Avoiding Common Customer Research Traps (and What Good Research Looks Like)

The Forget The Funnel Podcast

In this episode of the Forget The Funnel Podcast, Georgiana and Claire discuss what happens when SaaS businesses prioritize customer research but screw it up, and how this can lead to perpetuating the vicious cycle of resistance to research in the first place.
They dig into why this happens, from misaligned goals between teams, wasting time with research that isn’t actionable, and why looking to win/loss analysis, big quantitative surveys or even UX research to guide product and marketing decisions can leave teams feeling stuck.
Georgiana and Claire also share an outline of what good customer research looks like - research that gives SaaS leaders the clarity and confidence needed to turn insight into revenue growth.
Discussed:

• What bad research looks like - and what causes it in the first place.
  
• Why not all research methods will get you the answers you need, especially when teams lack a foundational understanding of customers.
  
• Why it can be problematic to rely on internal resources to run homegrown research projects - even if the leads have the word ‘research’ in their job title.
  
• What good research looks like (it should be obvious what to do next after it’s done) and how to make it super actionable for your team.

Key Moments:

[1:58] Claire shares a story of a Product Manager who fell back into bad habits by working on assumptions.
[7:25] Georgiana and Claire talk about botched customer surveys.
[11:33] Georgiana unpacks why not all research is equal, and assigning the wrong kind of research to a project can leave you with more questions than answers.
[13:38] Claire shares an example of a team Forget The Funnel worked where a UX researcher led a customer research project - and how the end result didn’t give the team the insights they needed.
[16:46] Georgiana and Claire discuss how research done well should feel immediately actionable - and this starts with setting a clear goal at the start of the project.
[18:32] Georgiana breaks down the importance of having an internal sponsor and stakeholder in any customer research project who can help champion the work.
[20:10] Both discuss what good research looks like - from setting the right expectations, staying focussed on the best customers, clear segmentation, and asking the right questions.

Follow Georgiana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgianalaudi/
Follow Claire on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairesuellentrop/
Read the uber-practical Forget The Funnel book: https://forgetthefunnel.com/customer-led-growth/book
Check out Forget the Funnel’s website: https://forgetthefunnel.com/
Get the free Forget the Funnel workbook to help you implement Customer-Led Growth: https://forgetthefunnel.com/workbook