Welcome to Mise en place, an interview series where we explore the ingredients that make up Rainbow’s main dish–BOP for restaurants.
Today Morgan, Rainbow’s Marketing Manager, continues their chat with Kelsey, Tech Product Manager, about continuous user feedback and how she brings her experience in fintech to Rainbow.
(from the end of Part I)
Kelsey: Continuous user feedback is the weekly habit of customer interviews, as evangelized by Teresa Torres. It helps us connect what we’re learning from our research activities with day-to-day product decisions.
Continuous interviews are also one of the simplest things we can do to test a hypothesis – and it doesn’t require any code.
In the past, I’ve found this tool incredibly helpful for paring back an idea to the smallest thing possible to learn – whether that be narrowing the initial target customer, reducing variations from many to few, or something else.
Morgan: How do you bring those learnings to Rainbow?
Kelsey: We conducted our most recent series of interviews in October 2023. Among other things, we verified the importance of:
- Adding additional coverages like excess liability and workers compensation
- Continuing rapid state eligibility expansion
- Continuing to monitor and adjust pricing
- Finding ways to help new agencies and agencies new to restaurants pursue more restaurant business
Morgan: With the increase in available data, many organizations rely on quantitative data for decision-making. At Rainbow, how do you balance the importance of qualitative insights gained from user interviews with the quantitative data you collect?
K: Qualitative research is incredibly helpful at the beginning stages of product development. Exercises like continuous interviews help us gain insight into users’ goals, needs, and context. We can also leverage tools like user testing to test prototypes prior to moving a design into development.
Quantitative research allows us to test specific elements of a product and to get exact data. After interviews, tools like surveys are effective at verifying what we learned and establishing statistical significance. We can also use quantitative research post-launch to monitor and improve performance of specific products and features.
M: How do you ensure that user feedback is effectively communicated to the entire project team and integrated into the project's workflow?
K: My preference is to conduct discovery as a team since it’s easier to align as a team when we’re speaking to customers together.
That doesn’t mean that everyone needs to be in every interview – but everyone should join periodically, even if some people are simply observing and/or synthesizing the interview.
After that, I like to create individual interview snapshots that include:
- Facts about the user so feedback is contextual
- Memorable quotes that represent the story they told
- A list of opportunities that emerged from their story
The goal is to find the key moments in their stories where commonalities surface. This tells us how we can help this particular user base.
Finally, I like to share a summary of findings via a presentation. This ensures that I’m able to share critical context and reinforce that each of our users is a unique person with their own story.
M: What advice would you give to other product managers who may be hesitant to prioritize continuous user feedback or convince their leadership of its value?
K: Start small. To start, you can leverage your personal network(s) to have initial conversations with people who are like your users. For example, if you work for an insuretech company like Rainbow, talk with friends and family members who work as insurance agents.
We did this at Rainbow in January 2023. Our initial conversations were with non-users (we weren’t live yet!) and focused more generally on unmet needs, pain points and desires of people across a broad spectrum of roles in the insurance industry.
We used the insights we gleaned to inform our early user experience. Since then, we’ve consistently heard our platform is very easy to use!
M: How can they start incorporating these practices effectively in a small or big way?
K: Teresa Torres recommends interviewing at least one customer every week. If this sounds overwhelming, try talking to a customer every month and iterate from there.
M: Thanks so much for your time and insight Kelsey! Our findings from the October user interviews were super helpful to me in my role as Marketing Manager. I really would recommend anyone interested in this approach give it a shot.
And if you ever have any feedback for us at Rainbow, please shoot us an email or chat in via the Rainbow portal. See y’all next time!
