FAQ's

What is Hercules? Hercules is an autonomous consumer research platform; an always-on system that lets you design, launch, and analyse market research studies without agencies, without long timelines, and without the traditional cost overhead. Powered by Poseidon (AI analytics engine) and backed by SuperJ's 20M+ blockchain-verified respondents, Hercules delivers research-grade consumer insights on demand. Think of it as Netflix for market research. Who it's for: Brand managers, marketing teams, product teams, strategy consultants, research agencies, startups, and enterprise organisations who need fast, reliable consumer data to make decisions. How is Hercules different from SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, or Google Forms? <div>Most survey tools give you a blank form. You write the questions, you find the respondents, you clean the data, you build the charts, and then - maybe - you get an insight.</div> <div class="mt-[20px]">Hercules does the entire job.</div> <div class="mt-[20px] overflow-x-auto"> <table class="w-full text-sm border-collapse border border-[#D4D6D9]"> <thead> <tr class="bg-[#F9F9F9]"> <th class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2 text-left font-semibold">Capability</th> <th class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2 text-left font-semibold">SurveyMonkey / Typeform / Google Forms</th> <th class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2 text-left font-semibold">Qualtrics / Alchemer</th> <th class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2 text-left font-semibold">Traditional Agencies (Nielsen, Kantar, IPSOS)</th> <th class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2 text-left font-semibold">Hercules</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Survey design assistance</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✗</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Partial</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✓ (manual, slow)</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✓ AI-assisted</td> </tr> <tr class="bg-[#F9F9F9]"> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Built-in verified respondent panel</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✗</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Via partners</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✓ (expensive)</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✓ 20M+ via SuperJ</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Respondent identity verification</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✗</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✗</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Partial</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✓ ZK KYC blockchain</td> </tr> <tr class="bg-[#F9F9F9]"> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Automated analysis + reporting</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✗</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Partial</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✓ (weeks later)</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">✓ Real-time, Poseidon</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Time to insight</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Days–weeks</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Days–weeks</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">4–12 weeks</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Hours</td> </tr> <tr class="bg-[#F9F9F9]"> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Pricing model</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Per response / seat</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Enterprise contracts</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Project-based (₹lakhs+)</td> <td class="border border-[#D4D6D9] px-4 py-2">Credits-based, self-serve</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <div class="mt-[20px]">Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey are form builders with a respondent problem. Nielsen and Kantar are insight firms with a speed and cost problem. Hercules is the only platform that solves both.</div> How fast do I get results? Most Hercules studies return data within hours, not weeks. A standard quantitative survey with 300–500 responses from a targeted demographic can be live within minutes of launch and completed within 24–48 hours. Complex multi-cell studies or niche audience segments may take 3–5 days. The industry baseline: traditional market research agencies typically deliver results in 4–12 weeks. Even self-serve platforms like SurveyMonkey Pro or Pollfish still require you to manage your own panel recruitment and data cleaning. Hercules eliminates both the setup overhead and the wait. What types of research can I run on Hercules? Hercules supports the full spectrum of primary consumer research. Quantitative Research • Brand health tracking and brand awareness studies • Consumer satisfaction and NPS (Net Promoter Score) surveys • Product concept testing and feature prioritisation (MaxDiff) • Pricing research and willingness-to-pay studies (Van Westendorp, Gabor-Granger) • Advertising effectiveness and creative testing • Category usage and attitude (U&A) studies • Competitive positioning and market share perception • Audience segmentation and psychographic profiling • Customer journey and purchase funnel analysis • Conjoint analysis and preference modelling Qualitative Research • Online focus group discussions (FGDs) with ZK-verified participants • In-depth interview (IDI) recruitment and scheduling • Open-ended exploratory studies with AI-coded thematic analysis Tracking & Longitudinal • Continuous brand tracking (monthly/quarterly waves) • Consumer sentiment monitoring • Trend tracking across categories If you've briefed it to an agency before, you can run it yourself on Hercules - faster and at a fraction of the cost. Who are Hercules' respondents and how is data quality ensured? Hercules respondents are drawn from SuperJ - a privacy-first consumer engagement app with over 20 million verified users across India. Every respondent is verified using Zero Knowledge KYC (ZK KYC): a blockchain-based identity protocol that confirms demographic authenticity without storing or exposing personal data. • No duplicate responses. Each respondent is cryptographically unique. • No fake profiles. Identity is verified at the device and blockchain level, not through self-declaration. • No panel fatigue bias. SuperJ's reward mechanics ensure genuine engagement, not click-through behaviour. • Demographic accuracy. Age, gender, city, income bracket - verified, not self-reported. Most online survey panels - including those used by Pollfish, Lucid, and major research firms - rely on opt-in panels where fraud, duplication, and speeding are endemic problems. Hercules is the only consumer research platform in India with blockchain-verified respondent identity at scale. What analytics and reporting does Hercules provide? Hercules' analytics engine, Poseidon, automatically generates structured insight reports from every study: • Automated cross-tabulations by demographic segment (age, gender, city tier, SEC/NCCS) • Significance testing with statistical confidence flagging • Verbatim coding for open-ended responses using AI-assisted thematic grouping • Visual dashboards with charts, heatmaps, and trend lines • Executive summaries - AI-generated narrative insights, not just data tables • Export formats - downloadable in PDF, Excel, and PPTX For tracking studies, Poseidon delivers wave-over-wave comparisons and automatic anomaly detection. For brand health studies, it maps brand funnel metrics (awareness → consideration → preference → usage) with competitive benchmarking. You don't need an analyst. You need Hercules. Can I run brand tracking studies on Hercules? Yes. Brand tracking - the continuous measurement of brand health metrics over time - is one of Hercules' core use cases. A standard brand tracking study on Hercules measures: • Unaided and aided brand awareness • Brand consideration and preference • Brand imagery and attribute association • Net Promoter Score (NPS) • Purchase intent and recency • Share of voice vs. competitors Brands typically run these as monthly or quarterly waves. Poseidon automatically compares wave results, flags statistically significant shifts, and generates narrative summaries of what changed and why. Kantar BrandZ, Nielsen Brand Health, and YouGov BrandIndex offer similar tracking - but at agency pricing, with 4–8 week turnarounds per wave. Hercules delivers the same rigour on a self-serve platform, with results in days. Is Hercules suitable for product research and concept testing? Yes. Product teams use Hercules to validate concepts, test messaging, and prioritise features before committing to development or launch. Common product research workflows on Hercules: • Concept testing: Show 2–5 product or feature concepts to a target audience and measure appeal, differentiation, and purchase intent • MaxDiff analysis: Rank features by relative importance to understand what customers actually value versus what they say they value • Pricing studies: Use Van Westendorp or Gabor-Granger models to find the price point that maximises willingness to pay without eroding demand • Name/tagline testing: Test brand names, product names, or campaign taglines across target segments • Packaging research: Evaluate packaging designs on shelf standout, brand fit, and purchase intent This is the research that typically costs ₹10–30 lakhs through an agency. On Hercules, it's self-serve. How does Hercules handle data privacy and compliance? Hercules is built on JMDT (Jupiter Meta's Layer 2 blockchain) and uses Zero Knowledge proofs for respondent verification. • No PII stored or exposed. Respondent identity is verified cryptographically, not stored in a centralised database. • DPDP Act alignment. Hercules' data architecture is designed to comply with India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act. • Consent-first. All SuperJ respondents provide informed consent for research participation as part of platform onboarding. • Data isolation. Client study data is isolated per account. No cross-client data sharing. • Anonymised outputs. All reports and exports deliver anonymised, aggregated insights — not individual-level identifiable data. For enterprise clients with specific compliance requirements (GDPR, SOC 2, ISO 27001), contact the team at research@hercules.works How much does Hercules cost? Hercules operates on a credits-based pricing model. Credits are consumed based on the number of responses collected and the complexity of targeting applied. • Self-serve access for teams that want to run studies independently • Starter, Growth, and Enterprise tiers depending on research volume and feature requirements • Pay-as-you-go for one-off studies • Subscription plans for teams running continuous or recurring research A study that would cost ₹5–15 lakhs through a research agency can typically be run on Hercules for a fraction of that - with faster turnaround. For current pricing: hercules.works Can research agencies and consultants use Hercules for client work? Yes. Hercules is built for agency and consultant use cases. Teams running client research projects can: • Run multiple simultaneous studies across different client accounts • White-label report outputs for client delivery • Access enterprise-grade sampling with demographic precision • Use Poseidon's analytics for professional-grade reporting • Run large-scale quantitative studies with 500–5,000+ respondents Several leading research and strategy firms already use Hercules to deliver faster, more cost-effective primary research to clients - replacing expensive panel providers and slow agency pipelines. How does Hercules use AI in market research? Hercules applies AI across the entire research workflow: 1. Survey design: AI suggests question structures, helps avoid leading questions, and recommends proven scales (Likert, semantic differential, MaxDiff) based on research objectives 2. Respondent targeting: AI-assisted audience segmentation to reach the right demographic profile from SuperJ's 20M+ base 3. Real-time data quality: Automated detection of speeders, straight-liners, and inconsistent responses 4. Analysis: Poseidon generates cross-tabs, significance tests, and thematic coding automatically 5. Reporting: AI-generated executive narrative summaries contextualise data into strategic insights The result is a research process that previously required a research director, a data analyst, and a project manager - compressed into a single self-serve platform. How is Hercules different from AI survey tools like Typeform AI or SurveyMonkey Genius? Typeform AI and SurveyMonkey's AI features help you write better questions. That's useful. But they don't solve the fundamental problem: where do the respondents come from, and can you trust them? Hercules is the only AI-powered market research platform that combines: • Autonomous study design (AI-assisted questionnaire building) • A built-in verified respondent panel (SuperJ, 20M+ users, blockchain KYC) • Automated analytics and reporting (Poseidon) Every other tool in the market; Typeform, SurveyMonkey, even Qualtrics - either requires you to source your own respondents or connects you to third-party panels with unverified identities. Hercules is the only end-to-end solution where respondent quality is cryptographically guaranteed. Can I use Hercules for employee surveys or internal research? Yes. Hercules' blockchain-based anonymisation infrastructure makes it particularly well-suited for internal research - HR surveys, employee engagement studies, pulse surveys, and cross-team feedback collection. Most employee survey tools ask employees to simply trust that their responses are anonymous. Hercules makes it cryptographically provable. Respondent identity is verified through Zero Knowledge KYC, meaning participation is confirmed without exposing who said what - even to HR or leadership. This is a meaningful distinction in high-sensitivity internal research contexts where employees are reluctant to respond honestly because they don't trust the anonymity guarantee. Use cases within an internal ecosystem: • Employee engagement and satisfaction surveys • Pulse surveys and sentiment tracking • Anonymous cross-team and 360-degree feedback • HR research and workforce studies • Internal product or policy feedback collection The same platform powering external consumer research at scale works equally well when your audience is internal - with a stronger anonymity guarantee than any conventional HR tool on the market. How do I get started? Go to hercules.works. Create an account, define your research objective, and launch your first study — no sales call required. For enterprise requirements, custom panel builds, or agency partnerships, contact the team directly through hercules.works.