Overview

Gobby is a powerful and affordable qualitative-first online survey tool.

We also offer a research support service, specialising in meaningful co-design, co-production, and mixed-methods approaches to employee and public engagement.

Listen clearly, understand deeply and build trust through real insights.

Services

Gobby is an antidote to traditional survey tools that focus primarily on quantitative data collection and reporting. Our values and purpose are deeply rooted in representing groups of people with shared experiences.

We offer affordable qualitative engagement at scale, centred on the collective intelligence of subject matter experts (by experience).

Our value shines through in the form of:

• Engaging survey experiences
• Meaningful peer communication and survey interactions
• Empowering group intelligence
• Owning change through co-design
• Privacy first data collection
• AI assisted, human led, and efficient thematic analysis of responses
• Measuring social impact & quality
• Community reporting and data driven change

Beyond the Gobby survey tool itself, we provide research support and mixed methods facilitation to aid any project team.

About

I started my career as a social care and support professional in the mid-90's, supporting adults with learning disabilities and autism.

In the 2010's I studied to become a Quality Professional, specialising in qualitative research; with a special interested in representing groups of people often under-represented. I found that online survey tools on the market were too conformist, with an over-reliance on rating scales and pre-defined metrics to measure quality and promote transformation.

I was interesting in the context: experiences, perceptions, and crowdsourcing rich ideas. This could only be done by reshaping online surveys and turning them on their head by prioritising open questions and free-text responses. Enter Gobby, stage left.

Project Gobby was unofficially started in 2018 and has been a labour of love and woefully under-funded. We're now scaling in 2026 and looking to be embraced by the research community and values driven organisations alike.

I've been lucky enough to be supported by a small group of associates that share a vision, alongside my long-suffering wife, four children, two cats, and four chickens.

Oh, and I love coffee and conversation (Gobby by nature).

Gary