Summary
Research is about meeting users where they are. But what if we're building products for customers who don’t spend their lives on Zoom and Google calendar? How do you reach users who are hard to reach in the post-pandemic world? Join Prayag Narula, CEO & CO-Founder of Marvin, and Abhinav Krishna, Design Manager at Razorpay, the $7.5 Billion fintech behemoth, as they discuss how Razorpay is operationalizing user research at scale in the Indian SMB sector and applying it to their product design process.
Key Insights
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Razorpay was founded to enhance financial operations for Indian businesses amidst a changing digital landscape.
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The company emphasizes user-centered design, giving designers the autonomy to conduct their own research.
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Designers are not only responsible for design but also for understanding user needs and contexts directly.
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A cultural focus on first principles thinking allows designers to prioritize problems over processes.
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A checklist approach helps designers consider various perspectives and ensure thorough research.
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Phone calls are an effective means to engage with users who may be unaccustomed to digital communications.
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Support calls often transition into user research opportunities, enhancing user engagement.
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Empowering designers to connect with users fosters ongoing relationships and better insights.
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Developing a supportive infrastructure for research is critical in scaling design practices across business units.
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Razorpay's approach balances between personal outreach and structured research methods.
Notable Quotes
"We want to empower teams to be very autonomous in their decision making."
"It's always been about our obsession with users and focusing on the experience."
"If you're building a product for someone, context loss can occur when different teams handle problem identification."
"We needed to test for first principles thinking during hiring rather than just academic training."
"Our checklist specifies potential risks rather than dictates procedures to follow."
"Cold calling became essential in our engagement strategy due to the nature of our users."
"The focus is on helping designers make better decisions rather than hand-holding them through the process."
"Let the insights from users influence our roadmap and product development."
"Designers should have the intuition to understand the need for research and the humility to acknowledge their unknowns."
"It's an experiment that's working for us right now, but scalability is always a concern."
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