Establishing G-P Contractor Continuous Discovery Program

The implementation of a Continuous Discovery Program for the G-P Contractor product was designed to bridge the gap between product development and the contractor experience. By moving away from sporadic, project-based research and moving toward a biweekly, standardized cadence, the team has created a sustainable ecosystem for capturing the needs and motivations of customers, proxies, and contractors. Through the integration of active interviews, passive data monitoring, and a centralized research repository, this program ensures that high-quality user insights are consistently accessible, searchable, and actionable for the entire organization.

The Hub is a singular source for our program, resources, and ways to get involved.

DELIVERABLES

Interview Snapshots , Research Video Library , Contractor Research Repository , Highlight Reels , Potential Customer Panel

METHODS

Biweekly Interviews , Usability Testing , Surveys (CSAT/CES) , Passive Data Analysis , Synthesis & Transcription

ROLE

Senior UX Researcher and Ops for the Contractor team

Objective

The primary goal of this initiative is to standardize research processes across a broad spectrum of contractor-related topics and features. By establishing a singular source for programs and resources, the team seeks to gain a deeper, comprehensive understanding of the needs and motivations of customers, customer proxies, and contractors.

Execution

The team implements a structured, biweekly research cadence to ensure consistent data flow.

The process follows a specific weekly schedule:

Monday: Define weekly goals and adapt interview scripts.
Tuesday: Brief the team and observers.
Wednesday: Conduct interview sessions and create Interview Snapshots.
Thursday - Friday: Synthesize findings, transcribe audio, cut highlight clips, and summarize results.

In depth description of weekly workflow activities

Slack reminder in stakeholder channels for team members to join call.

Collaboration

Collaboration is centered on transparency and active team participation:

Facilitation: Product Managers and Designers learn to lead interviews.
Open Observation: Any team member can join sessions as a hidden observer to stream interviews in real-time.
Live Note Taking: All observers contribute to the snapshot for the interview adding their perspective.
Cross-Functional Feedback: The program incorporates insights from Product, Design, and Customer Success (CS) teams.
Knowledge Sharing: Research recordings and highlight reels are shared via a User Testing Slack integration to keep the company informed.
Recruitment: A decentralized recruitment model allows anyone to submit potential research participants through a dedicated panel form.

Message in our Slack channel to communicate who is observing and add questions to ask the participants

Feedback from a Principal Product Manager

Sample of Snapshots used in each Continuous Discovery interview.

Impact

The program has successfully created a centralized ecosystem for qualitative and quantitative data:

Comprehensive Repository: A centralized space in NotebookLM allows the entire company to access, search, and filter research artifacts.
Data-Driven Themes: By using a standardized tagging taxonomy managed by Ops, the team can monitor recurring themes and improve data discoverability.
Integrated Insights: The process successfully merges passive data (Tableau, Heap, Support tickets, Gong) with active data (Surveys and Interviews) to close feedback loops.

Feedback from the Head of Emerging Products

Reflection

The transition to a continuous discovery model ensures that research is not a one-time event but a sustainable pipeline. The use of Interview Snapshots and highlight reels serves as a vital historical reference, preventing the loss of institutional knowledge and ensuring that the "voice of the contractor" is consistently represented in product decisions.

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