How Zapier Uses ‘All Hands Research’ to Increase Exposure to Users

Key Insights

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  Zapier’s All Hands Support encourages all employees to spend time on customer support to maintain user awareness.

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  As Zapier grew, increasingly technical support tickets reduced participation from non-technical roles.

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  All Hands Research ride alongs provide a richer user exposure experience than watching recordings by enabling real-time interaction.

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  A lightweight, 45-minute UXR 101 training helps non-research employees overcome intimidation and join sessions comfortably.

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  Automating the session discovery and joining process via Slack and Zapier drastically reduces friction for employees.

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  Lookback tool provides separate participant and observer views, reducing anxiety for observers and distractions for users.

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  Simplifying communication and reducing information overload is critical to encourage participation.

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  Not all employees want to join research; respecting preferences is important for cultural acceptance.

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  Ride alongs foster cross-department connections and improve shared understanding of user problems.

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  Tracking participation and learnings weekly helps measure engagement, but measuring impact on decisions remains a long-term goal.

Notable Quotes