# Bridging the Gap Between Product, GTM, and the Bottom Line โ€” Anna Lee Anda โ€” session 2026-08-26T00:40:00.000Z โ†’ 2026-08-26T01:10:00.000Z _419 transcript lines ยท 89 slides_ ## Transcript Oh, sorry. Do you wanna check the other one? Oh, no. You can. Okay. So rather than just limiting your collaboration within your I really want to encourage everyone here to start following business questions and see where it takes you. I think the most valuable insights and where you can have really have impact as a really is across boundaries in in the organization. So maybe this doesn't work. Oops. It skipped. Okay. So thirty minutes. I'm gonna cover a lot. Hopefully, there'll be things you can take away. I'm gonna cover a little bit of an introduction to the difference between product dev and go to market and our different goals. I'm gonna tell you a real life story, something I was involved in with how do we how do we mend and keep a seven year relationship. What happened after that escalation? And how you might copy it or replicate it inside your own roles and organizations. And last but not least, you know, AI is a very big topic. So I wanna talk about how it might help you in this aspect as well in terms of crossing those boundaries and collaboration. So if we think about, like, UX research, we're really in the development space. I think that's very clear. And that's the traditional role of gathering data, joining the dots, turning it into an insight. But I think there's an opportunity to be mindful and go much further And that's to oops. Sorry. Like, help the teams with conversion. So the collaboration with the go to market team is often very underutilized and underused. And it's not just one way. Actually, you can gather data and interpret the go to market team's contributions such as customer feedback, market information, giving you a sense of what's going on in the industry. And they can also help with communicating outwards about your projects and updates, and what you are also seeking as a researcher. So, together, when you connect all of these dots, it's actually a a broader continuous cycle, gathering data, connecting the dots, communicating those insights, and then converting them into action in different ways. Okay. So I think you a lot of people may know these two, but I wanted to choose a familiar example. Salespeople. Some may or may interact with them in the organization. But in terms of their goals, they're really thinking about things like revenue, customer retention, churn, and that really impacts the bottom line of the business. And from a research perspective, they really give us a good touch point. And I wanna talk about different ways in which we can get and work with them. And they can also help with the insights into action. So we had one day a very out of ordinary request So usually, me and my team, we sit in product development, and we only work in product development. We were asked, how can we actually collaborate with the go to market escalation? So we had a really big question. Can we actually do something? What could we do And so it began with a an informal internal connection. So, the design team, me included, we got approached by this team to see what could we do to help. So we've got accounts exec success solution consultant and a product specialist. All of them have different roles, but they work with the same customer. And these are real people, by the way, and then then there's me. But, there's a intermix of stock people and real people. But, I just wanted to say that they have a goal. They want to keep the customer keep the customer happy. We want to understand what the customer needs. There is quite a lot of alignment there even though it doesn't seem so direct. And so we wanted to bring something different to this workshop, which was a strong understanding of user experience but also showing the customer how we do things internally to build that relationship and gravitas. So can we save this relationship? A bit of context, this customer was actually our biggest customer in the APAC region. So the stakes were really high. It was go or no go. And the goal was to help the customer really understand their own setup with Zendesk. So as the customer support software, we wanted to really help them make sure that they are maximizing it and identify areas of underutilization. That's a common thing that we have in our business is that we really want to make sure that customers really get the most value out of what they're paying for. But what we did was we designed the workshop to benefit both sides. We weren't just going to be service providers, but we would be, we would be providing some things like expertise. We would be providing some things like the understanding of the support space, given that we've done a lot of design and research in that space. And then the idea was for us to get some of those things that we could take back to the the product development department. So the important principle that we had from the outset when doing this was that the engagement must create value for the customer, it also must create some benefit and value for our organization and the team at the same time. So what we did was we actually took some familiar research techniques, and then we applied it to this workshop. So it wasn't just a normal workshop. We brought our own research to help the customer see how we're thinking about the user experience and the user needs. So as a result of what we did before the workshop, which we shared with them, the customer got a good insight as to how we work. So we showed them things like unmoderated research that we did on their experience, and how we also do that internally at Zendesk. We also did some mystery shopping. So for this customer, we you know, we went to speak and pretend to be their users to directly experience an empathize with their user needs. We also with the designer, brought the design thinking techniques. So there was a lot that they our goal was to have them leave this workshop and also learn new skills that they could take on their department and their organization as well. So it wasn't just to conduct research on and for the customer. It was a get to give them a taste of our internal expertise, and also build some goodwill. As I mentioned, I'm fighting the brunch, so I'm gonna I'm gonna be mindful of the time. And then also, I wanna share that at the same time, we got something out of it that we could take back to the team. We managed to do things like user shadowing, so we were able to take photos and then report back. We had to actually saw firsthand what were the issues that this customer and their team were having with using our product, which was invaluable. We also heard from this direct but also broad user groups. Sometimes we are hearing things through the go to market team, for example, or through people who are submitting feedback on our site or through our customer support team. But this was us hearing it directly from these various levels of users It wasn't just hearing from the people who are buying the product, So there's the buyer, but then there's different lay layers like managers, in terms of customer support agents. We got the whole gamut of all this different feedback collaboration, I feel. And here's a quote with from the head of this is a a general picture. But the key thing was that they got outputs next steps, and action plan. They felt like it was very clear. It wasn't just a workshop for the sake of a work workshop. We were very deliberate in making sure that there were some commitments and there was some take aways. And it wasn't just the head of CX who really got a lot of value out of it. The participants who all all levels also had a very strong response. By no means, this is quantitative sentiment. Everything was four plus in terms of positive to strongly positive. Participants describe this workshop and and engagement as fun and interactive. And they really appreciated having us join them, and they felt there there was a level of expertise that they could take away. And the business outcome was significant. Did we save that relationship or did we not? We did. Celebrations. So, I think it was one successful customer engagement, but actually, it went to something much much bigger. This was something that was a one off request and it actually turned into a new business process. One of the things that after that one engagement and workshop we had where we shared all our research, there was a hunger and a taste for more. Now mind you, this is outside of a typical UX research role. But what we did was we trained about 2,000 go to market staffs So sales success, professional services, solutions consultants. And we did this globally at our sales kickoff, which happens once a year. And the intention was that they could And we did this globally at our sales kickoff, which happens once a year. And the intention was that they could, replicate some of our approach Now don't get me wrong, this is not to replace a UX researcher. It's just to give the small taste and some insights into what they could use and be more on a few specific areas rather than we're not teaching people how to be UX researchers, but just small aspects they could take away and be more, you know, thinking about the user experience. So we taught them how to think about auditing, customer experiences. So a little bit of that mystery shopping that we did. So how can they go and do it versus engaging our whole team? How to use personas? So we have a set of personas, different levels of users, and their goals. So how to use those when work with the customer and who's attending the workshop. And the key thing also was how to map the, customer journey. So this is an example of the team here having a go at mapping it, and we're walking around and giving them feedback of, yes, this should be part of it. No, this shouldn't be part of it. There were a lot of questions, but we tried to make it as interactive as possible. But the goal wasn't just to teach concepts. We wanted to be very practical. This was a very practical exercise. And so that they could take the ideas and the approaches and run with it in their own workshops with customers. So as a result, the research methods, these few were more accessible to go to market And also go to market were able to help engage with customers in a structured and useful way, And then it also feeds into our product development process. So thinking about how might this work inside your own organization. I think one key thing that we often forget about or at least I can say that I do, is that bringing together metrics when it comes to metrics and insights together. If we think about UX or UX research, we have different measurements but they can be actually related. For example, ease of use may support adoption. If it's easy to use, more customers will adopt it, and they'll be more likely to stay with your company. Also, faster time to value. Maybe it improves customer satisfaction. They can use it. They feel okay. We're getting a lot of benefit right away, and they're more likely to stay. And less like and less likely to churn, which is a big thing for us in our company. And I think the important thing to note is that here's some examples of how they might be joined. But it's not to force it. I think you need to think of, you know, which ones are appropriate and which ones are a good match for your insight and what your goals are. And it's important to understand how these different measurements can connect. So thinking about like your indirect stakeholders, I'll give you some examples of the go to market roles. I think I mentioned a few. So I talked about sales, success managers, presales, solutions consultants, professional services. But as I mentioned, this could even apply to a b to c company. So, thinking about things like product marketing, or just marketing, data and analytics teams, customer service and operations. These are all areas where you could get data which leads to better insights. So here are some examples of how we work with the go to market team as part of our research projects. So one of the ways in which we work with them is we are we may pilot how we're going to do our research and get a sense from them about is this going to work with the customer base? And are they going to give us the time to to sit them or work with them on this? So we may test out, like, methods, questions, the length of the session, and we'll get input from them, right away. The other thing is they may be an internal expert on a space. So for example, I'm working on a project in AI. I'm working with the AI sales specialist to get their input on, yes, this is interest bit further. So, that's really helpful. This one, introducing you to customers, is really really important. What we find is that when we work with go to market team, our response rate markedly increases. And I think this is very, very important because you need to be mindful that, your users or customers are busy And so sometimes they may see an email and they may just it. But if you have a warm introduction from the sales team, they have a strong relationship. The customer or user may be more likely to participate. And then the last but not least is give you some signals into the market and industry information. Maybe because of certain recessions, spending is going down in retail or maybe there is AI spend at certain other regions. So they can give you a sense of, yes, this is going to be good timing for this project, or maybe you need to think about other ways and approaches. I want to give a clear and our own example. So at Zendesk, we use something called UserVoice. I don't know if, any of you have heard of it or maybe you all have a new organization But the interesting thing about UserVoice is that customers and also the go to market team will put their requests for improvement or feedback or their needs. And that goes into a a catalog that we can see. And it helps us pass between one customer saying it versus multiple customers saying it. So, as a research team, we may look at that and that's again source of data to help with our insights. But it also helps us find these customers who we might work with in our projects. So this is an example of direct and indirect stakeholders having input into our project. They may give feedback like, say, customer support hears it from one customer. They put it in user voice, and then we'll see it follow-up with it. And then if we implement what they've requested we'll close the loop and they'll get an update from us. So that's really important as well as the closing of the loop. So the customer not only feels heard, but they can see what's happened as part of their participation. The information works in both directions. The sales team will get an update, and we will also hear from the sales team. Okay. So I think one thing I've talked about is this case study of our largest customer. And now I'm going to talk about increasing your surface area for influence, because I think this is one key thing with working with different departments. The broader your your network, the bigger opportunity that you have to and and also connect your work to organizational priorities. So I call this the surface area for impact. So we've got this, and I mentioned before, simply by also thinking about your go to market or other teams, as I mentioned, you're already starting to broaden the potential area for impact. And so this is a framework of how you might approach it. Four ways to increase your influence and surface area for impact. So the first one is openness. So are you receptive to information beyond your immediate team? And are you willing to explore some unexpected connections or areas? This is a really good opportunity to, help with forming of projects. So an example might be that you listen to sales calls recordings you don't necessarily have to join live, but, for example, internally at Zendesk, we use a tool called Gong, and we listen to the calls. And that might be an input for data and insights. And it will give you some insight into things that the customer might challenge, what they're seeking, all of that. Some other things that are also helpful in this case is, for example, in Slack, we have many, many different channels, and we can use those different channels to find some, indicator of, like, market shifts or areas of opportunity that are not brought to us by the product development team. So that's some examples for openness. Proximity, this is who you work with and also the customers you access, and also the teams that are closest to your business problems. So think about things like how can you be closer to the go to market team? One thing you could do is attend, like, weekly go to market syncs where they're talking about their numbers. Challenges, you know, things that customers are requesting. Some signals there. This could be, working with the product So onwards with them. And it could also include things like going with the success team when there's issues with products and shadowing and understanding the friction there. So it's how can you get much closer to various other teams. And exposure is really important. How can you have impact if nobody knows about it? So strong work must have impact, I believe. And so there's simple things that we do or I have the research team do. For example, I ask them when they have their direct stakeholders, to ask those stakeholders, please on share the research with other people that you think might be interested in this the the report. And the reason being is that sometimes simply we don't even know who those indirect stakeholders are. They are the unknown unknown. So by having your stakeholders who are direct helping you, this is expanding your exposure through your research work. Some other ways in which you could also increase your exposure is apart from just attending those go to market meetings, also sharing your real including at those go to market meetings, and also back to the metrics, in ensuring that you're sharing it with the framework of how they're thinking about things. So talking about things like churn, adoption, you know, retention, and bringing that together with your insight. And then the last one is initiative. So thinking about taking action before a formal request arrives. So I'm not sure how you all operate, but one thing we do is also ensure that not only do we take requests for projects, but we ensure we come up with our own ideas. Where are the knowledge gaps? Is the company heading with the strategy? How might we answer some questions in advance which will help with that so that your workers both helping with short term, medium term, but also long term. And that could be things like bringing some research ideas to the product development leadership, It could be also thinking about research programs that work with the, OKRs which are objectives and key results, there are many different ways in which you could take initiative in your area. I think there is an important balance So, you know, I've talked about indirect stakeholders. But I think the key thing is not to also just focus on them and you forget your main core stakeholder set. That's really, really still important. And so we must not neglect them. And I think the key thing is also to communicate effectively within your department, whether it's product design and research partners, but also to not replace your existing relationships and collaborators, but just simply expand your network whilst maintaining trust with your key stakeholders. This is very essential, I would say. And I think I wanted to share some research hygiene and how you might connect your research with business metrics. So and I give you an example. So So, your team or your department may look at things like OKRs and KPIs. So, things like objective and key results. Things like key performance indicators. Maybe the go to market team looks at things like revenue numbers, adoption numbers, new users. And so here is an example. I've kind of made it more general. But this is an example of an OKR, an organization like Zendesk might have. So we want to increase a user base by 2,000, So as a result, what what research can we do to help with increasing adoption and retention? And how can we reduce the barriers to the adoption? How can we make it easier for these customers to buy, use, set up, and keep using our product. And so, again, this is an example of how I I would encourage the team to frame their work and their insights back to this. And so sourcing business metrics, you may ask, where do I find them? Who who do I talk to? Where do I go? Some may be obvious. And some may be not obvious. So I want to encourage or show you some different sources. One of them is executive sources. So your company may have public reports, board meetings. For example, we have quarterly business reviews. These are things that you don't necessarily need to attend the meeting, but you may want to consume and read and keep up to date with these. There could be even things like company wide all hands meetings. What is the CEO or leadership talking about and presenting? What's top of mind for them? You might look at things like analytics. So thinking about how metrics are tracked and calculated So not just the metric, but what's going into measuring that metric you know, what what are the inputs? Looking at product managers' product requirement documents, looking at support data. What are people emailing with customer support? What's trending? Why are they leaving? Where are they having problems? Joining sales and customer success calls or listening to them after the fact. And then, also working with product marketing managers. You know, what are what are their competitor reports? What are they seeing or hearing? Why are customers not buying your product? So I want to also share the AI aspect So I talked about building the relationship, but I think we could also utilize AI to help us with that. And also connect information and work across the boundaries. And I'm going to share with you five examples of how we actually do it inside our company with our team. So the first one is stress test your work. So, I have created a Gemini gem, which acts as the head of product So it's ultra critical, very harsh, and likes just the information and research rigor. So the idea is that the team can upload their reports, and it will challenge any assumptions or approaches And it will push the team to really have elevated and practical insights. The second one is to gather stakeholder context I think one thing is the more stakeholders, especially indirect ones you start to consider, the more time it takes to keep on top of all that information, all the Slack channels, all the emails, all the meetings, it's very, very difficult and I don't think it's realistic. But one of our team members created a MCP using clawed code to grab information from Google Drive, so Slack, and give a digest of what these stakeholders are talking about week to week. So you get the top of mind what they're focusing on and where the challenges are. Another one is to stay up to date with your area of business and beyond. So why not use AI to help you summarize and also for you to challenge or discover other information that might be missed in your projects? Or for your context as you're setting up your research projects. The the fourth is to understand metrics and impact. So you it may be hard for you to translate those metrics that I talked about with your insights. So you could use for example, I think we use Chi Chi PT to help suggest things that we may be missing and drawing some some connections. And fifth is, market forces. So, again, this is a great way to do, you know, market research, what's going on? What's out there? What are your competitors build building? You know, what's trending these days? A simple, chat, GPT conversation can can help versus you scouring the Internet. I find it useful and helpful for finding things like Gartner and Forrest, and looking at those industry reports. So I just wanna say that research is not, you know, reduced to to revenue alone, but it's about connecting user reality and business revenue. And I think this is something that's really, really essential. This is what I mean by bridging the gap. So it means recognizing the user needs, product decisions, customer relationships, and business outcomes But it's also about making those connections visible that I mentioned before. And building and collaborating, those strong networks. So I give you some some actions for next week when you go back to your own offices. Firstly, audit your proximity. Who are you working with? Who are you close to? Which customers and teams and conversations are you having? Outside your direct stakeholder group? Second, is to understand the business metrics and really start being purpose about framing your insights plus metrics. What does the organization measure and how might you align it and connect it? Third is think about sources of data. And consumers of your work. Who can provide useful information and data to you, and who should read or understand or act on your insights as well. So thank you very much for your time today, thirty minutes and on the way to branch. I'm going to summarize this talk and put it on my substack. This is my substack here. I encourage you to subscribe. It's written by myself and a product manager, and we talk about Calabrio Probably not. Do questions not because we don't have time for the question, but I don't think we have time to do justice to an answer. Okay. Fair. So thank you to Analek. Thank you. Thanks for helping me with the setup. Time. Right? So, what we've tried to do is make sure that we have time during these breaks where you can meet some people, have a chat, really sort dive into some of these topics. I think one of the big ones for me is just around, the ethics and the way in which we provide a duty of care using some of these tools. We touched on some of that in the talks and the questions. ## Slides ### 00:00:17 Follow the **question**, not the org chart ### 00:00:35 # Agenda - Product Development vs Go To Market - Can we save a 7 year relationship - What happened after the escalation - How you might replicate it in your organisation - Expanding the opportunity for input & influence - Using AI to help bridge the gap ### 00:00:39 # Agenda - Product Development vs Go To Market - Can we save a 7 year relationship - What happened after the escalation - How you might replicate it in your organisation - Expanding the opportunity for input & influence - Using AI to help bridge the gap ### 00:01:00 # Agenda - Product Development vs Go To Market - Can we save a 7 year relationship - What happened after the escalation - How you might replicate it in your organisation - Expanding the opportunity for input & influence - Using AI to help bridge the gap zendesk [A list of agenda items, each presented in a rounded, light green rectangular box.] [Zendesk logo in the bottom left corner.] ### 00:01:23 # Who are Go To Market (GTM)? The Go To Market (GTM) team are typically in B2B organisations. Their goal is to help with the revenue and retention and they do so by strong relationships. From a research perspective they are a big source of customers to speak to, insights to the industry and what customers are asking for. [Image of two men, Dwight Schrute and Jim Halpert from The Office, laughing] ### 00:01:48 [Blank slide] ### 00:02:55 ## An out of the ordinary request... ### UX Research and Design **with GTM** on a customer escalation ### 00:03:20 ## It begins with an idea and an internal connection ULTIMATE WORKING GROUP - Product Design - UX Research - Accounts Executive - Customer Success - Solutions Consultant - Product Specialist ### 00:03:36 # ULTIMATE WORKING GROUP It begins with an idea and an internal connection [Diagram showing two groups of people: one group with Product Design and UX Research roles, connected by a dotted arrow to a second group with Accounts Executive, Customer Success, Solutions Consultant, and Product Specialist roles.] ### 00:03:57 # It begins with an idea and an internal connection ## ULTIMATE WORKING GROUP [Diagram showing two groups of people connected by a dotted arrow. The first group includes Product Design and UX Research. The second group includes Accounts Executive, Customer Success, Solutions Consultant, and Product Specialist.] ### 00:04:19 # Could a **customer workshop** save a 7 year relationship? ### 00:04:33 ## DESIGN RESEARCH Could a **customer workshop** save a 7 year relationship? ### 00:04:53 # DESIGN RESEARCH ### Engaged to help save the biggest customer The goal was to save the biggest customer in the APAC region by giving them a look into their own set up and under utilisation. We turned it into something that was both beneficial for them and something that we could take back to product development. [Two people, a man and a woman, looking at a smartphone together outdoors] ### 00:05:16 # Engaged to help save the biggest customer **The goal** was to save the biggest customer in the APAC region by giving them a look into their own set up and under utilisation. We turned it into something that was both beneficial for them and something that we could take back to product development. [Image of two people, a man and a woman, looking at a smartphone together outdoors] ### 00:05:35 ### WHAT WE DID FOR THIS CUSTOMER ## Research techniques used differently The goal was to give this customer a taste of our internal expertise and build good will in the relationship. They received and learned about: - Unmoderated research - Mystery shopping - Co design using design thinking techniques ### 00:05:36 ### WHAT WE DID FOR THIS CUSTOMER ## Research techniques used differently The goal was to give this customer a taste of our internal expertise and build good will in the relationship. They received and learned about: - Unmoderated research - Mystery shopping - Co design using design thinking techniques ### 00:05:57 ### WHAT WE DID FOR THIS CUSTOMER ## Research techniques used differently The goal was to give this customer a taste of our internal expertise and build good will in the relationship. They received and learned about: - Unmoderated research - Mystery shopping - Co design using design thinking techniques ### 00:06:19 # Research techniques used differently The goal was to give this customer a taste of our internal expertise and build good will in the relationship. They received and learned about: - Unmoderated research - Mystery shopping - Co design using design thinking techniques ### 00:06:33 ### WHAT WE DID FOR THIS CUSTOMER ## Research techniques used differently The goal was to give this customer a taste of our internal expertise and build good will in the relationship. ### They received and learned about: - Unmoderated research - Mystery shopping - Co design using design thinking techniques ### 00:06:54 ### WHAT WE DID FOR THIS CUSTOMER # Research techniques used differently The goal was to give this customer a taste of our internal expertise and build good will in the relationship. They received and learned about: - Unmoderated research - Mystery shopping - Co design using design thinking techniques We got exposed to: - Their users via shadowing - Hearing direct from a broad user group - Input on our current and future features ### 00:07:16 ## WHAT WE DID FOR THIS CUSTOMER # Research techniques used differently The goal was to give this customer a taste of our internal expertise and build good will in the relationship. ### They received and learned about: - Unmoderated research - Mystery shopping - Co design using design thinking techniques ### We got exposed to: - Their users via shadowing - Hearing direct from a broad user group - Input on our current and future features ### 00:07:35 ## Research techniques used differently The goal was to give this customer a taste of our internal expertise and build good will in the relationship. **WHAT WE DID FOR THIS CUSTOMER** They received and learned about: - Unmoderated research - Mystery shopping - Co design using design thinking techniques We got exposed to: - Their users via shadowing - Hearing direct from a broad user group - Input on our current and future features ### 00:07:37 ### WHAT WE DID FOR THIS CUSTOMER # Research techniques used differently The goal was to give this customer a taste of our internal expertise and build good will in the relationship. They received and learned about: - Unmoderated research - Mystery shopping - Co design using design thinking techniques We got exposed to: - Their users via shadowing - Hearing direct from a broad user group - Input on our current and future features ### 00:07:59 > We leave with outputs, next steps, or action plans... > > Head of CX [Circular headshot of a smiling woman] ### 00:08:22 ## THEIR RESPONSE ### Rate your overall satisfaction with the workshop on a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied) 17 responses > "More of this please" > "It was fun and interactive. I'm glad we have experts to help us out" [Bar chart showing workshop satisfaction ratings from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). Results indicate 0% for ratings 1-3, 29.4% for rating 4, and 70.6% for rating 5.] ### 00:08:48 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## THEIR RESPONSE Rate your overall satisfaction with the workshop on a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied) 17 responses > "More of this please" > > "It was fun and interactive. I'm glad we have experts to help us out" [Bar chart showing workshop satisfaction ratings, with 70.6% of respondents rating 5 (very satisfied) and 29.4% rating 4.] ### 00:09:11 One successful customer engagement turns into a **formalised business process** ### 00:09:32 ### Training GTM to run their own workshops Due to the success of this one off event our team was asked to train ~2000 GTM staff globally to replicate one part of what we did. Result: **Better visibility and helps with future collaboration** [Photograph of a large conference room filled with people seated at round tables, engaged in a workshop] ### 00:09:33 ### Training GTM to run their own workshops Due to the success of this one off event our team was asked to train ~2000 GTM staff globally to replicate one part of what we did. Result: **Better visibility and helps with future collaboration** [Image of a large conference room with many people seated at round tables, engaged in a workshop] ### 00:09:55 # INTERNAL SCALING ## Training GTM to run their own workshops Due to the success of this one off event our team was asked to train ~2000 GTM staff globally to replicate one part of what we did. Result: **Better visibility and helps with future collaboration** [Image of a large conference room filled with people seated at round tables] ### 00:10:15 # DESIGN RESEARCH ### INTERNAL SCALING ## Training GTM to run their own workshops Due to the success of this one off event our team was asked to train ~2000 GTM staff globally to replicate one part of what we did. Result: **Better visibility and helps with future collaboration** [Image of a large conference room filled with people seated at round tables] ### 00:11:05 ## What we covered - Audit existing customer experiences - Personas - Customer journey mapping > "They not only defined the key pillars of our program but also brought them to life with **practical applications** and **meaningful education** for our account teams." [Image of people collaborating around tables with sticky notes] ### 00:11:27 ## What we covered - Audit existing customer experiences - Personas - Customer journey mapping > "They not only defined the key pillars of our program but also brought them to life with **practical applications** and **meaningful education** for our account teams." [Photo of people collaborating at tables with sticky notes during a workshop] ### 00:11:50 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ### What we covered - Audit existing customer experiences - Personas - Customer journey mapping > "They not only defined the key pillars of our program but also brought them to life with **practical applications** and **meaningful education** for our account teams." [Image of people collaborating around tables covered with sticky notes] ### 00:12:11 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## What we covered - Audit existing customer experiences - Personas - Customer journey mapping > "They not only defined the key pillars of our program but also brought them to life with **practical applications** and **meaningful education** for our account teams." [Image of people participating in a workshop, with green sticky notes spread across a table] ### 00:12:32 # Different but related measurements ### UX/UX Research - Adoption - Usage - Ease of use - Usefulness - Time to value - Task success rate ### GTM - New sales - Annual recurring revenue - Expansion - Customer satisfaction - Pipeline velocity - Churn rate ### 00:12:56 ## Different but related measurements ### METRICS OVERVIEW ### UX/UX Research - Adoption - Usage - Ease of use - Usefulness - Time to value - Task success rate ### GTM - New sales - Annual recurring revenue - Expansion - Customer satisfaction - Pipeline velocity - Churn rate [Diagram showing two columns, "UX/UX Research" and "GTM", with bulleted lists. Arrows connect "Adoption" to "New sales", "Usage" to "Annual recurring revenue", and both "Ease of use" and "Usefulness" to "Expansion".] ### 00:13:20 # Different but related measurements ### METRICS OVERVIEW ## UX/UX Research - Adoption - Usage - Ease of use - Usefulness - Time to value - Task success rate ## GTM - New sales - Annual recurring revenue - Expansion - Customer satisfaction - Pipeline velocity - Churn rate [Diagram showing two columns of bulleted lists, "UX/UX Research" and "GTM", with arrows connecting "Adoption" to "New sales", "Usage" to "Annual recurring revenue", and "Ease of use" to "Expansion"] ### 00:13:33 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## INDIRECT STAKEHOLDERS ### GTM and how they might help UX Research - Temperature check and to assess if it is the right research approach - Internal expertise on a problem space - Introducing you to customers - Give you market signals and industry information [Four points, each with an icon: a bell, a lightbulb, two people, and a globe] ### 00:13:55 # GTM and how they might help UX Research ## INDIRECT STAKEHOLDERS - Temperature check and to assess if it is the right research approach - Internal expertise on a problem space - Introducing you to customers - Give you market signals and industry information [Icon of an alarm bell] [Icon of a lightbulb] [Icon of a group of people] [Icon of a globe] ### 00:14:18 # INDIRECT STAKEHOLDERS ## GTM and how they might help UX Research - Temperature check and to assess if it is the right research approach - Internal expertise on a problem space - Introducing you to customers - Give you market signals and industry information [Alarm bell icon] [Lightbulb icon] [Group of people icon] [Globe icon] ### 00:14:34 ## GTM and how they might help UX Research INDIRECT STAKEHOLDERS - Temperature check and to assess if it is the right research approach - Internal expertise on a problem space - Introducing you to customers - Give you market signals and industry information [Icon of an alarm bell next to "Temperature check"] [Icon of a lightbulb next to "Internal expertise"] [Icon of two person silhouettes next to "Introducing you to customers"] [Icon of a globe with arrows next to "Give you market signals"] ### 00:14:39 ## GTM and how they might help UX Research INDIRECT STAKEHOLDERS - Temperature check and to assess if it is the right research approach - Internal expertise on a problem space - Introducing you to customers - Give you market signals and industry information [Icon of an alarm bell next to "Temperature check"] [Icon of a lightbulb next to "Internal expertise"] [Icon of two person silhouettes next to "Introducing you to customers"] [Icon of a globe with arrows next to "Give you market signals"] ### 00:15:01 ### Indirect Stakeholders ## GTM and how they might help UX Research - Temperature check and to assess if it is the right research approach - Internal expertise on a problem space - Introducing you to customers - Give you market signals and industry information [Icon of a bell with a light ray above it] [Icon of a lightbulb with a leaf inside] [Icon of two people] [Icon of a globe with an arrow pointing to it] ### 00:15:23 ## INDIRECT STAKEHOLDERS ### GTM and how they might help UX Research - Temperature check and to assess if it is the right research approach - Internal expertise on a problem space - Introducing you to customers - Give you market signals and industry information [Four white boxes, each containing text and an icon: a bell, a lightbulb, two people, and a globe with arrows.] ### 00:15:48 ## Uservoice - provides both inputs and outputs Direct & indirect stakeholders can be both **sources of data** and **users of insights** [Diagram showing a circular flow with two arrows, one clockwise and one counter-clockwise, enclosing the text about stakeholders as sources of data and users of insights] ### 00:16:09 ### Uservoice - provides both inputs and outputs Direct & indirect stakeholders can be both **sources of data** and **users of insights** [Diagram showing a circular flow with two arrows, illustrating that direct and indirect stakeholders are both sources of data and users of insights] ### 00:16:30 ### Uservoice - provides both inputs and outputs Direct & indirect stakeholders can be both **sources of data** and **users of insights** [Diagram showing two curved arrows forming a cycle, illustrating a feedback loop between stakeholders as sources of data and users of insights] ### 00:16:33 ### Uservoice - provides both inputs and outputs Direct & indirect stakeholders can be both **sources of data** and **users of insights** [Diagram showing two curved arrows forming a cycle, illustrating a feedback loop between stakeholders as sources of data and users of insights] ### 00:16:53 ### Uservoice - provides both inputs and outputs Direct & indirect stakeholders can be both **sources of data** and **users of insights** [Circular diagram with arrows indicating a continuous flow between stakeholders as sources of data and users of insights] ### 00:17:15 Improving your network means improving your **surface area** for impact ### 00:17:33 # Impacting not only your metrics but the **organisational metrics** Gathering and, providing insights for product development decision making **and beyond** - **Convert** - **Sales team** - Share customer feedback and also communicate product development updates - **Gather** - **Data** - Identify insights through various sources of data - **Connect the dots** - **Research** - Compiled with actionable insights - **Elevate** - **Communicate** - Inspire business action through various methods [Circular diagram illustrating a process of gathering and providing insights, with four stages: Convert, Gather, Connect the dots, and Elevate, each with an associated icon and description.] ### 00:17:36 # Impacting not only your metrics but the **organisational metrics** Gathering and, providing insights for product development decision making **and beyond** - **Convert** - **Sales team** - Share customer feedback and also communicate product development updates - **Gather** - **Data** - Identify insights through various sources of data - **Connect the dots** - **Research** - Compiled with actionable insights - **Elevate** - **Communicate** - Inspire business action through various methods [Circular diagram showing a continuous process of gathering insights for product development, with four stages: Convert, Gather, Connect the dots, and Elevate.] ### 00:17:57 ### FRAMEWORK # Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities ## Openness How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? ## Proximity Who or what are you close to? ## Exposure Where are you and your work seen? How much of the organisation are you exposed to? ## Initiative Do you wait for permission or projects? Or for someone to reach out to you? [Icon of a smiling face representing Openness] [Icon of two figures with an arrow between them representing Proximity] [Icon of a sun rising over a landscape representing Exposure] [Icon of a rocket ship representing Initiative] ### 00:18:21 ## Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities ### FRAMEWORK - **Openness** How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? - **Proximity** Who or what are you close to? - **Exposure** Where are you and your work seen? How much of the organisation are you exposed to? - **Initiative** Do you wait for permission or projects? Or for someone to reach out to you? [Icon of a smiley face for Openness] [Icon of a winding path with an arrow for Proximity] [Icon of a sun rising over a landscape for Exposure] [Icon of a rocket ship for Initiative] ### 00:18:35 # UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS ## DESIGN RESEARCH ### FRAMEWORK # Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities - **Openness** How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? - **Proximity** Who or what are you close to? - **Exposure** Where are you and your work seen? How much of the organisation are you exposed to? - **Initiative** Do you wait for permission or projects? Or for someone to reach out to you? [Icon of a smiling face for Openness] [Icon of a winding path for Proximity] [Icon of a sun rising over a landscape for Exposure] [Icon of a rocket ship for Initiative] ### 00:18:56 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## FRAMEWORK: Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities - **Openness**: How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? - **Proximity ### 00:19:24 # Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities ## FRAMEWORK ### Openness - How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? ### Proximity - Who or what are you close to? ### Exposure - Where are you and your work seen? - How much of the organisation are you exposed to? ### Initiative - Do you wait for permission or projects? - Or for someone to reach out to you? [Four icons representing the concepts: a smiley face for Openness, a winding path for Proximity, a sun rising over a landscape for Exposure, and a rocket ship for Initiative.] ### 00:19:32 UX AUSTRALIA | WEB DIRECTIONS # DESIGN RESEARCH ### FRAMEWORK # Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities - **Openness** How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? - **Proximity** Who or what are you close to? - **Exposure** Where are you and your work seen? How much of the organisation are you exposed to? - **Initiative** Do you wait for permission or projects? Or for someone to reach out to you? [Icon of a smiley face for Openness] [Icon of two people with an arrow for Proximity] [Icon of a sun rising over a landscape for Exposure] [Icon of a rocket ship for Initiative] ### 00:19:53 ### FRAMEWORK # Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities - **Openness** How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? - **Proximity** ### 00:20:17 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities ### FRAMEWORK - **Openness** How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? - **Proximity** Who or what are you close to? - **Exposure** Where are you and your work seen? How much of the organisation are you exposed to? - **Initiative** Do you wait for permission or projects? Or for someone to reach out to you? [Icon of a smiley face for Openness] [Icon of two people with an arrow for Proximity] [Icon of a sun rising over a landscape for Exposure] [Icon of a rocket ship for Initiative] ### 00:20:35 ### FRAMEWORK # Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities - **Openness** How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? - **Proximity** Who or what are you close to? - **Exposure** Where are you and your work seen? How much of the organisation are you exposed to? - **Initiative** Do you wait for permission or projects? Or for someone to reach out to you? [Four icons representing the framework pillars: a smiley face for Openness, two people with an arrow for Proximity, a sun rising over a ### 00:20:38 ### FRAMEWORK # Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities - **Openness** How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? - **Proximity** Who or what are you close to? - **Exposure** Where are you and your work seen? How much of the organisation are you exposed to? - **Initiative** Do you wait for permission or projects? Or for someone to reach out to you? [Four icons representing the framework pillars: a smiley face for Openness, two people with an arrow for Proximity, a sun rising over a ### 00:21:02 # Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities ### FRAMEWORK - **Openness** How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? - **Proximity** Who or what are you close to? - **Exposure** Where are you and your work seen? How much of the organisation are you exposed to? - **Initiative** Do you wait for permission or projects? Or for someone to reach out to you? [Four icons: a smiley face, a winding path, a sun rising, and a rocket ship] ### 00:21:24 # Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities FRAMEWORK ### Openness How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? ### Proximity Who or what are you close to? ### Exposure Where are you and your work seen? How much of the organisation are you exposed to? ### Initiative Do you wait for permission or projects? Or for someone to reach out to you? [Four-column diagram with icons: a smiling face for Openness, a person on a path for Proximity, a sun rising for Exposure, and a rocket ship for Initiative.] ### 00:21:36 # Expanding influence & maximizing data-driven opportunities ### FRAMEWORK ### Openness - How quickly are you staying up to date with new information or opportunities? ### Proximity ### 00:22:01 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## BALANCING STAKEHOLDERS It's important not to neglect your **primary stakeholders** ### Elevate - **Communicate** - Inspire business action through various methods [Illustration of a green circle containing a speech bubble icon] ### 00:22:23 UX RESEARCH HYGIENE ## Understand and then connect business metrics to your work Frame your insights alongside whatever is being measured. They could be: - OKRs - KPIs - Revenue numbers - Adoption numbers - New users ### Example Our 2026 OKR targets a user base increase of 2,000. To support this, our research analysed key barriers to app adoption. Implementing the identified improvements will directly contribute to achieving this growth goal. ### 00:22:48 ## UX RESEARCH HYGIENE ### Understand and then connect business metrics to your work Frame your insights alongside whatever is being measured. They could be: - OKRs - KPIs - Revenue numbers - Adoption numbers - New users ### Example Our 2026 OKR targets a user base increase of 2,000. To support this, our research analysed key barriers to app adoption. Implementing the identified improvements will directly contribute to achieving this growth goal. ### 00:23:11 ### UX RESEARCH HYGIENE ## Understand and then connect business metrics to your work Frame your insights alongside whatever is being measured. They could be: - OKRs - KPIs - Revenue numbers - Adoption numbers - New users ### Example Our 2026 OKR targets a user base increase of 2,000. To support this, our research analysed key barriers to app adoption. Implementing the identified improvements will directly contribute to achieving this growth goal. ### 00:23:33 ### Sourcing business metrics and outcomes to tie your insights to - **EXECUTIVE**: Review executive and board decks - **ANALYTICS**: Audit product analytics dashboards - **PRODUCT**: Review Product Managers' documents - **SUPPORT**: Analyse customer support and churn data - **SALES**: Shadow Sales and Customer success calls - **MARKETING**: Consult Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) ### 00:23:34 ## Sourcing business metrics and outcomes to tie your insights to ### METRICS & INPUT - **EXECUTIVE**: Review executive and board decks - **ANALYTICS**: Audit product analytics dashboards - **PRODUCT**: Review Product Managers' documents - **SUPPORT**: Analyse customer support and churn data - **SALES**: Shadow Sales and Customer success calls - **MARKETING**: Consult Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) ### 00:23:57 # Sourcing business metrics and outcomes to tie your insights to ### METRICS & INPUT - **EXECUTIVE**: Review executive and board decks - **ANALYTICS**: Audit product analytics dashboards - **PRODUCT**: Review Product Managers' documents - **SUPPORT**: Analyse customer support and churn data - **SALES**: Shadow Sales and Customer success calls - **MARKETING**: Consult Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) ### 00:24:20 ### METRICS & INPUT ## Sourcing business metrics and outcomes to tie your insights to - **EXECUTIVE** Review executive and board decks - **ANALYTICS** Audit product analytics dashboards - **PRODUCT** Review Product Managers' documents - **SUPPORT** Analyse customer support and churn data - **SALES** Shadow Sales and Customer success calls - **MARKETING** Consult Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) ### 00:24:33 METRICS & INPUT ## Sourcing business metrics and outcomes to tie your insights to - **EXECUTIVE**: Review executive and board decks - **ANALYTICS**: Audit product analytics dashboards - **PRODUCT**: Review Product Managers' documents - **SUPPORT**: Analyse customer support and churn data - **SALES**: Shadow Sales and Customer success calls - **MARKETING**: Consult Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) ### 00:24:56 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Sourcing business metrics and outcomes to tie your insights to ### METRICS & INPUT - **EXECUTIVE**: Review executive and board decks - **ANALYTICS**: Audit product analytics dashboards - **PRODUCT**: Review Product Managers' documents - **SUPPORT**: Analyse customer support and churn data - **SALES**: Shadow Sales and Customer success calls - **MARKETING**: Consult Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) ### 00:25:20 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Use AI to also help you bridge the gap ### 00:25:34 # Use AI to also help you bridge the gap - Stress test your work - Head of Product Gem ### 00:25:41 ### 1. Stress test your work *Head of Product Gem* - Use AI to also help you bridge the gap ### 00:26:03 ### Use AI to also help you bridge the gap 1. Stress test your work - Head of Product Gem 2. Gather stakeholder context - MCP with ClaudeCode to pull updates from Slack ### 00:26:23 ## Use AI to also help you bridge the gap 1. Stress test your work - Head of Product Gem 2. Gather stakeholder context - MCP with ClaudeCode to pull updates from Slack ### 00:26:35 ### Use AI to also help you bridge the gap 1. Stress test your work - Head of Product Gem 2. Gather stakeholder context - MCP with ClaudeCode to pull updates from Slack 3. Stay up to date with your area in the business - summarise and discover internal documentation ### 00:26:55 # Use AI to also help you bridge the gap 1. **Stress test your work** - Head of Product Gem 2. **Gather stakeholder context** - MCP with `ClaudeCode` to pull updates from Slack 3. **Stay up to date with your area in the business** - summarise and discover internal documentation 4. **Understand current metrics and the impact** - discover & suggest what measurements could mean in the context of your work ### 00:27:17 ## Use AI to also help you bridge the gap 1. Stress test your work - Head of Product Gem 2. Gather stakeholder context - MCP with ClaudeCode to pull updates from Slack 3. Stay up to date with your area in the business - summarise and discover internal documentation 4. Understand current metrics and the impact - discover & suggest what measurements could mean in the context of your work 5. Understanding market forces and its impact - market and competitor research through ChatGPT ### 00:27:36 # DESIGN RESEARCH UX Research is no longer only about gathering data for insights. It is about bridging the gap between **user reality** and **business revenue**. [A dotted line with arrows connects "user reality" and "business revenue" on the slide.] ### 00:27:37 # DESIGN RESEARCH UX Research is no longer only about gathering data for insights. It is about bridging the gap between **user reality** and **business revenue**. [A dotted line with arrows connects "user reality" and "business revenue" on the slide.] ### 00:27:58 # DESIGN RESEARCH UX Research is no longer only about gathering data for insights. It is about bridging the gap between **user reality** and **business revenue**. [A dotted arrow visually connects "user reality" and "business revenue"] ### 00:28:24 # Start next week - Audit your proximity - Understand and frame in impact in business metrics - Think of both sources of data and consumers of your work more broadly [Speech bubble icon] [Thumbs up icon] [Heart icon] ### 00:28:48 # DESIGN RESEARCH ## Thank you! http://askwhy.substack.com [https://askwhy.substack.com/](https://askwhy.substack.com/) [QR code linking to https://askwhy.substack.com/]