AMA: Rippling Director, Core HR Marketing & Content, Lily Sassoon on Market Research

I’d start by clarifying the business decision the research is meant to influence. “Do market research” is too broad on its own, so the first step is getting specific about why there is a need for the research in the first place. Some examples might include: improving positioning, understanding why deals are stalling, validating a roadmap bet, identifying a new audience, or responding to competitive pressure. From there, I’d gather existing signal, form hypotheses, talk to customers and prospects ...Read More

The best way to present research is to turn it into a decision-oriented story. Don’t just show everything you learned. Lead with 1-3 core takeaways, explain why they matter, and make it clear what the team should do differently as a result. One potential structure is: business question, key finding(s), evidence, implication, recommendation.A few tactical tips: Start with why the research matters, not the methodology.People need to understand why the research is important before they care how you ...Read More

Activation starts before the research is finished. If you want insights to influence the organization, involve the right stakeholders early, connect the work to the decisions they need to make, and turn the findings into assets or recommendations they can actually use. Then, connect those actions back to the metrics the business cares about. The path should be: insight → action → business outcome. The business outcome is a critical piece: people will care much more if they can see how the resear ...Read More

The only way to keep up with a fast-moving product team is to make research more continuous, but that does not mean every launch needs a major research effort. If you are launching an improvement or feature enhancement to an existing product, and you already have strong signal that the product is resonating, you can often rely on the data and customer understanding you already have. I’d build lightweight systems that constantly collect signal, then use judgment to decide when to go deeper, usual ...Read More

When resources are limited, you should focus on the highest-signal inputs that are already available: sales calls, win/loss notes, customer conversations, support tickets, and feedback from frontline teams. AI also changes what’s possible here. You can do a lot more with fewer resources by using AI tools to summarize calls, cluster feedback, compare competitor messaging, and get to an initial synthesis faster. It’s worth learning the tools, creating repeatable prompts or workflows, and using AI ...Read More