Maze quick start

Last updated: June 17, 2026

Maze is a continuous product discovery platform used by product teams to collect and consume user insights across the entire product development cycle.

With solutions for both unmoderated and moderated product research, participant recruitment, reporting, and sharing, Maze enables everyone to run great research, make better product decisions, and scale insights company-wide.

For more information, visit maze.co and follow @mazedesignhq.

Not sure where to start? This article offers a high-level view of everything you can do in Maze.

Create an account

When you sign up, you'll receive a verification email. Click on the verification link in your email to verify your account. This step is required to activate your Maze account.

Learn more about available features across each plan type

Not sure which method to use; Start from a learning goal

If you're new to research — or just not sure which study type fits your goal — you don't have to decide upfront. From your Home screen, you'll see a prompt to describe what you want to learn in plain language. Maze's AI Assistant will ask a few follow-up questions and recommend the best study type for your goal, then hand you off into the right creation flow.

You don't need to phrase it like a researcher. For example:

"I want to understand why users are dropping off during onboarding."
"I'd like to know which of two checkout flows people find easier to complete."
"I need to run interviews with enterprise admins to understand how they set up permissions."

You can also attach a file — like a research brief, PRD, or notes from a previous study — to give the Assistant more context and sharpen its recommendation.

Once the Assistant has enough to go on, it recommends a study type and explains why it's the right fit. You can confirm and continue into the right builder (with your context already carried over), or keep chatting to refine it.

Learn more about starting a study from a learning goal with the AI Assistant

Define your research approach

There are two main approaches to user testing: moderated and unmoderated. Both methods have benefits and disadvantages. Choosing the right approach depends on various factors, and isn’t always a clear-cut decision.

Maze supports both moderated (inclusive of AI moderated) and unmoderated studies. Learn more in this article: When should I use unmoderated vs. moderated testing?

What is a study?

A study is a unit of research in Maze. Studies can be unmoderated studies or moderated (interview) studies.

How are studies allocated in my team?

The plan you’re subscribed to determines the number of studies allocated to your team.

A study is considered consumed when:

Unmoderated: a study has at least one response recorded

Moderated: an interview has one session scheduled or a recording uploaded

AI Moderated: a study has a scheduled participant

Learn more about the available plans and features at maze.co/pricing

Unmoderated research: Create your first study

A study is a succession of unmoderated tasks and/or questions that you send to participants for them to complete.

For a step-by-step guide on how to create your first study, please see: Creating and setting up your first study

Moderated research: Set up your first interview study

Interview studies allows your team to schedule user interviews, as well as streamline the analysis and sharing of insights. Interview studies are an Enterprise plan feature.

To learn more, please see: Getting started with interview studies

AI Moderated research: Set up your first study

AI-moderated studies give you the best of both worlds: the convenience and scale of unmoderated research with the rich, detailed insights you'd get from live interviews. Our AI-Moderator conducts intelligent user research sessions by asking relevant follow-up questions based on your learning goals and participant responses.

To learn more, please see: AI Moderated studies

Additional resources

Remember that our team is here if you need any help along the way!