AMA: Yelp Product Marketing Leader, Jennifer Kay on Customer Research

Simply put, it's a big commitment of time, effort, and energy to both build and maintain. My advice here is before diving in to build or if your assuming the responsibility for a program that has become outdated, that you get stakeholder and partner alignment on what the goals are, what the key pieces of information that it useful and usable for functional areas, frequency of updates, and get clarity on how teams will utilize. If you've got a big field of competitors your tracking, get agreement ...Read More

I love this question. Customer research is one of the most commonly underfunded areas of a pmm/marketing team yet the one that can yield the biggest insights. A number of companies I've worked for have been willing to invest in pricing research (with expensive external vendors) as guidance on pricing and packaging- but seldom the same investment is made for messaging, GTM, or specialized projects like onboarding, or closed loss interviews. To get into specifics of vendors and products you can us ...Read More

Here's how I've done it, even when there weren't existing customers that perfectly matched the persona criteria: Internal Teams and Stakeholders: I start by collaborating closely with internal teams, such as Sales, Customer Support, Product, other marketers. They often have valuable insights and interactions with potential persona candidates. Market Research: I conduct market research to identify potential candidates who fit the desired persona. This research can involve industry reports, forums ...Read More

Research is top priority for my team so we are responsible for driving it from start to finish. While we certainly get input from sales and help from teams like customer success or service to source candidates but I strongly push for as much ownership and tactical execution being done by my team. This starts with creating the detailed research scope, a clear outline of approach and methodology, as well as the question or conversation guide. We also conduct all the research and provide a wrap up ...Read More

Qualitative research and UX (User Experience) research have overlapping elements, but they serve different purposes and focus on different aspects, even in the context of product marketing. Here's how I think they differ and how they intersect: Qualitative Research: Purpose: Qualitative research in product marketing primarily aims to understand the needs, motivations, pain points, and behaviors of customers and prospects. It's about diving deep into the "why" behind customer actions and opinions ...Read More