Founded by two Yale scientists, XandY is an independent research and strategy firm that helps the world’s most important ideas build momentum in society.

We help organizations locate and move the levers that create lasting change in their target audience — and we specialize in the most challenging situations where emotions are strong, habits are firm, opinions are polarized, misinformation is rampant, and the stakes are high.
Past clients include billion-dollar corporations, major tech startups, and global NGOs.

Our clients turn to us for custom research projects that unlock strategic insights about their target audiences. We deliver concrete answers to questions like: What are the real barriers causing skepticism and inaction? What is the most potent fuel for your supporters? What do people really think about you and why? XandY has world-class expertise in an arsenal of methods including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and behavioral research that can get under the hood of your unique target audience.

Using these insights, XandY also tackles the next step: designing and testing effective interventions and campaigns. Nothing can replace the certainty of scientifically testing whether your plan will actually work.  XandY can identify precisely what effect your tactics have, and how to tailor the right approach for the right audience.

For select clients with mutually aligned goals, we offer consulting partnerships via a retainer model.

Through The XandY Poll, we publish scientific-grade data on how important ideas and innovations are spreading in society. This national survey of U.S. adults generates new data on beliefs, sentiment, and behaviors in a variety of important issues.

Please contact XandY for more information about the findings from the November 2023 iteration, as well as how people’s beliefs, sentiment, and behaviors vary across groups (e.g., demographics, users vs nonusers, audience personas).

There are brilliant ideas and innovations emerging all around us. But great ideas do not succeed simply because they are great. In fact, history is littered with wonderful innovations that just didn’t catch on due to social obstacles in the form of popular myths, fears, habits, biases, norms, politics, and distractions.

Right now, many emerging innovations — in tech, health, finance, education, and politics — are at a crossroads in public perception and behavior. Even the best of them are not guaranteed to have durable, widespread success. XandY exists to help the world’s most important ideas and innovations gain traction in public opinion and behavior.