Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
How Zapier Uses ‘All Hands Research’ to Increase Exposure to Users
Summary
If you want to improve your product’s user experience, you need to show your team what it’s like for real people to use your product. It’s a simple concept, but many companies struggle to do this consistently. Zapier recently launched an initiative that simplifies this exposure to users. ‘All Hands Research ride-alongs’ are open UX research sessions where anyone at Zapier can observe users interacting with the product and hear their feedback. Zapier has seen PMs, designers, marketers, executives and more join these sessions and apply learnings to their everyday work. More importantly, they keep coming back for more!
Key Insights
-
•
Zapier’s All Hands Support encourages all employees to spend time on customer support to maintain user awareness.
-
•
As Zapier grew, increasingly technical support tickets reduced participation from non-technical roles.
-
•
All Hands Research ride alongs provide a richer user exposure experience than watching recordings by enabling real-time interaction.
-
•
A lightweight, 45-minute UXR 101 training helps non-research employees overcome intimidation and join sessions comfortably.
-
•
Automating the session discovery and joining process via Slack and Zapier drastically reduces friction for employees.
-
•
Lookback tool provides separate participant and observer views, reducing anxiety for observers and distractions for users.
-
•
Simplifying communication and reducing information overload is critical to encourage participation.
-
•
Not all employees want to join research; respecting preferences is important for cultural acceptance.
-
•
Ride alongs foster cross-department connections and improve shared understanding of user problems.
-
•
Tracking participation and learnings weekly helps measure engagement, but measuring impact on decisions remains a long-term goal.
Notable Quotes
"The value of real exposure holds true in UX, it’s replaceable and helps you understand real user problems."
"User research can sound intimidating, so our first step was to make it simpler and more approachable."
"We wanted a great participant experience no matter how many observers are on the call."
"Some people said I don’t think I’m qualified enough to observe research sessions despite training."
"The ride along is a richer experience than watching session recordings because you can interact in real time."
"Despite automation, many people still skim information or are busy and need simpler, focused communication."
"No matter how much we simplify, research isn’t for everyone and that’s perfectly fine."
"One of the best parts is seeing people from Ops, recruiting, marketing and product interacting together in Slack."
"The CEO advocating for user exposure gave us a now-or-never moment to start this initiative."
"We automate the entire flow so once people react in Slack, they’re invited automatically to sessions."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Rapid low-fidelity prototypes let us get quick feedback without stakeholders focusing on minor visual details."
Yunyan Li Anna Le Jen KimUX Best Practices
June 11, 2021
"I felt this was a slippery slope—the blurring of lines between roles and responsibilities."
Allan LowsonRehashing the Double Diamond: Collaborating across functions with AI-assisted prototyping
June 9, 2026
"It can be so tiring to be the only one constantly saying this has to be done differently."
Denise Jacobs Nancy Douyon Renee Reid Lisa WelchmanInteractive Keynote: Social Change by Design
January 8, 2024
"Research is seen as an adjunct to design, often missed in road mapping and strategic planning."
Renee BouwensLanding Product Impact: Aligning Research as a Foundational Driver for Delivering the World’s Best Products
December 15, 2023
"If you miss any one of these—access to data, insight generation, accuracy, engagement—it’s not truly democratization."
Jemma Ahmed Steve Carrod Chris Geison Dr. Shadi Janansefat Christopher NashDemocratization: Working with it, not against it [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
July 24, 2024
"Rigour really is just a method; it’s knowing why you made the choices and tradeoffs you did."
Sam LadnerHow Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight
March 9, 2022
"We should open our profession to fresh graduates and those without traditional design research backgrounds."
Yoel SumitroActions and Reflections: Bridging the Skills Gap among Researchers
March 9, 2022
"Most research methods come from an engineering mindset suitable for complicated problems, but product problems are mostly complex."
Dave HoraResearch in the Face of Complexity: New Sensibility for New Situations
August 27, 2025
"You can’t evaluate bias if the AI can’t explain itself."
Daniel J. RosenbergDesigning with and for Artificial Intelligence
August 11, 2022
