Built by a researcher, for researchers

Stop carrying the interpretation alone.

Elliott is a thinking partner for qualitative researchers. Most AI tools tell you what to think. Elliott shows you how it got there — reasoning causally from observation to conclusion, with every step visible and every claim traceable.

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Built for Independent consultants Boutique agencies Senior researchers
interview_millennial_p3.vtt → cleaned → analysed Processing…
Raw transcript
WEBVTT
 
1
00:00:02.020 --> 00:00:05.270
Moderator: How do you think about
price when you're shopping?
 
2
00:00:05.610 --> 00:00:07.679
Millennial, P3: Well...
 
3
00:00:08.110 --> 00:00:11.440
Millennial, P3: [pauses] I mean,
it depends. If it's something I
really need, price matters less.
Elliott — cleaned + coded
Moderator
How do you think about price when you're shopping?
Millennial, P3
Well… [pauses] I mean, it depends. If it's something I really need, price matters less.
hesitation price_ambivalence need_driven
Pattern · 18 interviews
12 of 18 participants use "it depends" framing on price — not price-sensitive, but contextually rational. Dominant language: "worth it," "need vs. want," "if it's good enough."
Elliott's question
↗3 participants (P2, P7, P14) show hard budget limits — different from contextual rationality. Does this represent a second mindset worth defining?

The old workflow

What qualitative analysis actually looks like — before Elliott.

Without Elliott
Download transcript. Realize it's a VTT file. Spend 20 minutes cleaning it into something readable.
Open a blank document. Stare at it. Worry you're missing something important.
Code 18 interviews manually. Build a spreadsheet. Try to find the pattern in a grid of highlighted cells.
Write the report. Realize a client will ask about the three participants who said the opposite. Hope you can find that quote.
Submit. Wonder if you missed something. Wonder if it's good enough.
With Elliott
Upload the VTT. Elliott cleans, redacts, and organizes it automatically.
Set your objectives and cohorts. Elliott knows what to look for.
Code as you read. Elliott tracks patterns across all 18 interviews and flags when something contradicts your emerging conclusions.
Every claim links to the exact transcript moments that support it. Counter-evidence is noted and explained — not buried.
Submit knowing your reasoning is defensible. The chain from observation to conclusion is visible to anyone who asks.
OBS
Raw observation
TAG
Code applied
PAT
Pattern across cohorts
↗ CE
Counter-evidence
↗ CE
Counter-evidence
MND
Mindset discovered
INT
Interpretation defensible
Every claim traces back. No orphan insights.

Who Elliott is for

Three problems every senior qualitative researcher knows.

01

The loneliness of interpretation

Even with a team, the weight of "what does this mean" lands on one person. At the moment it matters most, you're on your own.

“The nakedness of being the only one steering. It's nice to know not everything is down to you.” — Independent consultant, 25 years experience
02

AI that classifies instead of reasons

Most AI tools use discriminative reasoning — they recognize patterns that look like insights and surface them. The output sounds right. But there's no chain from the data to the conclusion. Nothing to interrogate. Nothing to trust.

“I trust juniors more than I trust AI. I can help juniors analyze it.” — Agency research lead
03

Methodology that slips

Rigorous methodology is the goal on every project. Under deadline pressure, it becomes the aspiration. The infrastructure to do it right shouldn't require heroic effort.

“What I lack in speed and automation, I make up for in taste and judgment.” — Senior consultant, former NYT

How it works

Infrastructure for thinking. Not a shortcut around it.

01

Set up your project

Define your research objectives, your cohorts, and your redaction pattern. Elliott uses this to structure everything that follows. Two days of project doesn't start with a blank page — it starts with a frame.

Objectives · Cohorts · Redaction
02

Upload and clean

Drop in your transcripts — VTT, SRT, plain text. Elliott cleans, consolidates fragmented speech, and applies your redaction pattern automatically. Raw transcripts never leave your machine.

Local-first · Privacy by design
03

Observe and code

Read through your transcripts and mark what you see — quotes, field notes, your observations. Elliott tracks codes across all interviews, suggests consolidation when you use the same concept twice, and keeps observation separate from interpretation.

Observation · Field notes · Codes
04

Discover patterns — and what breaks them

Elliott surfaces what's consistent across cohorts, what's cohort-specific, and what contradicts your emerging conclusions. It notices when a mindset cuts across demographics. It flags the three participants who said the opposite thing — before a client does.

Patterns · Counter-evidence · Mindsets
05

Interrogate your own analysis

Ask Elliott to challenge a pattern. Ask why a cohort responded differently. Push back on its observations and it will show you the evidence behind them. Every claim traces back to a specific transcript moment. No orphan insights.

Evidence chains · Interrogation mode

Clarity

Most AI tells you what to think. Elliott shows you how it got there.

Elliott is not
✕Discriminative AI that classifies data into pre-learned patterns
✕A summarization tool that arrives at conclusions without showing its work
✕A tagging system that abdicates reasoning to a black box
✕A productivity hack that trades rigor for speed
✕A tool built by people who don't understand the craft
Elliott is
→Causal reasoning — a chain from observation to conclusion you can follow and challenge
→Infrastructure that makes your thinking visible and defensible
→Evidence chains traceable to specific transcript moments
→Rigorous methodology that's sustainable, not aspirational
→Built by a researcher with 30 years doing this work

What researchers say

From the discovery conversations that shaped Elliott.

“

I feel like the person who built this understands the craft of what we do. There's a practice and a discipline to how we do this, and Elliott is trying to actually codify that.

Independent consultant · 30+ years
“

It is profoundly valuable. I think it would give me more confidence — knowing not everything is down to you alone, that something is checking your reasoning.

Independent consultant
“

Elliott fills a gap in the market. The tools that exist are souped-up interns. This is something closer to a thinking partner.

Agency research lead
“

I need something that shows its work. Not themes that appear from nowhere — evidence, so I can interrogate it and verify the reasoning holds.

Researcher · AI champion

Beta access

Run it on a project you've already completed.

Elliott is in closed beta with a small group of senior qualitative researchers. The lowest-risk way to start: take a project you know well, run it through Elliott, and see what it surfaces. Compare the conclusions. See what you might have missed — or confirm that you didn't. Drop your email and I'll follow up directly.

Request access →

macOS only · Local-first · Your data stays on your machine

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Stage
Closed beta · Small cohort
Platform
macOS desktop app
Built by
Greg Mitchell · Sharpen Consulting