Applied research · Digital instruments
Instruments that show people where they stand.
We build voting compasses, profiling questionnaires and dashboards for campaigns, newsrooms and brands. Lab-grade method, agency-grade delivery.
Cluj-Napoca · we work in Romanian and English
- Public instruments
- Sevencompasses shipped publicly
- Countries
- Romania and the UScampaigns, newsrooms, universities
- Build
- Entirely in housefrom items to infrastructure
- Method
- Publishedwith the instrument, not after it
Voting compasses
Electoral orientation questionnaires: calibrated statements, a matching algorithm, a personal profile at the end. Built from item design through to deploy, ready for election-night traffic.
item designmatching algorithmlive platformpost-campaign report
See the serviceInteractive questionnaires
Profiling instruments for brands, media or education. Same mechanics, different field: at the end the user gets a result they actually want to share.
questionnaire architecturetypologies and archetypesshareable resultsanalytics
See the serviceDashboards and data
Collected answers become dashboards: filters, segments, export. For newsrooms that want a chart tomorrow and for teams that want the whole dataset.
collection pipelinecleaning and weightinglive dashboardCSV / API export
See the serviceAudience research
The study behind the instrument: sampling, fieldwork, analysis. Academic methodology, agency deliverables, with a method note you can publish without blushing.
methodological designrespondent recruitmentstatistical analysisreport and presentation
See the service
Busola Media 2026
What does your news diet look like? A media literacy test that puts your news consumption on the map. Launched in Cluj-Napoca and picked up by TVR Cluj.
Busola Eurosceptică 2026
How do you relate to the European Union? A UBB study that separates how much decision-making you want kept national from what drives that view: identity or economic calculation.
Busola București 2025
The voter's compass for the Bucharest mayoral race.
nyc.buso.ro · 2025NYC Political Compass
The compass for the New York City mayoral race, in English.
freshvote.ro · 2024archivedBusola Politică
The studio's first compass: the presidential election, built in 2024.
marketing.buso.ro · 2025Busola de Marketing
The same mechanics without the politics: your marketing specialist archetype.
How we work
From a campaign question to a public instrument
- Step 01
Frame the question
What you want to find out and who has to answer. We leave with the dimensions we are going to measure.
- Step 02
Write the items
Neutral statements, tested on a small group before they reach the public. This is where a study is won or lost.
- Step 03
Build and launch
Platform, algorithm, result pages. All on the edge, with analytics and GDPR handled from the start.
- Step 04
Deliver the report
Dashboard, a clean dataset and a presentation you can take into a meeting or a newsroom.
Published
The method exists on paper too
A book and two funded projects. The instruments on this site come out of that work, not the other way round.
MethodologyBook
Stoica, M. S. (2023). The Political Compass. Gamifying Political Communication in Romania. Accent, Cluj-Napoca
Written by the researcher who owns this studio’s methodology.
Funded project
Stoica, M. S. (dir.). (2024). FreshVOTE. Funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The project the studio’s first compass came out of.
Funded project
Stoica, M. S. (dir.). MeVsPopulism. Funded by UEFISCDI
Research on populism, directed from the same team.
Affiliations
Where the work is anchored
The institutions where the research is done, the ones that fund it, and the ones that carried it further.
Mihnea S. Stoica
Research and methodology
Associate professor and doctoral supervisor at UBB. Keeps the methodological design and the interpretation of data honest.
Teodor-Mihai Cosma
Instruments and data
Builds the platforms, from questionnaire design through to deploy. PhD candidate in communication sciences at FSPAC, UBB.
Jessica A. Eke
Methodological rigour and analysis
Holds the methodological rigour and the analysis of the data, from sample design through to the method note.
Got a question that deserves an instrument?
Tell us in two lines what you want to find out and who has to answer. We will tell you whether a compass is the right answer or not.
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