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Continuous research

Keep customer learning close to the people making product decisions. Faster synthesis is useful only when the underlying research is trustworthy.

Who it is for

Stream Teams

The whole Stream Team, because research is something the team does together.

Duration
1 day

Inside the module

What the module covers

This module makes customer research a small, weekly habit inside a Stream Team that owns one customer value stream from idea to satisfied customer.

The cohort learns to frame a tight research question, interview for evidence of past behavior, and turn what it hears into a prioritized customer problem.

By the end, participants have practiced how to

  • Write a research objective with a clear purpose, a specific scope, a measurable target, a time frame, and expected outcomes
  • Explain why small, frequent studies give enough signal for product decisions, and name the habits that guard against confirmation bias
  • Run a generative customer interview that moves from opinion to stories and demonstrated behavior, covering triggers, the four forces, and trade-offs
  • Capture each interview as an interview snapshot that the whole team can compare and reuse
  • Write Jobs to Be Done statements (verb, metric, object, context) and map a customer journey from evidence
  • Build an Opportunity Solution Tree, a map from a desired outcome to customer opportunities, candidate solutions, and the experiments that test them, and prioritize its opportunities by comparing and contrasting them

Module outline

How the time is spent

Each part ends with a short exercise, on your own work where you have it and on a prepared case where you do not. We adapt the examples and emphasis to the people in the room.

  1. Make research cheap enough to run every week

    How to frame a tight question and a lightweight plan so research fits inside normal work and needs no separate approval.

    Put it into practice

    Write a research objective for one real customer question from your own scope and draft the plan: participants, method, time limit, and the decision the findings will inform.

    Topics covered

    • Why small samples work: the urn of mystery
    • Research objectives: purpose, specificity, measurable target, time frame, expected outcomes
    • Target audience defined by Jobs to Be Done
    • Guerrilla and rapid research plans compared with formal studies
    • Recruiting sources and an automated recruitment pipeline

  2. The generative interview

    A five-step interview structure built on the principle that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.

    Put it into practice

    Practice the five-step structure on a prepared persona: participants take turns interviewing the facilitator, one step each, while observers flag opinion and leading questions. In the review the room fills one interview snapshot together from what it heard.

    Topics covered

    • Question types: opinion, recall, story, demonstration, observation
    • Five steps: setup, triggers, emotions, trade-offs, summary with alternatives
    • The four forces: push, pull, habit, and anxiety
    • Evidence-based questions in place of opinion and leading questions
    • Interviewing as a team and writing interview snapshots

  3. Existing evidence and synthesis

    Using the feedback and usage data the organization already holds, and synthesizing it continuously as it arrives.

    Put it into practice

    Working from the team’s own customer feedback, or a prepared bundle if it has none to hand, write three job statements for the main customer, then map one stage of that customer’s journey in five to seven steps, marking each step as evidence or assumption.

    Topics covered

    • Collating user feedback from support, sales, reviews, and social channels
    • Analytics review methods: funnel, cohort, and segmentation analysis
    • Functional, emotional, and social jobs written as job statements
    • Customer journey maps: linear format and service blueprint
    • AI first pass on clustering, reviewed critically by the team

  4. Choose the next problem and set the rhythm

    Turning findings into opportunities, deciding which one to pursue, and keeping research visible to people outside the team.

    Put it into practice

    Build a first Opportunity Solution Tree for one product outcome from the opportunities that surfaced during the day, and pick one to carry into design. The day closes with the team agreeing its weekly research cadence.

    Topics covered

    • Opportunities written as pain points, desires, and unmet needs
    • Opportunity Solution Tree: outcome, opportunities, solutions, experiments
    • Compare and contrast: size, market position, alignment, satisfaction gap
    • RICE, Kano, and Cost of Delay as conversation inputs
    • Research repository and the four levels of communicating research

Practical results

What the cohort leaves with

  • A research objective and lightweight research plan for one customer question, with participants, method, time limit, and the decision it informs
  • An interview guide template built on evidence-based questions and the four forces, practiced once on a prepared case, plus a shared interview snapshot format
  • Three job statements and one stage of the customer journey mapped, with assumptions marked for follow-up
  • A first Opportunity Solution Tree with one opportunity chosen to carry into design
  • An agreed weekly cadence of interviews and feedback or analytics review, with recruiting sources and a home for the research repository

Before the module

Bring one product outcome the team is accountable for and a page of recent customer feedback: support themes, sales notes, a few interview quotes.

The company learning plan

Where this module fits

Part of the Stream Teams courses, taken at the Equip the pilot team stage of the implementation.

See all company courses →

Stream Teams

Explore the supporting documentation