI #Prototype design #FutureInnovation
E-commerce shopping flow test with a major US consumer tech brand
We helped a major US tech company to investigate its consumers’ shopping behavior on its online retail channel to understand their needs and expectations.
We conducted 30 in-person interviews with a combination of qualitative interview methods and UX lab techniques, as well as immersive market visits and city explorations across 4 cities of different tiers in China. In this way, we not only collected the most authentic feedback from consumers, but also contextualized the research findings with further granularities.
With our input, our client was able to attract new traffic to the site, improve customer shopping experience and increase the conversion rate.
#E-commerce #US #China #Tech #Shopping flow #Online retail
#Immersion #UX research #Market visit #App
B2B Payment flow research for a global e-commerce platform
We assisted in the evaluation of a new payment system with international business transactions for a global e-commerce platform to its B2B sellers in China.
We walked through all steps of the payment with each participant during 8 remote interviews, guiding them to simulate each function via screensharing, and asking for their opinions on the improvement of the system.
Our client optimized the new payment system in the following phase based on the collected feedback from its users. As a result, the new payment system had been launched and welcomed by a massive number of sellers.
#E-commerce #Global #China #Tech #B2B #Payment #Platform Optimization #Immersion #UX research #Prototype design
Exploration of future digital automobile in China
We cooperated with a design agency to study Chinese car users’ driving behavior and assess a series of digital design concepts of future automobile for a Japanese automaker.
We mix-recruited 10 drivers of different ages, genders, income levels and family backgrounds, who owned various car types and brands, and conducted a 2-hour in-depths interview for each one of them to gain a comprehensive understanding of their needs, expectations, as well as their ideas on the design concepts.
Consequently, the design agency acquired thorough insights from Chinese car owners and applied the knowledge into further development of future car design in the next stage.
#Auto #Japanese #China #Product design #Digital #Future auto
#Concept design
Study of Gen-Z global initatives for an international beer producer
We provided local insights for a major global beer company on Chinese Gen-Z entrepreneurs and influencers’ needs, struggles and ambitions in their career, and examined how the company could make an impact on them.
We recruited and interviewed 8 entrepreneurs, influencers and entrepreneur leaders to fully explore Gen-Z entrepreneurs’ status quo and outlook in China from multiple perspectives, and tasked them to rate the concepts of career assistance programs provided by the client.
Accordingly, our client could apprehend Gen-Z consumers and their market in China, and thus plan its following strategies and new program innovations based on our local research studies.
#Beer #Global #China #Strategy planning
#Concept design #Gen-Z #Entrepreneur #Influencer
Lead the future trend of E-bike for women
We collaborated with a design agency on the study of lifestyle and travel mode of women in order to design a type of E-bike that meets the needs of New Female.
We recruited female KOLs and users across 3 provinces and cities in China, conducted 6 remote in-depths interviews, and discussed each design concept with them via screensharing. We uncovered participants’ needs, pain points and expectations, and brainstormed with the design team on the design opportunities in the workshop.
In the next phase, our client would integrate the findings from our study and apply what they learned into further development of the new E-bike.
#Ebike #Chinese #Product design #Future transportation
#Workshop #KOL #New Female #Concept design
Evaluation of new sales model of automobile in China
A German luxury automaker tasked us to investigate the new sales model of automobile in China in order to provide feasibility evaluations of the future dealer model.
We conducted 16 remote in-depths interviews with participants of different ages, genders, family backgrounds, and car ownerships, and completed market visits to more than 5 stores of multiple car brands in Shanghai to experience the holistic customer shopping journey.
Based on our learnings, our client gained a deeper understanding of the new sales model, and thus was able to make a comprehensive evaluation of the feasibility of the dealer model in the China market.
#Auto #German #China #Strategy planning #Shopping journey #Sales model #Market visit
Future model evaluation for a global laptop brand
An international laptop maker came to us with a task to obtain user feedback to inform one of its key development initiatives.
Through 2 rounds of interviews with 50 BEUs and ITDMs across various enterprise types in China, we were able to help our client to learn about the decision-making process and critical elements and features when it comes to business laptops. Meanwhile, we have gathered first-hand user feedback on Color, Material and Finish of the brand's prototypes of new model.
The outcome of the research offered important guidance for our client before rolling out the updated products worldwide while laying the groundwork for understanding the China business laptop market.
#Laptop #Global #China #Product design #Business
#Model evaluation #BEU #ITDM
Optimizing UX for digital media platform in Japan
A digital media platform came to us hoping to understand how media buyers use their current platform, identify new feature opportunities and unmet needs, and determine what could motivate them to increase their spending.
The challenging aspect of the project was to recruit target media buyers who are not only decisionmakers but also hands-on practitioners on several platforms.
Over 2 years span, we have completed 3 rounds of the remote interviews with planners and marketers in ad agencies and brands’ marketing team.
To clearly and fully illustrate the result, we have delivered our reports in both PowerPoint format as well as video style.
#Digital media #Japanese #Platform optimization
#UX research #media buyers