About Psyclone: Mapping the Emotional Drivers Behind Decisions 

Psyclone is a global research firm with a unique lens: they combine modern technology with time-honored psychological science to explore why people think, feel, and act the way they do. Their work goes deeper than demographics or preferences—it’s about emotions, motivations, and the subconscious forces shaping decisions. 

To tap into this depth, Psyclone relies heavily on open-ended questions. In fact, nearly 50% of their survey questions are open-ended, because they believe the richest insights come from giving respondents the freedom to express themselves in their own words. But that freedom was difficult to unleash. 

The Challenge: Making Sense of Massive Open-End Data 

Analyzing open-ended responses at scale is no easy task. Traditionally, researchers had to rely on manual coding—painstakingly reviewing responses line by line, often over the course of weeks. Even then, maintaining consistency and objectivity across coders was a constant challenge, especially when it came to interpreting nuanced emotional content. 

To keep projects manageable, word limits were often imposed on respondents. While this made responses easier to categorize, it came at a cost: the emotional richness and depth that made the data valuable in the first place were often lost. 

For a team like Psyclone—whose work depends on understanding what people really feel and why—scaling emotional insight required a solution that wouldn’t compromise the quality that makes it meaningful. 

The Solution: A New Dawn for Open-End Analysis with Ascribe Coder 

As the field of text analytics entered a new era—powered by AI—Psyclone saw an opportunity to transform how they approached open-ended responses. What they needed was a partner who could help them work faster, dig deeper, and ask more from their data.  

Psyclone turned to Ascribe, an AI-powered text analytics platform built for scale, speed, and emotional nuance. With Ascribe AI-Coder, Psyclone can process open-end responses at unprecedented speed, while still capturing the subtlety that their psychological framework demanded. 

Instead of limiting responses, they flipped their approach—setting minimum character thresholds to encourage longer, more expressive answers. Ascribe makes it possible to analyze those richer datasets in hours instead of weeks. 

“AI Coder saves an immeasurable amount of time – at least 100 times faster than human coders. Our capabilities would be impossible if we relied solely on human effort.”
— Ryan Baum, CEO, Psyclone 

Results: A Faster, Smarter Approach to Emotional Coding 

With Ascribe Coder in place, Psyclone has redefined how they approach open-ended analysis. What once took up to two weeks can now be completed in just a day or two— supporting the emotional depth they’re known for. 

The platform’s ability to handle large volumes of responses means Psyclone no longer has to limit how much or how deeply respondents share. Richer, more expressive data flows freely, enabling more accurate and meaningful insights. 

Equally important, AI handles the heavy lifting, while researchers review, refine, and add context to the output. This combination of automation and human oversight ensures the insights remain consistent, precise, and grounded in psychological expertise. 

“While AI has significantly improved our speed and efficiency, we still cannot rely on it entirely. A substantial human element remains necessary. AI quickly gets us to a certain point, but we still need humans to quality-check and ensure the themes are efficiently presented.” 

— Ryan Baum, CEO, Psyclone 

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Ascribe’s AI Coder now plays an indispensable role in Psyclone’s work by enabling: 

• Speed: Saves an immeasurable amount of time—at least 100 times faster than human coders. What once took weeks now takes just a couple of days. 

• Depth: Enables exploration of an unlimited range of emotions, far beyond the narrow sets typically used in traditional analysis. 

• Access: Provides immediate access to verbatims, eliminating delays caused by platform lag and speeding up team workflows as they review comments repeatedly. 

• Scale: Capable of analyzing unlimited responses, making it possible to uncover subconscious patterns across large sample sizes. 

• Analysis: Allows Psyclone to correlate emotional data with key KPIs like purchase intent, engagement, and visitation. 

• Clarity: AI-generated theme clustering helps identify emotional nuances more consistently. 

• Comparisons: Includes crosstabs and visualizations for quick and meaningful group comparisons. 

• Flexibility: Supports Psyclone’s unique approach, where nearly 50% of survey questions are open-ended—a process made possible by Ascribe. 

• Support: Backed by exceptional customer service—prompt, knowledgeable, and ready to help whenever needed. 

The integration of AI into Ascribe Coder has become a game-changer—helping Psyclone scale their operations.  

“AI-enabled Thematic Clustering with AI Coder allows us to explore discrete emotions and nuances in a quantifiable manner, offering a more complete picture of how people feel—and why.” 
— Ryan Baum, CEO, Psyclone 

Case in Point: Mapping Emotion in the Footwear Market 

In one study focused on athletic footwear, Psyclone set out to understand how different brands made consumers feel, and how that influences consumer behavior. Using Ascribe, they uncovered emotional correlations like “[Brand] makes me feel grateful, motivated, and athletic,” and tied those feelings back to specific drivers of purchase. 

The sheer volume of emotional data processed—and the clarity with which it was presented—would have been impossible without AI Coder. 

“With 50% of questions in Psyclone surveys being open-ended, our work would be impossible without Ascribe’s AI Coder.”
— Ryan Baum, CEO, Psyclone 

A Collaborative Approach to Deeper Insight 

For Psyclone, Ascribe Coder supports their ability to work faster and more efficiently, while still allowing space for human insights and intelligence. And when questions arise, the Ascribe team is quick to respond—providing support that’s reliable and genuinely helpful. Interested in learning how Ascribe Coder can accelerate your coding workflow to help you deliver better results, faster? Connect with us to learn more.