Organizations I've worked with
Mixed Methods Research & Strategy
I help organizations understand the people they're trying to reach, and figure out what to do with that. Qualitative and mixed methods researcher available for full-time and contract engagements.
Organizations I've worked with
Selected Work
01
Fontanini Advisory Services
Qualitative research informing the structure and strategy of the AI Catalyst Course, a cohort-based AI fluency program for VP-plus insurance executives. Conducted in-depth interviews with founding cohort participants to surface mental models, anxieties, and readiness signals, then developed a strategic action plan to shape curriculum design, participant experience, and commercial launch strategy. The goal was to help insurance leaders adopt AI with intention rather than urgency.
02
AssuranceAmerica
In-depth research into how nonstandard insurance customers make coverage decisions, including the emotional logic, trust signals, and friction points that define the category for this audience.
03
Remitly
A sustained mixed methods engagement spanning product usability, global marketing strategy, and UX research with immigrant communities who send money across borders to support their families. The work required holding both the intimacy of individual financial decisions and the complexity of global product scale at the same time.
04
Illumina
Research with DNA lab scientists, cancer surgeons, and genomics decision-makers to translate deep technical expertise into strategic positioning and commercial intelligence. Also designed and deployed national surveys with the nurse practitioner association to understand willingness to recommend NIPT, followed by qualitative in-depth interviews to understand the clinical reasoning and hesitations behind the numbers.
05
Point Forward
Ethnographic, in-person contextual inquiry across automotive consumer behavior and Kaiser Permanente member experience, bringing qualitative depth to organizations trying to understand how people actually live with the products and systems they use.
06
The General Insurance
Research underpinning a major consumer insurance rebrand, from perception audits to positioning validation. Connected brand architecture decisions back to the people actually buying the product.
07
The General Insurance
Mixed methods research with our customer base at the onset of the pandemic to understand how COVID was affecting their spending, their budgeting, and their emotional lives. The findings were sobering: real financial strain layered on top of real mental and emotional health struggles, often tied to lost work. That research gave our business strategists the alignment they needed to make a meaningful product and policy change, extending payment flexibility and forgiveness further than the company ever had, at the moment customers needed it most.
Building Research from Scratch
Doing the research is one thing. Building the conditions inside an organization so that research actually happens, gets used, and outlasts your tenure — that's a different skill set. I've done both.
Illumina
Partnered with product managers to conduct research alongside them, then trained them to do it themselves. Built capacity for both qualitative and quantitative methods inside teams that had little prior research infrastructure, so that insight-gathering became part of how they worked, not something they outsourced.
The General Insurance
Created a company-wide Research Champions group to build internal understanding of and enthusiasm for research practice. Connected the program directly to the brand refresh, so that employees across the organization understood the research behind the strategic decisions and could speak to it credibly.
Remitly
Trained product managers, business managers, product marketers, and UX designers on how to run their own research from scratch. Focused on 0-to-1 initiatives and intentional handoffs, so teams could launch new efforts without waiting on a dedicated research function to do it for them.
About
Savannah Young Research & Consulting LLC
Savannah, Georgia
I'm a principal researcher with 12 years of experience across consulting and in-house environments. My orientation is qualitative-first, which means I come at problems through the lens of human experience, then use quantitative data to validate, scale, or complicate what I'm hearing. Contextual inquiry is foundational to how I work: the whole person in their environment matters, and I design my research to reflect that.
I've worked across industries that don't have much in common except for the fact that they all involve people making decisions that are harder than they look: healthcare, fintech, insurance, automotive, genomics, and AI. In every context, my job is the same. Figure out what's actually going on, and help organizations do something useful with it.
I work independently under Savannah Young Research & Consulting LLC and am open to both full-time and contract engagements where the work is complex and the questions are worth asking.
What People Say
Savannah led some of the most consequential research our marketing organization undertook at Remitly, including a longitudinal brand study that informed over $20 million in spend and a brand naming initiative she brought directly to our executive team with a clear recommendation. She combines methodological rigor with the strategic fluency to make research matter at the highest levels of an organization. She's the kind of researcher who makes the whole team smarter.
Rina Hahn
CMO, Remitly
I directly managed Savannah for nearly three years. She stood out for her ability to create clarity out of ambiguity, collaborate effectively across teams and levels, and connect her work across marketing and product. She was at the forefront of innovating with AI tools before it was common practice, and she brought a fierce determination to every challenging project she took on. She kept raising the bar.
Daniel Escher
Director of Research, Remitly
Savannah has a contagious passion for connecting with and deeply understanding people, and shines as an ethnographer. A natural leader, she inspires those around her to adopt a researcher's mindset — to be more curious, inquisitive, and open to listening. She also possesses the unique ability to distill complex data into thought-provoking insights and share them with clarity, empathy, and emotion, sparking immediate action from her business partners.
Mary Strength
AVP of Marketing, AssuranceAmerica
From the moment you begin working with Savannah, it is evident that she cares deeply about people and understanding them. This manifests as a desire to ensure that consumers are given a voice in the research process. That deep-seated empathy runs through everything she does and elevates her ability to deliver research that is both insightful and impactful. She's calm under pressure, motivates those around her, and is a genuine joy to collaborate with.
John Holmes
Director of Research, MDRG
I hired Savannah to interview all sixteen members of my founding AI Executive Accelerator cohort, and I've seen firsthand what effective research can unlock. Savannah is one of the best people I know at talking with people about hard things and getting them to open up. She came back with the truth about what I had built: what was working, what wasn't, and what to do about it. The report was rigorous and specific, with no flattery and no filler. Savannah doesn't hand you comfort. She hands you what's real, in a form you can act on. I walked away with a solid foundation on which to build a more meaningful program.
Jay Fontanini
CEO, Fontanini Advisory Services
Contact
I'm open to full-time and contract research engagements where the work is complex and the stakes are real. If that sounds like yours, please do reach out.
What I take on