How do you incorporate user research into your outbound product management process?

User research plays a central role in our outbound product management approach. It ensures that our messaging, positioning, and campaigns are rooted in real customer needs. Whether through personas, feedback loops, behavior analytics, or beta programs, we use every insight to craft outbound strategies that resonate, build trust, and drive adoption. This alignment between customer insights and outbound execution is how we deliver meaningful value and stay ahead in the market.

Here are some examples from my own time here at Barracuda.

1. Identifying Customer Pain Points to Shape Messaging
   Our conversations with customers often reveal frustrations around phishing attacks and the complexity of security tools. User research showed us that ease of use is a top priority. That insight drives how we position our products—focusing not just on security but also on how quickly customers can respond to threats with minimal effort. We highlight features like three-click Incident Response because they directly address customer pain points.

2. Developing Personas and Segmenting Messaging
   Through user research, we’ve identified distinct personas: IT admins in SMBs, enterprise security teams, and compliance officers. Each of them interacts with our solution differently, and their motivations vary. IT admins prioritize ease of deployment, while enterprise teams focus on advanced controls and integrations. By understanding these personas, we tailor outbound messaging, making sure it resonates with each group and aligns with their specific goals.

3. Testing and Validating Positioning and Value Propositions
   Before launching new features like Machine Learning models at the gateway, we test our messaging with key customers. User research helps us validate that we’re not just pushing technology but emphasizing outcomes, such as reducing breach probability before emails reach the inbox. This feedback ensures our outbound messaging speaks directly to the security outcomes our customers value most.

4. Incorporating Feedback Loops from Sales and Support Teams
   We stay close to our sales and support teams since they engage with customers daily. Their feedback reveals what resonates in conversations and where we face objections. For instance, when feedback highlighted that customers loved the “one-stop-shop” approach, we doubled down on messaging around unified message logs and simplified onboarding in our outbound efforts. This ongoing feedback loop ensures that we align outbound strategies with what matters most to our users.

5. Monitoring User Behavior and Analytics to Refine Campaigns
   We track how customers interact with features like Incident Response and Phishing Detection to see what drives adoption. If we notice a feature isn’t getting the expected engagement, it prompts us to revisit the messaging. Monitoring analytics allows us to pivot quickly and create targeted campaigns that align with customer behavior.

6. Using Beta Programs and Early Access Feedback to Shape Launches
   With major updates like Unified Navigation, we run beta programs to gather early feedback from key customers. Their input helps us fine-tune the feature and ensure our outbound strategy focuses on what resonated most with these early adopters. For example, when early users highlighted how the new setup saved time, we made time savings a core message for the broader launch.

7. Co-Creating Case Studies and Success Stories with Users
   We collaborate with customers who’ve seen measurable success with our solution to create case studies. For example, a long-term customer shared how Barracuda’s ease of use simplified their archiving and litigation workflows. These stories become powerful tools in our outbound campaigns, showing potential customers the real-world impact of our solutions.

8. Incorporating Continuous Discovery into Our Outbound Strategy
   User research isn’t a one-time activity—it’s ongoing. We constantly interact with customers, learning how their needs evolve. As new security threats emerge, our research ensures that we remain relevant. When convergence and ease of use surfaced as key themes from customer feedback, we adapted our outbound messaging to align with those strategic pillars.

Love this question. User research is critical to incorporate throughout the funnel journey for a PM - from awareness, to consideration, to decision. 

• Awareness: During this phase we want to understand how prospects are learning about your product. For example, do they resonate with the messaging and positioning on your website, do they understand the market you play in, do they understand the problem you are looking to solve? This type of research can be conducted often at trade shows, through surveys, anonymous interviews, new generative AI tools to look at user review, and other marketing driven & community events. In the case of PLG products - data can play a critical role. For example what was the click through journey of your prospect, which pages did they spend the most time on etc. 

• Consideration: During this phase we want to understand what type of buying decisions a prospect is considering in the purchase of your product or new feature. This is often the most difficult to do direct research on as it can be hard to identify when a prospect is in this phase. I find secondary proxies here who are interacting with your prospects in this phase extremely valuable  - for example the sales & sales engineering teams, & channel partners.

• Retention:  Once a prospect has purchased a product, this research helps us understand what will help a customer retain usage and expand footprint. Example forums for this type of user research include small customer advisory boards, private preview feature feedback, UX design sessions, customer success & support manager feedback, user questions & trends on online support communities.