Building better products: Introducing continuous user research in a fast-paced scale-up

Navigating Brevo’s transformation: embracing continuous research and shaping informed product decisions.

In an online workshop, ideas fly around and excitement fills the air. Digital post-its fill the screen. But just when momentum peaks, someone asks, “Do we have any user insights on this?” Suddenly, the lively chat falls silent. We’ve all experienced this moment — the delicate balance between ambition and assumption. Having big ideas is commendable, but without user insights, they can be challenging to transform into effective products. When I joined Brevo a year ago to head up user research, I recognized an essential mission: to include our users more in our decision process, helping us build better products. In this article, I’ll offer a glimpse into a significant facet of our ongoing journey: the adoption of continuous research.

Embracing continuous research: a new era for the product team

Brevo is an all-in-one CRM suite, providing marketing tools for businesses of all sizes. With more than 15 tribes in Brevo’s product team and a diverse B2B platform encompassing several verticals, we realized that relying solely on traditional one-off user research would fall short. These tribes, each with its unique focus and comprising engineers, designers, and product managers, needed to cultivate a deep, ongoing understanding of our users, promoting co-creation and continuous iteration. As a product manager explains:

“Having a product still in an early phase with fewer than a 100 engaged users, we had very little feedback. Without a direct line of communication between us and our users it was really hard to understand their needs, how and why they were using our product.”

Before going further, it’s pivotal to acknowledge that while continuous research is invaluable, it’s not the sole compass guiding our journey. Blending it with project-based research not only provides depth but also ensures our decisions are grounded in both ongoing feedback and thorough, targeted efforts, making our product developments responsive and strategic.

Venturing straight into continuous research is tempting. However, big changes often start small. Though everyone welcomed the idea of continuous research, many tribes encountered challenges, particularly due to time constraints. Our initial move was to have each tribe conduct at least two 30-minute interviews monthly. This approach was crafted as an easy first step, particularly for tribes new to user research. Seeing its positive reception across tribes, we jointly chose to make these bi-monthly sessions a key result for the product team. We then tailored the sessions to match each tribe’s level of experience and familiarity with user research.
From the very first sessions, we discovered that a navigation feature we believed was intuitive was actually causing confusion among our users, leading to a pivotal redesign.

We started with the foundational pairing of designers and product managers. Over time, some of our tribes integrated engineers, transitioning to a holistic trio. One of our engineering managers, aptly remarked:

“Being on the engineering side, we can sometimes get too focused on the technical aspects. Continuous interviewing reminds us of our users, ensuring we’re coding solutions, not just features, and it helps us make more informed product and technical decisions.”

As we advanced, several tribes broadened their collaborative scope, involving roles such as Product Marketing Managers, UX writers, Customer Experience Experts, and Customer Success Managers for specific topics.

Little by little, and based on their needs, some tribes began scheduling interactions every week. As a product designer noted:

“Conducting weekly continuous user research contributed to our in-depth understanding of user workflows and needs, helping us identify and prioritize the most impactful short-term and long-term product improvements.”

For a deeper dive into continuous interviewing and its benefits, I recommend reading “Continuous Interviewing: The Key to Successful Product Teams” by Teresa Torres.

Supported by the research team, tribes diversified their approach, embracing methods like unmoderated user testing, user analytics, session replay analysis, rapid prototyping feedback sessions, and surveys. In our work, be it traditional or continuous research, we advocate for the mixed-methods approach. Analogous to navigators referencing multiple landmarks, we collect data from varied feedback channels and methodologies, ensuring our insights are comprehensive and validated from diverse perspectives.

Mixed-methods approach. Illustration by Brevo.

While we began seeing positive results quickly, each tribe found its rhythm, adapting the framework to best suit its unique circumstances. Highlighting the journey of a tribe, which was among the early adopters of continuous research, the Product Designer shared:

“Continuous research offers two pivotal benefits: significant time-saving as users directly book sessions with us, and the ability to instantly identify their top priorities.”

Diving deeper into the impact, at the beginning of the year, this tribe began enhancing features and noticed an unexpected trend: users were increasingly discussing ticketing features. Through continuous research and interviews, the team quickly gained a deeper understanding of their needs and pain points with this new way of using the features. Armed with this clarity, usage data, and insights from the sales and support teams, this tribe chose to prioritize this use case over the one initially planned.

This example emphasizes that research, particularly when continuous, has a profound impact on our product cycle, even if it’s not our only reference point. Further amplifying this sentiment, Tomer Sharon’s “Continuous user research in 11.6 seconds” offers a compelling exploration into rapid user research methods, underscoring the transformative potential of a continuous approach.

Acknowledging this point, we’ve incorporated research into our ICE (Impact, Confidence, and Effort) prioritization framework. This ensures that user insights hold substantial weight when grading initiatives and iterations for our tribes. To make this integration more structured and actionable we introduced specific categories like user evidence (from interviews, user testing, and data analysis) and results from experiments like alpha/beta testing. They collectively constitute over 50% of the confidence meter, emphasizing the importance we place on user insights.

Operationalizing continuous research for success: training, tools, and tactics

Building a continuous research system requires the right mix of mindset and tools. It’s important for teams, even small ones, to start by looking at how they currently work. It’s helpful to understand your team’s familiarity with research, their concerns, goals, and challenges. Adapting your approach to fit your specific situation is crucial.

For us, a flexible training program and coaching were essential. We combined videos, resources, relatable case studies, and quizzes to cover themes such as participant selection criteria, crafting a comprehensive interview protocol, mitigating research biases, and conducting robust data analysis. Additionally, we integrated guidelines and templates directly into our research tools for easy access and use. Our goal wasn’t just to equip the team with resources but to foster an ongoing dialogue.

Despite these resources, some team members felt overwhelmed at times. To ensure we were always aligned, we set up collective refresher sessions. Furthermore, we implemented a regular team survey on user research. Through this, we gauged our progress and identified areas of improvement. For example, feedback highlighted the value of bite-sized training modules and interactive exercises in improving the learning journey.

We don’t expect everyone to become expert researchers. Our aim is to equip them with the tools for continuous research and foster their active participation in research initiatives, allowing them to develop their skills progressively. The expertise of the research team is essential in this journey. We organize weekly sessions available to all team members for questions, protocol review, feedback, and shared experiences. We also offer one-on-one coaching, such as joining team members for their first continuous research interviews or user tests.

With more than 15 tribes to work with, we have to be efficient. Automation is our secret weapon, especially for consent forms and user recruitment efforts for which Brevo’s features have been invaluable. In the realm of B2B, user recruitment can be intricate. Yet, our process, driven by cross-functional teamwork, has proven effective. Using our predefined templates and automated workflows, we can set up user recruitment campaigns in just a few minutes, specifically targeting users based on criteria established with the tribes. This allows us to redirect our focus to high-value research tasks, such as analysis.

To avoid the risk of insights getting lost or overlooked, we centralize them in a research repository, easily accessible to anyone in the company. This facilitates comparisons with past research, providing a richer context over time. A product designer, highlights its impact:

“Having a centralized research repository has streamlined the process of storing, sharing, and accessing insights between teams, fostering greater efficiency and collaboration.”

We’ve also set up automations between our research repository and our product roadmap tool, optimizing the integration of research insights.

Continuous discovery workflow. Illustration by Brevo.

Highlighting the value of our cross-functional approach, a Product Marketing Manager, shares:

“Continuous user research is crucial for Brevo’s sustained success, particularly during new product launches and US market expansion. It shapes our product roadmap and deepens our understanding of customer behavior, refining our marketing strategy for more effective customer targeting, engagement, acquisition, and increased lifetime value.”

Over the years, I’ve seen firsthand the significance of sharing user insights across teams. Whether using a research repository or not, what you’ve discovered could be the missing piece another team has been seeking. Each method of sharing, from dedicated meetings and newsletters to videos, internal communication channels, and visual displays in the office, has its unique advantages. There’s no magic formula. You need to experiment and determine what aligns best with your team’s culture and workflow.

Conclusion

Continuous research is more than just gathering data — it’s about building a culture where we actively learn from our users collaboratively. While continuous research has transformed our day-to-day operations, project-based research is crucial for providing depth and defining our long-term vision. By adopting this comprehensive approach, we can iterate faster, balancing both responsive and strategic needs.
Like any new habit, embarking on this journey might be challenging at first. Yet, over time, it naturally integrates into our product strategy. We are still progressing, always with the understanding that practice makes perfect. So, are you ready to start your own journey in continuous research?

Starting Continuous Research? Here’s Your Checklist:

• Define clear goals: determine what you want to learn from continuous research and its intended impact on your product cycle
• Choose the right methods: determine a starting point, depending on your context, for instance continuous interviewing
• Establish a continuous research culture: promote a mindset where every team member is a user advocate and contributes to insights.
• Ensure the right resources: identify team members with the necessary expertise to guide the group.
• Work on the ops side: equip the team with proper training, guidelines, templates and tools.
• Integrate regular interactions: start with brief, frequent interactions and adjust based on needs.
• Promote cross-functional collaboration: engage various departments to acquire comprehensive insights.
• Centralize insights: give key stakeholders effortless access to research data. In certain contexts, think about establishing a repository.
• Communicate your insights: regularly update the broader team, ensuring they leverage the insights for product decisions.
• Commit to continuous improvement: adjust and perfect your methodology according to feedback and outcomes.

Further reading

• Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres
  A fantastic resource for those looking to embed discovery practices into their daily routines.
• Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
  A demystified approach to research offering actionable steps for integrating user insights into any project, regardless of constraints such as budget.
• Think Like a UX Researcher by David Travis and Philip Hodgson
  A compelling exploration of user research that showcases how to bring it into your organization, motivating your team to take action.

I’d like to thank Quentin Lambert, Andrea Michelussi, Boris Rieunier, Harshit Rastogi, and Dilyana Tsoneva for allowing me to feature their quotes in this story.