How to involve stakeholders in user research

User research isn’t just for trained researchers – it’s a vital part of the entire product development process. When stakeholders across various roles are actively involved, feel heard, and buy into research, everyone benefits. The outcomes become more relevant, actionable, and impactful. 

Importantly, user research rarely starts from scratch. As I like to say, “Someone, somewhere, knows something.” Engaging other teams not only strengthens the research process but also leverages existing knowledge to inform your research plans. 

This article outlines many practical ways to engage your customer support, product management, design, marketing, and sales teams before, during, and after user research studies. I also include specific examples of how I’ve interacted with these teams in the past to provide extra context. 

Involvement in user research also helps your colleagues upskill and cultivates more research advocates within your organization. When I was at Slack, I specifically remember we referred to our cross-functional UXR advocates as “friendly canaries.” I love that term! 

Cross-functional research roles: A quick overview

Customer support

Customer support and customer success teams have direct contact with users daily. They have a wealth of institutional knowledge and evidence on customers' common pain points and frequently asked questions. They typically log and track each inquiry and monitor enhancement requests and website and app FAQs.

I had the opportunity to connect with the head of customer success at an AI company where I was working. It was super informative to find out how their team was organized, what data they collect, who they collect it from, and what’s on their roadmap to gather better data, track it more effectively, and improve efficiency. 

I also met with the larger support team to ask if they had any information directly related to my next study topic. I was interested in any feedback, assumptions, or suggestions they had. 

After meeting with them, I offered to provide feedback on their customer questions and lead a session on the importance of mitigating bias. 

Here are some other ways you can work with and involve customer support and success teams in user research.

Before research

• Input on pain points: Customer support can flag recurring issues and complaints to help identify key research topics. 

• Input on assumptions: Customer support teams can provide insights into user expectations and common challenges.

• Feedback loop creation: You can establish systems for customer support to regularly share recurring themes and customer feedback.

During research

• Observation and note-taking: Encourage customer support representatives to observe sessions and take notes to gain firsthand knowledge.

• Participant recruitment support: Customer support can help in identifying research participants who match specific study criteria (e.g. by service tier, geography, tenure, etc.).

• Data triangulation: Customer support can provide additional context to support, substantiate, and validate research findings.

After research

• Results dissemination: Share findings with customer support to close the feedback loop and improve their understanding of customer needs.

• Actionable insights: Collaborate with customer support to use research findings and insights to refine support tools and processes for faster, user-centered solutions.

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Product managers

Product managers are responsible for defining the product vision and product roadmap, making them crucial partners in research.

I conducted a study on AI feedback mechanisms to understand how users discovered, perceived, and preferred providing inputs for revising draft content. I collaborated with the product manager and developers to ensure the study aligned with their roadmap, and delivered results to inform development.

We also collaborated on the study’s methodology to confirm that the sandbox environment being used during testing was properly protected, yet accessible to participants who weren't existing customers. 

We also ran a pilot session together, mimicking the participant’s external environment, and completed the tasks to make sure we allowed for enough time. The product manager’s understanding of the security requirements and access restrictions was critical to meeting the goals of the study. 

These are just a few real-world examples of how to work collaboratively with product managers. Below are some other ways you can involve product managers throughout the research process.

Before research

• Prioritizing research areas: Product managers can guide the focus of research to align with strategic questions and the product roadmap.

• Input on assumptions: You can collaborate with product managers to gather and test assumptions about user needs and assumptions.

• Input on what’s next: Working together to understand the long-term product roadmap ensures that research delivers “just in time” learnings for upcoming decisions.

• Contextual input: Discussing business goals, technical constraints, and participant activities with product managers can help you align your research with product requirements and decisions to be made.

During research

• Active participation and note-taking: Encourage product managers to observe sessions and take notes to deepen their understanding of customer and prospect needs and challenges.

• Technical feasibility insights: Product managers can provide real-time feedback on whether participant suggestions are feasible, helping prioritize ideas and refine priorities.

After research

• Incorporating insights: You can work with product managers to integrate research findings into the product roadmap and prioritize features.

• Advocating for user needs: Share key takeaways with product managers in a format that makes it easy to incorporate user needs into product planning and decision making. 

Designers

Designers translate applied research into compelling user experiences, making their involvement in research essential.

As a former designer, I enjoy working closely with design teams. During a recent engagement, I participated in weekly design meetings. Knowing what the design team were working on, and the questions and challenges that came up, helped me prioritize my research. It also allowed me to gather feedback to help the designers make informed decisions when recruiting and conducting their own studies. 

Here are some other ways to involve designers in research.

Before research

• Identify knowledge gaps: Work with designers to outline questions and assumptions that need customer and prospect input for better decision-making.

• Prototype testing: Collaborate on prototypes and participant activities to make sure the research focuses on actionable design improvements.

During research

• Real-time iteration: Invite designers to observe sessions to identify short and long-term design adjustments based on user feedback.

• Participation and note-taking: Ask designers to join sessions and take notes to hone their understanding of user interactions, edge cases, and other challenges.

• Co-creation opportunities: Facilitate activities where participants collaborate with designers to refine solutions.

After research

• Turning insights into action: Applying research findings to design solutions by adding visual notes and providing context in design files to make them clearer.

• Collaboration: Communicate research-driven design suggestions to other stakeholders for alignment and implementation.

Marketing

Marketing teams, including brand strategists and content teams, play a pivotal role in shaping customer perception. Their engagement in user research ensures that messaging aligns with user expectations.

I tend to work more frequently with content designers than generalist marketers or brand strategists nowadays. That said, many insights teams are consolidating their product and marketing teams under one umbrella, so I anticipate and look forward to working more closely with other marketing talent in the future. 

During a research project looking into onboarding, I worked with one of the team's writers to brainstorm how to set up the study. She shared assumptions, questions, and concerns. Her input on the language nuances, brand voice, and lessons learned from previous similar experiences was essential in how to frame my research questions and when to surface them in the discussion guide.  

Here are some other ways to collaborate with marketing teams in your research studies.

Before research

• Market and brand insights: Work with marketing teams to share market trends, audience data, and assumptions.

• Content questions: Ask marketing to define how customers and prospects perceive messaging and brand voice.

• Tone considerations: Work with marketing on tone and voice representation to ensure alignment with brand goals.

During research

• Campaign and content testing: Ask marketing to share how participants respond to marketing materials.

• Real-time iteration: Work with marketing teams on how to adjust content or messaging based on participant feedback.

• Participant language analysis: Analyze how participants describe the product and brand.

• Data triangulation: Marketing can provide additional context to support, substantiate, and validate other research findings.

After research

• Adapting strategies: Marketing teams can leverage learnings from research to refine content and brand strategies.

• Content updates: Content teams can adjust product content for clarity and effectiveness based on findings.

• Cross-functional collaboration: Encourage the promotion and sharing of insights across teams.

Sales

Sales teams provide direct insight into customer needs and decision-making processes.

Here are six ways to leverage notes from sales prospect calls: 

1. Identify common objections or concerns raised by potential customers.

2. Look for patterns in sales call outcomes (e.g. successful conversions and lost opportunities) to identify factors influencing sales performance.

3. Identify product features and benefits that resonate most with prospects.

4. Review feedback from sales reps regarding reactions to pricing, packaging, promotional offers, etc.

5. Use sales call notes to identify opportunities for cross-selling or upselling based on customer needs or preferences.

6. Share customer success stories or testimonials gathered during sales calls to inspire and motivate your teams.

Here are some other ways to involve sales in research.

Before research

• Identify pain points: Ask sales reps to share common objections and hesitations from users and use this to inform the focus of your research.

• Buyer persona input: Work with the sales team to refine participant criteria based on their knowledge of key personas.

During research

• Voice of the customer (VOC): Invite sales reps to observe research sessions to gain a better understanding of participant challenges.

• Real-time validation: Ask sales teams to provide feedback on whether features align with customer expectations.

After research

• Address objections: The sales team can use research findings to enhance their sales strategies.

• Customer education: Collaborate on materials that address user confusion and highlight compelling product benefits.

Maximizing stakeholder collaboration in user research

Collaborating with stakeholders across departments amplifies the impact of your user research by tapping into their unique expertise. 

Remember, user research generally doesn’t start from scratch – “someone, somewhere, knows something.” Leveraging existing knowledge from various teams makes research more informed and efficient. 

Tasks like observing research sessions and taking notes provides stakeholders with valuable insights and best practices that foster user-focused thinking throughout the organization. Tailoring their involvement also ensures that research becomes more comprehensive and integrated into the product cycle. This approach leads to more effective user experiences and user-centered products. 

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This article was authored by Michele Ronsen, Founder and CEO of Curiosity Tank. Michele is a user research executive, coach and educator. She teaches design and user research to people around the world. Her corporate trainings and workshops are inspired by working with Fortune 500s and start-ups for more than twenty years. Fuel Your Curiosity is her award winning, free, user-research newsletter. In 2020, LinkedIn honored Michele with a TopVoices award in the Technology category. She is the first and only researcher to receive this award.