I started this company because I kept watching good research get wasted.
Assembled is a qualitative market research agency in Singapore. Founded in 2016. 600+ projects completed across Southeast Asia. 100,000+ proprietary research panel. Published in MRS Research Live (UK) and ESOMAR Research World (Global). Quoted in the South China Morning Post.
Before Assembled, I spent a decade in APAC communications. WE Communications. Tableau. Singapore Medical Group. My job was to shape how companies talked about themselves. I sat in hundreds of meetings where marketing teams presented consumer research decks, and I watched the same thing happen every time.
The data said one thing. The consumers meant something else entirely.
In Singapore, a participant who says "can consider" is saying no. Someone who describes a product as "not bad" is giving you the highest praise you will get in a focus group. The gap between what people say in research and what they actually think is enormous in high-context cultures. Most research agencies hand you the transcript. They do not hand you the translation.
I founded Assembled in 2016 to close that gap. I wanted to build a firm where the person designing the research is the same person in the room moderating the discussion, reading the body language, hearing the hesitation, catching the Hokkien aside that changes the meaning of the previous five minutes of polite English.
Ten years and 600+ projects later, I still scope, moderate, and present every project myself. My team of fieldwork executives and project coordinators handle recruitment, logistics, and operations from our proprietary 100,000-member panel. The research design and interpretation stays with me. That is what clients are paying for.
Felicia Hu · Founder & Managing Director ·
LinkedIn ·
felicia@assembled.sg
Clutch ·
GoodFirms ·
NVPC Company of Good Fellow
Qualitative research for companies that need to understand what Singapore and Southeast Asia actually think.
We run focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnographies, usability studies, and mystery shopping. The common thread across every methodology is cultural interpretation. We do not just collect responses. We decode them. That decoding comes from pattern recognition built across 600+ sessions with participants from every demographic segment in Singapore.
Focus Groups & IDIs
Moderated in English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, and Singlish. Discussion materials adapted for Malay, Japanese, and Korean. Groups of 6-8 or one-on-one depth interviews, depending on what the question demands.
Ethnographic Research
In-home, in-store, and in-context observation. We follow participants through their actual routines because what people do and what they tell you they do are two different stories.
UX & Usability Testing
App testing, website usability, prototype evaluation. Think-aloud protocols with real users, not personas on a whiteboard. We recruit specific user profiles from our panel within 3-5 business days.
Product Testing
Central location tests, home-use tests, sensory evaluation. Healthcare, skincare, F&B, and consumer electronics. We handle facility setup, product rotation, and controlled-environment protocols.
Mystery Shopping
Retail audit, service benchmarking, competitor evaluation. Our shoppers are trained to observe and document, not perform. Structured scoring frameworks delivered within 5-7 business days.
Healthcare Research
Patient journey mapping, HCP interviews, caregiver insights, adherence studies. Sensitive topics require ethical sensitivity and patient rapport. We have run research with diabetic patients, oncology caregivers, pharmacists, and dermatology patients.
Built over ten years. Measured by outcomes.
Every number here represents real projects with real participants. We do not inflate panel sizes with inactive emails or count projects that never went to field.
General Consumers
Age 18-65+, all ethnicities, income bands, and housing types across Singapore. Pre-profiled on purchase behaviour, brand usage, lifestyle, dietary preferences, and household composition.
Healthcare Participants
Patients (chronic and acute conditions), caregivers, healthcare professionals, pharmacists, and traditional medicine users. Ethical recruitment protocols for sensitive medical topics.
Business Decision-Makers
Procurement heads, IT decision-makers, SME owners, startup founders, and C-suite executives. B2B research recruitment typically completes within 7-10 business days.
Expat & Tourist Segments
Long-term residents, relocating professionals, and inbound tourists. Profiled by nationality, length of stay, and spending patterns. Useful for hospitality, retail, and market-entry research.
Youth & Students
Polytechnic, university, and national service cohorts. Gen Z digital behaviour, social media usage, and brand perception studies. Includes recent project recruitment of 250 undergraduates across Singapore's autonomous universities.
Regional SEA Coverage
Fieldwork partner network across Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Multi-market studies coordinated from Singapore. Common for MNCs benchmarking consumer perception across the region.
Cited by journalists. Published in industry journals.
How Southeast Asia's coffee chains are brewing cross-border success
Felicia Hu quoted three times on Luckin Coffee's scale advantage, the rising competitive floor across Southeast Asia, and regional chains defending through halal compliance and cultural fluency. Credited as managing director of Singaporean market research firm Assembled.
Read on SCMP →Market Research Society publication
Felicia Hu is a contributor to Research Live, the publication of the UK Market Research Society, the world's leading authority for the research, insight, and analytics sector.
View Felicia's articles →Global insights and analytics publication
Felicia Hu is a contributor to Research World, ESOMAR's global publication for the insights and analytics community across 130 countries. Published on cultural interpretation in high-context Asian markets.
View Felicia's profile →Memberships, ratings, and recognition.
700+ Five-Star Google Reviews
Best-reviewed market research company in Singapore. Participants consistently describe sessions as comfortable and inclusive.
Clutch
Verified client reviews on Clutch, the leading B2B ratings platform for research and professional services.
GoodFirms
Listed among top market research companies in Singapore on GoodFirms.
MRS UK & ESOMAR
Company Partner of the Market Research Society and member of ESOMAR. Bound by the MRS Code of Conduct and ICC/ESOMAR International Code.
NVPC Company of Good
Felicia Hu completed the NVPC Company of Good Fellowship, a selective programme for strategic corporate giving and purpose-driven business.
Legal name Assembled Private Limited
UEN 201724370D
Founded 2016
Address 160 Robinson Road, #14-04 SBF Center, Singapore 068914
Founder Felicia Hu, Managing Director
Email felicia@assembled.sg
Phone +65 8118 1048
Common questions about working with us.
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Whether you are entering Singapore, launching a product, or trying to understand why your customers say one thing and do another. Explore how we work or get in touch.
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