At this year’s Quirk’s New York event, Piedad Rodriguez, Director of Brand Insights & Strategy at Grubhub, pulled back the curtain on how her team is reshaping the role of insights. In conversation with Katie Gross, President of Suzy, Piedad shared how Grubhub is making consumer understanding faster, deeper, and more embedded in everyday decision-making.

From shifting internal culture to scaling qual with tools like Suzy Speaks, Piedad offered a blueprint for how research can drive business impact, not just answer questions.

Here are five takeaways from the session.

1. Insights should be built into the business, not bolted on
2. You don’t need more data. You need more understanding.
3. Scale qual without sacrificing depth
4. Trackers should drive action, not just awareness
5. Elevate the consumer voice
6. Final thought: Don’t just collect data - create change

1. Insights should be built into the business, not bolted on

Grubhub’s insights team sits at the center of cross-functional strategy, not at the end of a project checklist.

“We want to be upstream in the process,” Piedad explained. “That means not just reporting on what consumers think, but shaping the questions, the timing, and even the strategy itself.”

To do that, her team democratizes access to insights, enables self-serve learning, and ensures stakeholder engagement from the start.

Action tip: Start by inviting insights into early-stage planning conversations. When the insights team is in the room earlier, research drives business strategy.

2. You don’t need more data. You need more understanding.

In a world of dashboards and trackers, Piedad is laser-focused on insight quality. “It’s not about how many data points you have,” she said. “It’s about clarity. What is the tension? What’s the human truth?”

To uncover those truths, Grubhub has leaned into Suzy Speaks, Suzy’s AI-moderated voice qual tool. Unlike traditional open-ends, Suzy Speaks captures full-length, voice-based feedback, thus giving Grubhub real consumer language, emotion, and context at scale.

Action tip: Use tools like Suzy Speaks to unlock the “why” behind the “what” - especially for message testing, brand perception, or consumer pain points.

3. Scale qual without sacrificing depth

“We’re expected to move quickly,” Piedad noted, “but speed can’t come at the expense of substance.”

To meet those demands, Grubhub uses Suzy Speaks to conduct conversational qual at scale by collecting hundreds of rich, voice-based interviews in days instead of weeks. That speed allows the team to gut-check ideas, refine creative, and pressure-test assumptions without slowing down business momentum.

Plus, with AI-powered moderation and built-in probing, every conversation yields consistent, actionable insights without requiring live moderators or long timelines.

Action tip: Use Suzy Speaks for deeper consumer input on a tight timeline, especially for early-stage concept testing or campaign refinement.

4. Trackers should drive action, not just awareness

Piedad doesn’t treat trackers as retrospective tools - they’re dynamic inputs into real-time decision-making. “If we see something shift, we don’t just flag it. We follow up.”

Whether it’s a dip in trust or a spike in dissatisfaction, her team immediately activates a follow-up survey to explore the emotional drivers behind the change.

“Having that kind of agility makes our research more relevant to the business,” she explained. “We’re not waiting for the next wave. We’re closing the gap between signal and strategy.”

Action tip: Pair trackers with fast-turn qual to understand what’s changing and why, and adjust quickly.

5. Elevate the consumer voice

One of the most memorable points from Piedad’s talk? “Sometimes the most powerful insight isn’t a chart, it’s a quote.”

By bringing the actual voices of consumers into presentations, Grubhub builds empathy and drives alignment across teams. Suzy Speaks plays a major role here, enabling the team to drop authentic, unfiltered consumer moments directly into decks and meetings.

It’s a simple but effective way to turn insights into action, and to ensure stakeholders connect emotionally with what the data is saying.

Action tip: Embed audio clips into presentations to shift insights from “what we heard” to “what they said.”

Final thought: Don’t just collect data - create change

For Piedad and her team, success isn't defined by the number of studies run. It’s about impact.

Grubhub’s insights function as a strategic partner that’s guided by a deep understanding of what it takes to deliver real consumer value.

Click here to watch the full conversation between Grubhub and Suzy. Want to learn more about how Grubhub is scaling qual with Suzy Speaks? Let’s talk.