Naviscent CEO: Nimbleness is a ‘competitive advantage’
By Russ Rizzo●5 min. read●Dec 30, 2024

George Papazian likes to joke that Naviscent’s first day as a company was a 24-hour day. When an unexpected request for proposal arrived due first thing the next morning, Papazian pulled an all-nighter to deliver it on time.
“I handed in the proposal at 7 a.m., put on another pot of coffee, and left to report to jury duty,” Papazian said with a laugh.
Papazian has served as the company’s CEO since founding it 16 years ago. Based in Silicon Valley, Naviscent is a full-service market and usability research firm that helps companies with services like sales performance, new product development, customer experience, and research operations.
The company has grown over the years, expanding its offerings and taking on an impressive list of marquee brands like Oracle, Google, Warner Brothers, and Macy’s.
“We draw upon learnings from a variety of projects and industries,” Papazian said. “A lot of clients come to us for fresh eyes and new approaches after years of doing the same cookie-cutter approach.”
Domestic and global remote research
Much of Naviscent’s work these days happens remotely. The transition to virtual research kept evolving over many years and dramatically accelerated when the pandemic hit, Papazian said.
Once shelter-in-place started, most in-person research halted. At the same time, Naviscent picked up on a new opportunity: People’s increased comfort with virtual conference calls and the flexibility of working from home meant researchers could more easily conduct remote surveys and interviews with people around the world.
“People who never participated in an online meeting before suddenly were doing this every day, all day,” Papazian said. “As this new form of communication and meeting normalized, conducting research via an Internet meeting didn’t seem like such a reach anymore.”
In recent years Naviscent has seen a proliferation of tech companies that want global research in order to expand into new markets.