Discovery & roadmap
ARInsights
How customer research changed the platform roadmap
A build-or-buy question became a question about who the platform was for, and research shifted the roadmap from a social-network concept toward efficient content creation, customization, and curation.
Service: Product Strategy & Go-to-Market
150
Users surveyed to ground the roadmap
20–25%
Projected content-setup time reduction
The problem
ARInsights needed a better content and insights platform, and the immediate question was whether to build a new CMS or buy one. Working that question opened a larger one: who the platform was really for. Customers wanted more of the capability they already used, closely matched to their own corporate websites. Analysts wanted a LinkedIn-style network where they could share and promote their research. Both were competing for the same investment.
Test the assumptions
Customer research
- Interviews and a 150-user survey
- Prototypes and vendor pilots
Change the roadmap
Efficient content workflows
- Drop the community concept
- Create, customize, and curate
Research changed the investment priorities.
What I did
I led the work against deliverables agreed up front, before production development began. I evaluated headless CMS platforms, community platforms, and embedded analytics through working prototypes and vendor pilots, interviewed users, and ran a 150-user survey. Each category was a different bet on who the product was for, and the broader research changed two decisions.
Drop the community concept
Clients showed no desire to participate in the proposed network, even though they were expected to provide much of its funding and content. We dropped the social-network and community concepts from the roadmap.
Prioritize efficient content workflows
The broader research challenged the early emphasis on matching corporate websites. Most customers did not have the time or inclination for that level of customization. The roadmap shifted toward making content creation, customization, and curation more efficient, including both new material and customization of existing research and resources.
I built the roadmap around API extensibility and data re-use, then handed it off for the team to execute internally.
The outcome
Research removed an unsupported community concept from the investment plan and established content workflows as a priority over extensive website customization. The team carried the roadmap into its own build.
The 20–25% reduction in content-setup time was projected, not a measured result of the engagement.
“Don took what started as a fuzzy scope and turned it into decisions we could actually stand behind — a roadmap we could execute.”