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
-
•
Razorpay was founded to enhance financial operations for Indian businesses amidst a changing digital landscape.
-
•
The company emphasizes user-centered design, giving designers the autonomy to conduct their own research.
-
•
Designers are not only responsible for design but also for understanding user needs and contexts directly.
-
•
A cultural focus on first principles thinking allows designers to prioritize problems over processes.
-
•
A checklist approach helps designers consider various perspectives and ensure thorough research.
-
•
Phone calls are an effective means to engage with users who may be unaccustomed to digital communications.
-
•
Support calls often transition into user research opportunities, enhancing user engagement.
-
•
Empowering designers to connect with users fosters ongoing relationships and better insights.
-
•
Developing a supportive infrastructure for research is critical in scaling design practices across business units.
-
•
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."
More Videos
"You are not just trusting an LLM; they are not databases, they mess up in ways databases never would."
Noz UrbinaRapid AI-powered UX (RAUX): A framework for empowering human designers
May 1, 2025
"Not just making things up here on stage; there's actually an underlying structure."
Jim KalbachJazz Improvisation as a Model for Team Collaboration
June 4, 2019
"I want you to take a little time out of your week and say, hey, what is it like working for me?"
Holly ColeUnderstanding Experiences: When you have to do more than work
November 8, 2018
"Our mission has been to bridge the gap that exists between the design and development disciplines."
Jack BeharHow to Build Prototypes that Behave like an End-Product
December 6, 2022
"Today’s theme is practical design ops, as I will talk about in just a moment."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
October 3, 2023
"Culture over technology is critical; technology cannot help you out of cultural problems."
Erika FlowersAI-Readiness: Preparing NASA for a Data-Driven, Agile Future
June 10, 2025
"Technology can revolutionize how we think about education."
Kristin SkinnerFive Years of DesignOps
September 29, 2021
"Big ears mean listening to other people more than you're listening to yourself."
Jim KalbachJazz Improvisation as a Model for Team Collaboration
November 6, 2017
"The future solutions will come from harnessing creativity at scale."
Surya VankaUnleashing Swarm Creativity to Solve Enterprise Challenges
June 10, 2021
