Core Concept: The Role of User Research in a Continuous Discovery World

Teresa Torres argues that user researchers have a vital place in continuous discovery, even though most product trios don't include one by default because companies rarely have enough researchers. She outlines three patterns for deploying researchers: a centralized team doing longer-horizon project research, researchers embedded in product trios, and researchers serving as subject matter experts across several teams. Across all three, the product trio itself should keep doing the research so that its members hear from customers firsthand. She warns against letting researchers become gatekeepers, since teams that wait weeks for perfect research lose time that could go to fast, good-enough assumption tests. The core point is that project research and discovery research serve different purposes and both are needed.

01Key takeaways

• Most companies can't staff a researcher on every trio, so plan for a mix of centralized, embedded, and advisory research roles.
• Keep the whole product trio involved in customer research so members hear from customers directly and avoid hand-offs.
• Use a centralized research team for big strategic and long-horizon questions that product teams lack time to explore.
• Researchers acting as advisors should coach trio members to run better interviews and tests rather than doing the work for them.
• Don't let researchers become gatekeepers; quick, good-enough assumption tests are often more valuable than weeks of waiting for perfect research.
• Treat project research and discovery research as complementary, using a 'yes, and' mindset rather than pitting them against each other.

02Key sections

Why researchers aren't in default trios

Most companies lack enough user researchers to place one on every trio, so the default trio omits them. Torres stresses that researchers still have a place in continuous discovery.

Centralized project research

A central research team can tackle big strategic questions, track external trends, and study long-term customer behavior that busy product teams can't fit into weekly shipping cycles.

Embedded researchers

Where researchers sit inside trios, they improve interview and assumption-test rigor, but the whole trio must still conduct the research to avoid hand-offs and gain firsthand customer exposure.

Researchers as subject matter experts

When one researcher supports several teams, they should coach on interviews and testing and train team members, rather than doing all the research themselves and creating bottlenecks.

The gatekeeper anti-pattern

Researchers should not control access to customers. Discovery research is about mitigating risk quickly, not seeking perfect truth, and teams should be able to test assumptions in a day or two.

03From the post

“Over the past several weeks, we’ve been exploring what a product trio is, how decision-making works in product trios, and why more roles aren’t included. Today, we are going to tackle how user researchers fit into this puzzle. You can watch the short video or read a”

04Frameworks mentioned

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