Communicating Research

Communicating research is presenting findings and their implications to the people who will act on them. In a Stream Team that already participates in research end-to-end, much of the communication problem solves itself. The remaining work is making the team's research accessible to people outside the team.

Purpose

To make research findings accessible, useful, and reusable beyond the team that ran the study, while keeping the cost of doing so low enough that it does not become a separate phase of work.

Context

In many organisations, research findings are siloed within the research team and rarely reach the broader product audience. Insights get presented in a one-off readout meeting, then live in a deck no one revisits.

In ZeroBlockers, the Stream Team is already involved in the research end-to-end, so the team itself does not need a separate communication step. The communication problem only shows up when other audiences need to know about the work. Different audiences need different things, so it helps to think about communication as four distinct levels.

Four levels of communication

1. Within the Stream Team

The least communication-heavy level, because everyone is already involved.

• Interviews: every team member hears the customer's challenges first-hand and brings a different perspective to interpretation.
• Identifying opportunities: the whole team contributes to writing up the interview snapshot, which produces a wider mix of opportunities than one person on their own would generate.
• Opportunity prioritisation: the team prioritises together, comparing and contrasting opportunities rather than handing a list off to one person to rank.

2. With the Product Team

The Product Manager is responsible for staying up to date with the Stream Teams they oversee. The Stream Team makes that easy by being transparent.

• Attend interviews: the Product Manager should attend as many customer interviews as possible. First-hand information is far more useful than a summary.
• Transparency by default: Stream Teams publish where they are working and why on the Stream Kanban Board. The PM doesn't need to ask; they can look.
• Rolled-up Kanban Boards: the Product Manager creates a consolidated view of all the Stream Teams' boards so they can see the wider picture in one place.

3. Across Stream Teams

Stream Teams are designed to be autonomous, so direct communication between Stream Teams should be the exception. The Product Team and Enabling Teams handle most of the cross-team flow.

• Product Manager forwards relevant information: when one team finds something likely to matter to another team, the PM is responsible for surfacing it to the right place.
• Enabling Teams reduce duplication: part of the Enabling Team's job is spotting that two Stream Teams are running similar studies or hitting similar findings, and sharing the knowledge across them.
• Transparency as a secondary source: because every Stream Team's work is open to inspection, another Stream Team can treat that work as a secondary research source for their own studies.

4. With Internal Teams

Internal Product Teams operate on a B2B2C model: they serve Stream Teams, who in turn serve end customers. They need to know what end customers need so they can build the right capabilities for the Stream Teams to use.

• Transparency as a secondary source: as with cross-team communication, Internal Product Teams can review Stream Team research to understand the end customer.
• Customer interviews with Stream Teams: Internal Product Teams should run interviews with their direct customers (the Stream Teams) to uncover the jobs and motivations that drive the Stream Teams' choices.

Practices and artifacts

Other Practices

Anti-patterns

• Information Overload: Presenting too much data without clear insights or recommendations.
• Lack of Context: Sharing research findings without sufficient background or explanation, leading to confusion.
• Focusing on methodology over findings: Dwelling on research methods instead of emphasising the key insights and their impact.
• Neglecting storytelling: Failing to connect your findings to a relatable narrative that resonates with the audience.
• No Follow-Up: Failing to define clear next steps or actions following the communication of research findings.
• Silenced Voices: Not allowing sufficient time for questions, discussion, or contributions from stakeholders.
• Trying to communicate to all four levels at once: A single readout that is supposed to serve the team, the PM, other Stream Teams, and Internal Teams ends up serving none of them well. Match the channel and the depth to the audience.