Summary
Over the last few years, our simple five-step framework has made it possible to grow our research efforts' impact and scale. It's also helped us shift organizational mindset, establishing Research & Insights team as a trusted and desired partner in key business, product, and design decisions. Whether you do research with customers or need to map out your stakeholder universe to be most effective and increase your work's impact, we hope this framework will help you achieve your goals!
Key Insights
-
•
Balancing generative research with usability testing is a common challenge for researchers supporting multiple product teams.
-
•
Effective stakeholder identification involves prioritizing by influence and interest using a two-by-two matrix.
-
•
Most stakeholders often perceive research narrowly as usability testing or concept evaluation rather than broader product discovery.
-
•
Regular stakeholder interviews help uncover research needs, priorities, and timelines to build trust and plan work.
-
•
A consolidated research backlog assists in prioritizing requests based on importance, urgency, complexity, and available bandwidth.
-
•
Not all research requires direct researcher involvement; enabling PMs and designers with templates and unmoderated tools scales research efforts.
-
•
Outsourcing or vendor partnerships help handle high-volume or lower complexity research tasks effectively.
-
•
Maintaining a living research findings and recommendations tracker ensures research impact persists and avoids duplication.
-
•
Collaboration with customer-facing teams like Customer Success is critical for recruiting target users efficiently.
-
•
Sustainable research practices emerge over years but traction in new frameworks can start within six months.
Notable Quotes
"I’m drowning trying to create an understanding of our target audience for a new feature, but that leaves me no time for usability updates."
"How do we continuously provide value throughout the product development cycle without overindexing on just one type of research?"
"Maybe the person who is the loudest in the room isn’t the one you should manage closely as a stakeholder."
"Research has layers like an onion; we operate at multiple layers, from discovery to concept evaluation."
"We are not just trying to get a seat at the table, we want to get a voice at the table."
"Stakeholder interviews are our way of doing research on our stakeholders to understand what keeps them up at night."
"We enable PMs and designers to conduct research rigorously because they are already in contact with customers daily."
"Unmoderated tools can achieve 100% completion rates and rapid insights if designed thoughtfully."
"Our job is to make sure research conducted by non-researchers is objective, rigorous and unbiased."
"A research findings and recommendations tracker helps us keep findings alive and prioritized throughout the Agile delivery process."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"When the whole team is trained in design thinking, they are measurably more aligned, more efficient, and more agile."
Doug PowellClosing Keynote: Design at Scale
November 8, 2018
"Middle schoolers might ask you tough questions about release forms and how their data will be used."
Mila Kuznetsova Lucy DentonHow Lessons Learned from Our Youngest Users Can Help Us Evolve our Practices
March 9, 2022
"If we’re really centering it on people and experiences, consider life before place, and place before technology."
Sarah GallimoreInspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future
November 18, 2022
"Simply asking stakeholders what success looks like for them in a project is a powerful way to start meaningful conversations."
Lada Gorlenko Sharbani Dhar Sébastien Malo Rob Mitzel Ivana Ng Michal Anne RogondinoTheme 1: Discussion
January 8, 2024
"Start tinkering, playing around, and pushing AI’s limits because the industry shift is going to get faster."
Alnie FigueroaThe Future of Design Operations: Transforming Our Craft
September 10, 2025
"You shouldn’t send another survey unless you’ve implemented changes and allowed time for behavior to adapt."
Landon BarnesAre My Research Findings Actually Meaningful?
March 10, 2022
"It’s the worst thing when someone feels dumb in front of a customer because the tools don’t support them."
Emily EagleCan't Rewind: Radio and Retail
June 3, 2019
"Managing resistance is mental; customers might resist because they've learned workarounds with legacy systems."
Malini RaoLessons Learned from a 4-year Product Re-platforming Journey
June 9, 2021
"Designers are often seen as bottlenecks because our work is harder to estimate and track than engineering’s."
Asia HoePartnering with Product: A Journey from Junior to Senior Design
November 29, 2023
