Bringing Customer Research to More Internal Teams
Summary
Learn how Brad Orego, Head of Research at Auth0 is bringing research to teams of designers, marketers and product owners. His passion for customer research is infectious and in this 30-minute session, you'll learn his tips and tricks for getting more teams to do great research.
Key Insights
-
•
Starting a research practice with operations first enables a 10x increase in research throughput by establishing consistent methods and infrastructure.
-
•
Democratizing research lets hundreds of team members conduct their own studies, reserving the core research team for complex, cross-product questions.
-
•
Creating a cross-functional Customer Intelligence Alliance (CIA) with data science, product marketing, and competitive intelligence improves insight generation and alignment.
-
•
Recruiting research participants remains one of the biggest challenges, especially balancing enterprise and free/self-service user access.
-
•
Monthly research deep-dive workshops and on-demand training help build research maturity and consistent quality among internal teams.
-
•
Templates, note-taking frameworks, and review checkpoints are critical to maintaining documentation quality and meaningful insight sharing.
-
•
Early demonstration studies that show research process and outcomes can accelerate adoption and maturity among internal stakeholders.
-
•
Research ops frameworks like the 'eight pillars' help prioritize focus areas like tooling, knowledge management, and infrastructure when building or scaling a practice.
-
•
A centralized research team can tackle complex, strategic questions beyond individual product scope, such as broad user sign-in behavior.
-
•
Continuous collaboration between qualitative and quantitative research teams, including data science, improves understanding and validates hypotheses.
Notable Quotes
"We went from about one study per quarter to about one per team per quarter — about a 10x increase — which is absolutely insane."
"I should have done a few studies first to show people what it looks like, so they could copy templates and methods."
"Recruiting sucks, especially in enterprise B2B, so building robust recruiting pipelines and processes was critical for us."
"We’re not gatekeepers; we’re here to make sure research is accurate, efficient, and impactful, not to block people."
"The Customer Intelligence Alliance brings together research, data science, product marketing, and competitive intelligence in regular discussions."
"Different perspectives across functions generate insights you never would have thought of on your own."
"We do monthly research deep dives on different methods with examples and practice, open to anyone in the company."
"If someone does research and says 70% of users do X, I remind them you can’t make quantitative claims with qualitative data."
"Research is a freight train barreling through the company — build the stations and rails first with operations or risk derailment."
"Start doing operations now; you don’t need a dedicated team to begin and it puts you at the top when jobs open."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We actively reduced jargon to make our process accessible for non-designers."
Alexia Cohen Adriane AckermanIncreasing Health Equity and Improving the Service Experience for Under-Served Latine Communities in Arizona
December 4, 2024
"Building in interruptions exponentially increases the accuracy of the findings."
Marc Majers Tony TurnerInterrupted UX - Add A Dose of Reality To Usability Testing
March 11, 2022
"Co-creation brings other stakeholders into the design process, not just for requirements but to actually do the design work."
Jorge ArangoDesign as an Antidote to VUCA
May 9, 2019
"If you forget the individual, you cut out psychological safety, which is the foundation for dependability and structure."
Brenna FallonLearning Over Outcomes
October 24, 2019
"Design is often framed as problem solving, but conversation is a better framework to respect users as active experts."
Daniel GloydWarming the User Experience: Lessons from America's first and most radical human-centered designers
May 9, 2024
"Multiple payment providers aren’t just a feature; they’re an accessibility lifeline for people who can’t read or reach their credit card easily."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
October 3, 2023
"We are not replacing teachers; we are enhancing their ability to teach effectively."
Kristin SkinnerFive Years of DesignOps
September 29, 2021
"When we start changing our behavior, we start changing the voices and behavior around us."
Denise Jacobs Nancy Douyon Renee Reid Lisa WelchmanInteractive Keynote: Social Change by Design
January 8, 2024
"Fraud detection automatically refunds you if a participant is found to be fraudulent and helps find a replacement."
Roberta Dombrowski Lianna Aduana5 Reasons to Bring your Recruiting in House
September 30, 2021
