Beatriz Vargas Studio
A strategy + research practice for complex decisions.
We help organizations make sense of difficult questions, turn evidence into insight, and use that insight to make better decisions.
Research · Evaluation · Data · AI · Design
WHO IT'S FOR
NONPROFITS
Understand what is working, why it matters, and what to do next. Turn research and evaluation into stronger programs, clearer strategy, and decisions about where to focus.
CORPORATIONS
Navigate complex social and organizational questions with evidence, context, and strategic clarity. Understand stakeholders, opportunities, and risks to inform strategy, investment, and action.
FOUNDATIONS
Make smarter decisions about where to invest and what creates meaningful change.
Bring research, evaluation, and strategic insight together to understand what is working across investments, learn from the evidence, and make more informed decisions about where resources can matter most.
GOVERNMENT
Turn complex public problems into clearer decisions.
Use research, evaluation, data, and AI to understand what is happening, assess what is working, and generate the evidence needed to make better decisions about policy, programs, and public investment.
DESIGN THINKING
01
THE REPORT ISN'T THE PRODUCT.
THE DECISION IS.
For a decade, I've watched organizations invest enormous effort in collecting data, analyzing it, and producing reports — only to leave too little time for what comes next. The real work begins after the analysis: making sense of what we know, bringing it into the right conversations, and using it to decide what to do.
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02
RESEARCH SHOULD MAKE
ORGANIZATIONS CLEARER.
Complexity isn't the problem. Losing it is.
A social problem is never just a dataset. Context, people, institutions, history, and lived experience shape what the evidence means. Good research doesn't flatten those things into a score or taxonomy. It helps us see the story more clearly — without losing what makes it complex.
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03
WHAT CAN PRODUCT THINKING
TEACH RESEARCH?
Start with the problem, not the report. Design around the people, decisions, and systems that shape change. Build the simplest path from understanding to action. Research should be rigorous enough to trust, clear enough to use, and designed to travel — across teams, audiences, decisions, and contexts.
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04
AI SHOULD MAKE
RESEARCH SMALLER.
Not the story. The distance between understanding the problem and improving it.
AI can take on more of the work of finding, organizing, synthesizing, and analyzing information. The opportunity is not to replace human judgment, but to give it more room — for interpretation, curiosity, communication, and the decisions that turn evidence into change.