Research

Research informs how we build.

A research practice sits alongside the product work. It exists to test assumptions before they turn into features, and to keep our methods honest.

Research initiative

MAVA Lab

MAVA Lab is a research-oriented initiative associated with the IO Patina ecosystem. Its work is exploratory: reading, measurement, prototypes, and method, published on its own site rather than folded into our commercial pages.

When a line of research becomes practical, it moves into product work at IO Patina. Until then it stays research, and is described as such.

Visit mavalab.org (opens in a new tab)

Selected themes

Marketing analytics

Measurement design, attribution, and the difference between a number that is available and a number that is useful.

Artificial intelligence

Where machine learning genuinely improves a product, and where it adds cost and uncertainty without improving anything.

Automation

Which parts of a workflow should be automated, which should stay manual, and how to tell the two apart.

Computational methods

Modelling, simulation, and statistical technique applied to ordinary business and product questions.

Applied research

Small studies run against real problems, with results written down whether or not they were the expected ones.

Scope and independence