Summary
Join us as Zapier's Senior Insights Program Manager, Michelle Bejian Lotia, shares her research repository journey. With insights coming from all directions at Zapier, important research was often lost in the fray, resulting in repeated projects and siloed efforts. By consolidating insights into a repository that all stakeholders could access and contribute to, Michelle is looking to compound Zapier's research efforts and drive insight-led decision-making across the organization. Come along and hear firsthand the challenges and triumphs of rolling out a research repository in a growing, fully remote organization.
Key Insights
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Zapier already had a strong, research-focused, remote-working culture, which eased repository adoption.
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A major problem was poor discoverability of existing insights causing duplicate research efforts.
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Multiple teams (UXR, market research, data insights) had differing formats, requiring flexible repository support.
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Michelle used a "show don’t tell" approach by creating realistic user profiles and demo videos to secure stakeholder buy-in.
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Curating and migrating existing research to the new repository took about a quarter, including deciding to unify qualitative and quantitative insights in one place.
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Global Insight fields and metadata enabled powerful filtering and future-proofing across diverse content types.
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Over a third of Zapier’s company engaged with the repository shortly after launch, indicating strong adoption.
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The repository allowed UX researchers to do more focused literature reviews and build on past insights, speeding up research planning.
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Flexible workflows and templates replaced formal peer-review approval, fitting Zapier’s transparent feedback culture.
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Michelle sees AI as useful for summarizing and filtering insights but not for strategic interpretation or decision-making.
Notable Quotes
"People would think new research needed to be done because existing insights were hard to find."
"Show don’t tell was really critical for getting buy-in from stakeholders."
"We wanted everyone to have a serious wow moment on day one when they logged in."
"Once we put all these insights into the repository, things we already have get so much more value."
"Over a third of the company has signed in since launch, which felt amazing."
"Researchers can do more narrowly focused new questions because they see what we’ve already done."
"We deliberately use project folders as work-in-progress spaces before migrating insights into the main hub."
"Our culture means if someone publishes something questionable, there’s a transparent discussion."
"AI can help cut through the noise, but it can’t replace knowing our company strategy or customer context."
"Closing the loop by asking authors what action is taken from their insight helps researchers feel accountable."
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