Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
How Zapier Uses ‘All Hands Research’ to Increase Exposure to Users
Summary
If you want to improve your product’s user experience, you need to show your team what it’s like for real people to use your product. It’s a simple concept, but many companies struggle to do this consistently. Zapier recently launched an initiative that simplifies this exposure to users. ‘All Hands Research ride-alongs’ are open UX research sessions where anyone at Zapier can observe users interacting with the product and hear their feedback. Zapier has seen PMs, designers, marketers, executives and more join these sessions and apply learnings to their everyday work. More importantly, they keep coming back for more!
Key Insights
-
•
Zapier’s All Hands Support encourages all employees to spend time on customer support to maintain user awareness.
-
•
As Zapier grew, increasingly technical support tickets reduced participation from non-technical roles.
-
•
All Hands Research ride alongs provide a richer user exposure experience than watching recordings by enabling real-time interaction.
-
•
A lightweight, 45-minute UXR 101 training helps non-research employees overcome intimidation and join sessions comfortably.
-
•
Automating the session discovery and joining process via Slack and Zapier drastically reduces friction for employees.
-
•
Lookback tool provides separate participant and observer views, reducing anxiety for observers and distractions for users.
-
•
Simplifying communication and reducing information overload is critical to encourage participation.
-
•
Not all employees want to join research; respecting preferences is important for cultural acceptance.
-
•
Ride alongs foster cross-department connections and improve shared understanding of user problems.
-
•
Tracking participation and learnings weekly helps measure engagement, but measuring impact on decisions remains a long-term goal.
Notable Quotes
"The value of real exposure holds true in UX, it’s replaceable and helps you understand real user problems."
"User research can sound intimidating, so our first step was to make it simpler and more approachable."
"We wanted a great participant experience no matter how many observers are on the call."
"Some people said I don’t think I’m qualified enough to observe research sessions despite training."
"The ride along is a richer experience than watching session recordings because you can interact in real time."
"Despite automation, many people still skim information or are busy and need simpler, focused communication."
"No matter how much we simplify, research isn’t for everyone and that’s perfectly fine."
"One of the best parts is seeing people from Ops, recruiting, marketing and product interacting together in Slack."
"The CEO advocating for user exposure gave us a now-or-never moment to start this initiative."
"We automate the entire flow so once people react in Slack, they’re invited automatically to sessions."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Caring for people emotionally during insight sessions directly impacts their productivity and willingness to engage."
Jerome “Axle” BrownHow to Use Self-Directed Learning to Ensure Your Research Insights are Heard and Acted Upon
March 11, 2021
"People plus practices plus places equals artifacts."
Phil GilbertA Consistent Culture of Design
May 14, 2015
"Research is democratized: if you’re not democratizing, you probably don’t even realize everyone in your company is talking to users in different ways."
Kate Towsey Basel Fakhoury Oren Friedman Graham GardnerParticipant Recruitment and Management Tools
March 12, 2026
"We showed that a skip is not a skip — it varies based on listener goals and trust in the playlist."
Sohit KarolDesigning Delightful Listening Experiences: Mixed Methods Research in the Age of Machine Learning
March 31, 2020
"Developers were hungry for the bigger picture, but the only information available to them was a set of user stories."
Christopher Taylor Edwards Valerie RoskeDesign as a Team Practice, A Practical Guide to Cross-functional Collaboration
September 30, 2021
"There is no silver bullet in system-level challenges; multiple interventions across different domains are needed."
Sheryl CababaExpanding Your Design Lens with Systems Thinking
February 23, 2023
"Use your powers of empathy to see things from your functional partners’ point of view."
Francesca Barrientos, PhDYou Need Your Own Definition of Design Maturity
June 8, 2022
"Onboarding isn’t a one-time activity, it’s an ongoing event that helps people connect and find their place."
Allison SandersOperating with Purpose
January 8, 2024
"People were encouraging each other to score themselves higher and see their own potential."
Saara Kamppari-Miller"Prototype" vs "Prototype"--Breaking Down and Rebuilding Our Understanding of What We Do
October 24, 2019