Dialing for Research: How to Reach the Unreachable
Summary
Research is about meeting users where they are. But what if we're building products for customers who don’t spend their lives on Zoom and Google calendar? How do you reach users who are hard to reach in the post-pandemic world? Join Prayag Narula, CEO & CO-Founder of Marvin, and Abhinav Krishna, Design Manager at Razorpay, the $7.5 Billion fintech behemoth, as they discuss how Razorpay is operationalizing user research at scale in the Indian SMB sector and applying it to their product design process.
Key Insights
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Razorpay’s design team integrates research ownership into designers and product managers to enable autonomy and faster decisions.
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They hire design candidates based on first principles problem-solving abilities rather than classical design vocabulary or processes.
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The Indian SME market often operates offline with limited digital readiness, making phone calls a more effective user research channel than Zoom or email.
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Razorpay evolved from rigid, uniform research processes to flexible checklists and guidelines that prompt designers to consider risks and perspectives.
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A core cultural value at Razorpay is user obsession enabled by empowering teams to directly speak to users and own insights.
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Support or NPS feedback triggers prompt direct phone outreach to users, shifting from immediate problem-solving to broader research conversations.
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The company encourages humility and self-awareness about unknowns to surface open-ended questions and holistic product understanding.
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Research calls vary in length from a few minutes to over an hour depending on context and user availability.
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While effective in smaller or early-stage products, direct calling methods face scalability challenges for larger product lines.
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Embedding research philosophies into documentation and communication processes serves as constant reminders for designers to maintain rigor.
Notable Quotes
"If you are building a product for someone, there's always context loss when problem identification and solutioning are done by different teams."
"We prefer candidates who might not have traditional design vocabulary but can think about problems from first principles."
"The Indian business ecosystem is very diverse and many are not tech or internet ready, so phone calls end up being the best way to engage users."
"Initially we asked designers if they followed the process, but now we give them checklists as perspectives to consider rather than strict rules."
"The checklist starts with: have you checked if this is an actual problem, and how are users currently solving it?"
"Most users want a quick resolution, so many calls start as problem-solving and then transition to open-ended research conversations."
"Founders are hard to recruit for research, so showing genuine interest by solving their problems helps turn them into advocates."
"Scalability is a concern; this direct calling approach works best in early-stage products with smaller user bases."
"The focus is on helping teams take better decisions, not handholding them through every step."
"Embedding our design philosophies into our communication docs acts as a constant reminder to designers."
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