Scaling global UX research without losing local nuance isn’t just translation
From Poland to Portugal, OLX designs platforms that feel native—connecting buyers and sellers in ways that are locally relevant.
Outside of UX research and ReOps circles, this might look as simple as swapping images or adjusting currency symbols. In reality, customer-centric design requires understanding how users behave, interact, and respond in each market. Doing this across nine countries and nine brands goes far beyond translation.
We spoke with Ania Kaliska, ResearchOps Project Manager at OLX, about how her team tackles this challenge across multiple brands, countries, and cultures.
Their approach combines a centralized ReOps framework with real-time Ethnio Web Intercepts, capturing over 2 million pageviews per month. By pairing structured processes with flexible tooling, OLX collects localized insights at scale while giving researchers the autonomy to act quickly.
The payoff is tangible. Panels auto-update by language and user type, recruitment timelines shrink from weeks to days, and research flows adapt seamlessly to local context—all while maintaining GDPR compliance. It’s a system built to scale global UX research without losing the nuance that makes it meaningful.
In this post, we break down the numbers, tools, and processes that make OLX’s multi-brand, multi-country UX research efficient, scalable, and localized—so your team can apply similar strategies and avoid common pitfalls. Global scale, local nuance, sanity intact.
For the full journey behind OLX’s mature ReOps practice—including ROI, impact data, and key milestones—check out the customer story. It’s the metrics-first companion to this insight-driven narrative. [Read the full customer story →]
Scaling UX research with lean ReOps
So how do you scale UX research across 9 countries and 9 trusted brands even how participants respond to incentives can drastically differ across markets?
For global marketplaces like OLX, what feels “local” in Warsaw—like browsing habits, preferred payment methods might completely miss the mark in Lisbon. Messaging, user flows, and even the way people buy and sell differ drastically across markets. Get it wrong, and the consequences ripple through your product: engagement drops, dev slows, teams get frustrated, and trust erodes.
That’s why OLX is deeply committed to UX research, driving a major initiative to democratize it across teams.
As a ResearchOps Project Manager on a lean team, Ania support every stage of the research process: activating localized participant pools, managing recruitment, customizing incentives, ensuring GDPR compliance, and evaluating and automating our tool stack, while keeping a close eye on AI innovation and ethics.
Their goal was to establish processes and tools so that, by the second stage of maturity, researchers (excluding PDWRs) could operate independently, with ReOps providing guidance and support for specific requests as needed.
This is why Ethnio became a cornerstone of their approach, with a mix of centralized ResearchOps (ReOps) and Ethnio Web Intercepts—a combination that lets them capture real-time, localized insights at scale.
From agency dependence to agile, localized recruitment
OLX relied heavily on external agencies to recruit participants. The result? Inconsistent quality, slow timelines, and frustrated stakeholders.
“We needed to connect directly with real site users while enabling teams to move with agility,” says Ania.
OLX needed a system that could:
Recruit real site users directly
Maintain high-quality, localized research
Enable research projects to move quickly without operational bottlenecks
The solution was twofold:
centralized ReOps
web intercepts
Centralized processes provided structure, while intercepts offered flexible tooling to intercept real users mid-flow, support multiple languages, and scale across markets.
“We needed tools that enable us to recruit the right participants quickly and securely. Today, we have a foundation built for scale, localization, and compliance.”
— Ania Kaliska, ResearchOps Project Manager @ OLX
Centralized ReOps + web intercepts in action
Now they are able to:
Manage multiple concurrent recruitment projects in one platform
Build and maintain participant panels by language and region
Launch intercepts in fully translated local languages
Customize participant communication and incentives
Ensure GDPR compliance and security at scale
Ramp up new projects across platforms quickly
“I’d be lost without Ethnio. It’s what gets you from setup to full speed within a month.”
By consolidating these capabilities into a single system, OLX broke down operational silos, eliminated duplicate efforts, and aligned teams on a real-time view of participant engagement, study progress, and research insights.
Localization that builds trust
Web intercepts, participant communications, and incentives are fully localized by language, brand, and region:
Intercepts & Screeners: Translated and tailored to local context
Scheduling & Messaging: Native-language invitations and reminders
Incentives: Paid in local currencies, compliant with regional regulations
Eight out of eleven OLX platforms run web intercepts with Ethnio, allowing researchers to capture participants in context and screen them immediately, improving both relevance and quality.
Supporting every type of research study
All studies are fully localized, fully tracked, and fully scalable, making global UX research repeatable without losing nuance.
Ethnio enables OLX to execute a wide range of studies efficiently, including:
1:1 Interviews
Surveys
Diary Studies
Continuous Panels
Beta Testing
Building panels that slash recruitment time
OLX has built participant panels segmented by language, brand, and user type, powered by Ethnio and lightweight automations. Panels auto-update from intercepts, ensuring high-quality participants are always available.
“I can start recruiting for a study tomorrow—even same-day. Before Ethnio, that was unthinkable,” Ania shares.
This agility shifted OLX from vendor dependency to self-sufficient, high-velocity recruitment—a hallmark of mature ReOps.
Executive-friendly impact
Here’s what OLX has achieved with ReOps + Ethnio:
189 completed participants — faster, higher-quality recruitment
2M+ monthly intercept pageviews — broad top-of-funnel reach
130K+ localized emails sent — engagement and panel health
$11K+ in tailored incentives — efficient budget use and compliance
In addition, OLX leverages Ethnio’s end-of-year reporting to give leadership a clear view of total participant engagement, panel health, and ROI across brands and markets. These reports make it easy to track trends, justify budgets, and demonstrate measurable impact—helping ensure global UX research remains local, actionable, and data-driven.
These numbers clearly demonstrate ROI, speed, and operational health—proof that investment in centralized ReOps and the right tools delivers measurable business value.
Key takeaways for scaling multi-brand, localized UX research
By combining lean ReOps with Ethnio, OLX has achieved global research at scale—while keeping it local, actionable, and authentic.
Centralize ReOps: Lean teams can guide research without slowing projects.
Use real-time intercepts: Capture users mid-flow to get authentic, localized insights.
Automate panels and communication: Keep recruitment agile, high-quality, and compliant.
Focus on localization, not just translation: Messaging, incentives, and workflows all matter.
Measure impact: Show leaders tangible results: engagement, reach, and ROI.
Real user voices now inform every product decision.
