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Mind Alchemy
Mind Alchemy
Precision Psychometrics for Marketing & Evaluation

Mind Alchemy FAQ

Curious about how our unique approach can benefit your organization? Our FAQ section covers everything from our branding strategies driven by behavioral science to the added value we bring to your analytical team. Discover why hiring a behavioral science measurement and psychometrics expert can transform your survey results and learn about the diverse businesses we help and the kinds of data we handle. 


Ready to find out more? Dive into our FAQs to see how our Pittsburgh-based market research consulting firm can support your organization’s growth, success, and decision-making.

What kinds of data can you handle?

People Data is our specialty

The data just needs to be people data. For example, anything related to human behavior, like exchanges of money for an item or services. The person was doing something, and that something happened to be measured in money. Another example could be something that happens to or around a person like a behavioral intervention for helping a behavioral health consumer become employment ready. In this case, the intervention was done with the person, and the effect on the person was measured in terms of outcomes, like an increase in skills acquisition. The data just has to be related to people.

 

We can handle data from all kinds of sources. Numbers. Focus groups. Interviews. Text. We can even develop data collection tools.


For qualitative projects we sometimes use programs to assist in analysis, but we don’t rely completely on it. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can’t handle things like subtext or sarcasm and has its limitations. For instance, we worked on a project that involved uncovering a response pattern specially designed to hide from AI. 

I can write survey questions. Why hire a psychometrics expert?

Are you asking the right questions?

Writing survey questions seems straightforward, but it isn’t. There are biases that can creep in based on how you write the questions, order the questions, and even anchor the questions. Knowing how to account for this, measure it, and even avoid it takes years of training in statistics and measurement. And making sure you are measuring what you think you are measuring is vital. Otherwise, your questions and the data they produce could be muddled which will adversely affect any insights you garner and any strategies based on those insights. Our founder has a doctorate in quantitative psychology and psychometrics, which is the subspecialty of creating questions that can increase the validity and reliability of your surveys.  

Do you create branding stories? What do you do differently than other marketers?

Branding stories driven by behavioral science

Yes, we do. Using a conversational approach, we consult and help you clarify who you are as a provider of a product or service, come up with a plan to make sure that there’s a market, and tailor the branding story to be as compelling and engaging as possible by getting inside the hearts and minds of the target market. Then we test to make sure we’ve got it right. It’s the testing that makes us different. There are many ways to test a concept and extracting actionable knowledge from that testing is the key ingredient of what we do. 

I have an analytical team. Is there something your consulting firm can add?

Added value when it comes to people data

Our founder has a doctorate in quantitative psychology and psychometrics, which gives her a broad skill set for dealing with people variables. From measurement to data collection to dealing with missing data, and most especially knowledge creation, there are many caveats that only come up with data derived from people. We have training in all these areas, and many different analytic models as well, and can augment your team’s unique skills to make the most of your data. We can also assist with training, consultation, and developing personalized solutions for your organization’s needs.

What sorts of businesses do you help?

We want to work with you!

We are located near Pittsburgh, PA, but can help businesses nationally. We mostly do our consulting work with small and mid-sized organizations, but also have worked with individuals and nonprofits, in diverse fields such as the publishing industry, healthcare, community organizations, politics, and marketing.


Learn more about the potential industries we can serve.

Are you available for the occasional question my company might have?

We are here to answer your questions.

Absolutely. We can be hired by the hour or come up with a bespoke package to fit your needs. Just set up a free 15-minute chat to see what we might be able to do for you.

How do you ensure the confidentiality and security of our data?

We are here to answer your questions

As such, we follow the US HIPAA guidelines for privacy of our clients and visitors and GDPR. For more information, visit our HIPAA and GDPR page.

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