Strategic research is the fuel for data-driven decision-making at all levels throughout a company. Especially amidst uncertain times, this type of research can help leaders unlock new opportunities and de-risk long-term goals. In this talk, we will cover my journey from being an embedded User Researcher to leading a centralized Strategic Research team that uncovers new product opportunities, changes how leaders think about our listeners, and influences how our engineering systems work. I’ll discuss the 3 superpowers that have enabled my team to help leadership make data-driven decisions to fuel long term strategies: 1) Deeply understanding leadership’s biggest and riskiest questions to be able to identify the right problems to tackle 2) Mixing research methods and insights disciplines to yield comprehensive answers to these big questions. 3) Identifying both the product and business implications of your insights to create a wider impact across the organizations. And demonstrate how this work can create a virtuous cycle in which the more of this work you do, the more your leaders will crave it.

1. Project Title 00.00.2015 Proprietary & ConfidentialSpotify Project Title 00.00.2015
1
Spotify
The Strategy Behind Building a
Strategic Research Team @ Spotify
Colette Kolenda
Research Lead, Spotify

2. Please Note: all data shown in this presentation is
simulated and does not show true business metrics.
For all user data shown in this presentation, we asked
for their permission ahead of time.

4. Who do your leadership teams turn to
first when they face uncertainty?

5. I’d argue it should be
you — the strategic researcher.

6. I’d argue it should be
you — the strategic researcher.
Define new strategy,
OKRs or goals by finding
and sizing opportunities.
Validate or invalidate
existing strategy with
rigorous, comprehensive
research.

7. Colette Kolenda

8. User Researcher
Embedded in a
Product team
Lead
Strategic
Research

9. Mixed Methods
Research
Generate comprehensive answers
through multidisciplinary research
(UR, DS and BeSci).
3 Superpowers of My
Strategic Research Team
Understand Lead’s
Questions
Enable data-driven decision and
generate or validate / invalidate
their future goals and strategies.
Product &
Business Impact
Bridge the gap between product
and business by uncovering
opportunities on both sides.

10. 3 superpowers create a
Flywheel effect.

11. Product & Business
Impact
Understand Lead’s
Questions
Mixed Methods
Research

12. Understand Lead’s
Questions
The more you know about their open
questions, the more you can identify
research projects to tackle these
unknowns.
- What keeps your leadership team
up at night?
- What are their goals and
strategies for the next 1-5 years?

13. Ads+Messaging
Research
CASE STUDY

14. Other ways to understand lead’s
open questions:
- Read strategy decks and critically think about what the
company is trying to do and how
- Assess what is data-driven and what is a hypothesis or
assumption
- Have discussions with your manager or leadership directly
- Identify surprising trends in product or business key metrics
- If leads don’t know their specific questions, probe and think
through it together!

15. Soak up all of the strategy and
apply critical thinking to
identify the right projects to tackle.

16. If you de-risk their biggest
open questions about the future, they’ll
keep asking you their scariest questions.

17. Product & Business
Impact
Understand Lead’s
Questions
Mixed Methods
Research

18. Mixed Methods
Research
My team includes UR, DS, BeSci, and
Data Viz. Mixed methods research →
comprehensive answers.
- How can you partner with other
insights disciplines?
- How can you leverage multiple
UR skills?
- How can you hire vendors to gain
access to additional skills?

19. Ads+Messaging
Research
CASE STUDY

20. By combining multiple methods, we
harness the strengths of each to
develop a high-confidence and
holistic answers to the scary questions.

21. And these holistic answers
enable data-driven decision-making
as a one-stop shop.

22. Product & Business
Impact
Understand Lead’s
Questions
Mixed Methods
Research

23. Product & Business
Impact
Users are at the center of all that we
do - it’s not just their product
experience, it is also how we
generate revenue.
- How does your company
generate revenue?
- How does your team connect to
those business implications?

24. User → Product → Business
Typical User Research
only thinks about
product implications

25. User → Product → Business
But understanding the
business implications gives you
access to a bigger audience!

26. Ads+Messaging
Research
CASE STUDY

27. Generate findings that
bridge product and business
implications.

28. Speak to the needs of a whole other
part of the company for
wider company level impact.

29. Product & Business
Impact
Understand Lead’s
Questions
Mixed Methods
Research

30. Mixed Methods
Research
Generate comprehensive answers
through multidisciplinary research
(UR, DS and BeSci).
3 Superpowers of
Strategic Research
Understand Lead’s
Questions
Enable data-driven decision and
generate or validate / invalidate
their future goals and strategies.
Product &
Business Impact
Bridge the gap between product
and business by uncovering
opportunities on both sides.

31. Product & Business
Impact
Understand Lead’s
Questions
Mixed Methods
Research

32. Identify the scary questions
by understanding lead’s biggest
open questions.

33. Generate comprehensive answers
through mixed methods and
multidisciplinary research.

34. Create wider company level impact
through finding both product and
business implications.

35. This could be the start to your
virtuous cycle of strategic research!

36. And the clarity and data-driven direction
your leadership needs to carve an
innovative path in uncertain times.

37. 37
Colette Kolenda
Research Lead @ Spotify
colettek.com