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Research & Discovery

Building relationship with your users

Long Lecture

🇬🇧 English

About

How regular meetings with the largest enterprises helped us deliver user value. How can we build the right thing for our users if they don’t even know what they don’t know and need?

Tasked with accelerating Enterprise customers to cloud, my team learned that cross-deployments are uncharted but important space for both us and our customers. In this talk, I’ll share how we decided to venture on the transition journey together with our customers and created a safe space with them to explore ideas, spar concepts, and accelerate decision making. I’ll also share what worked, what didn’t, and why you should always have plan C for every meeting.

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What you will learn?

Do’s and don’ts of starting a customer-centric feedback program,

Examples of techniques for problematic interviews,

How to plan scaling up the initiative.

Talk by

Photo of Ania Koronowicz, Senior UX Designer at Atlassian

Ania Koronowicz

Senior UX Designer at Atlassian

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From the recording

Talk in brief

A case study in building an ongoing customer programme to complement project-based research. Meeting the same people every month lets a product team observe changing circumstances, see whether fixes survive real life, and validate assumptions without recruiting from zero each time. The model also creates risks: participants may not test a feature in time, the group can lose interest, and topics can drift away from what matters. Success depends on careful recruitment, a clear long-term plan, relevant sessions, participant care, and explicit boundaries around what this convenient group can and cannot represent.

Key takeaways

01
Follow the same customers through change
Repeated contact reveals how needs and product use evolve across a journey rather than freezing evidence in one moment.
Watch from 7:36
02
Plan for missed participation and timing
A standing group improves access but does not guarantee that every customer will test each feature before a decision.
Watch from 13:13
03
Recruit for commitment as well as fit
The right participants need relevant experience, interest in continued contact, and realistic expectations about the programme.
Watch from 18:38
04
Keep recurring topics useful to customers
A long-running programme needs a roadmap while remaining responsive to changing customer priorities and product questions.
Watch from 23:58
05
Use the group for quick assumption checks
Ready access shortens feedback cycles, provided the team does not treat a small familiar panel as universal evidence.
Watch from 30:04

Video chapters

2:12Why project research was not enough
The opening explains why the existing insights team could not provide the longitudinal evidence the product needed.
7:36Monthly contact across a customer journey
Repeated meetings show how people move, adopt changes, and experience the product over time.
13:13The timing risk in feature validation
Not every participant uses a prototype or feature quickly enough to inform the current decision.
18:38Recruiting and retaining the right attendees
Participant fit, commitment, expectations, and relationship maintenance determine whether the programme survives.
23:58Planning topics that stay relevant
The team balances a research roadmap with customer interest and emerging product questions.
30:04Fast validation without false certainty
A ready panel accelerates learning while still requiring additional sources and careful interpretation.
36:23Questions about expanding the programme
The Q&A explores whether and how the model should grow beyond its initial participant group.

Read edited transcript highlights

These concise notes were edited from automatic captions and checked against the talk structure. They are not a verbatim transcript.

Longitudinal contact reveals the changing journey

A one-time interview can explain the customer’s situation today. Meeting the same person each month shows how decisions, constraints, and product use change. The team can observe whether a fix continues to help after the immediate task and understand transitions that would be invisible if every study recruited a new snapshot of participants.

Watch from 7:36

Convenient access does not guarantee timely evidence

A standing group may be willing to help while still missing the window in which a feature decision must be made. Participants have their own schedules and may not encounter the relevant scenario. Teams should plan backup methods, avoid promising that every topic will be tested, and distinguish delayed feedback from evidence that the feature has no value.

Watch from 13:13

Retention begins with honest participant expectations

The most valuable attendees are not only demographically or behaviorally relevant; they understand the repeated commitment and see a reason to continue. Explain cadence, activities, compensation, privacy, and how feedback is used. Maintain the relationship with updates and respect, and make leaving the programme straightforward rather than treating participants as permanent research infrastructure.

Watch from 18:38

A recurring programme needs editorial discipline

Sessions can become repetitive for customers or convenient dumping grounds for every product question. Keep a plan tied to meaningful journeys, vary activities appropriately, and leave space for issues participants introduce. Topics should earn their place through a decision the team needs to make and a conversation the customer can reasonably inform.

Watch from 23:58

A customer panel is one source, not the market

Ready access helps teams check assumptions quickly and maintain regular customer contact. Familiarity can also create bias: participants learn the product and the researchers, while the team may overgeneralize their views. Triangulate with analytics, broader recruitment, support evidence, and targeted studies when the consequence or audience extends beyond the panel.

Watch from 30:04

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