Tools of the Trade: A Look at Pendo’s Discovery Tech Stack

This Tools of the Trade installment profiles Steve Cheshire, a PM at Pendo, to show how one team runs continuous discovery with a practical tech stack. The core argument is that there is no single correct toolset; the right stack is whatever fits a team's workflow and context. Steve's team uses in-app guides and scheduling for recruiting, Zoom and a research repository for interviews, Miro and Tetra Insights for synthesis, and Whimsical, Figma and Userlytics for prototyping and testing. The piece matters because it gives concrete, transferable habits for recruiting, synthesis, and experimentation, along with honest notes on gaps like synthesis backlog and scattered notes.

01Key takeaways

• Choose the discovery tech stack that fits your team's workflow rather than copying someone else's setup.
• Use in-app prompts with a pain-point headline to recruit interviewees efficiently.
• Make interview recordings instantly shareable so stakeholders can engage with raw customer context.
• Push existing tools to their limits before adding new ones, since they need no budget or security sign-off.
• Schedule dedicated synthesis time right after interviews, and keep one system of record for raw notes.

02Key sections

Philosophy of the tech stack

The author argues continuous discovery has no single right method or toolset. Roles and tools matter less than assembling the right decision-making group and the right support for it.

Meet the practitioner

Steve Cheshire describes his role at Pendo Feedback, his team's personas, and the risk of assuming users work like the PM does. Weekly rolling research and sales calls keep customer contact frequent.

Recruiting and interviewing

In-app guides with a direct headline drive customers to a Calendly booking flow, and Zoom is chosen for its familiarity and cloud recording. Recordings are shared immediately with the team.

Synthesis and experiments

Notes go into Miro using an interview snapshot template, insights are tagged and clipped in Tetra Insights, and feature requests are logged in Pendo Feedback. Prototypes move from low to high fidelity, with unmoderated tests validating ideas at scale.

Advice for other teams

Steve recommends exhausting existing tools before buying new ones, favoring cheap read-only sharing, and avoiding over-dependence on any single tool. He also suggests turning engaged customers into reference partners.

03From the post

“The beauty of continuous discovery is that there’s no single right way to do it. This is why Teresa often talks about guiding principles and core concepts, but encourages everyone to find what works best for them. For example, while Teresa recommends creating a product trio that includes a”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.