Key Insights

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  Starting a research practice with operations first dramatically increases research throughput and consistency.

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  Okta went from one study per quarter to about one study per team per quarter, roughly a 10x increase.

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  Cross-functional collaboration, such as the Customer Intelligence Alliance, integrates qualitative research with data science and product marketing for richer insights.

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  Many organizations already conduct some research but lack shared knowledge, standardized methods, and centralized learnings.

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  Recruiting participants, especially for enterprise and free-tier customers, remains a main logistical challenge in customer research.

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  Continuous education through monthly deep dives and templates empowers ICs in marketing, design, and product to confidently do their own research.

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  Providing hands-on support and review checkpoints for new researchers improves research quality and prevents common errors like misusing qualitative data for quantitative claims.

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  Democratizing research means enabling teams to do their own studies while the central team handles complex, cross-cutting questions.

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  Having a shared, consistent documentation and insight nugget process helps maintain quality and makes insights reusable across teams.

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  Building research ops infrastructure early avoids chaos and wasted effort; it's like laying rail tracks before the train arrives.

Notable Quotes