317 - Investigative Reporting is Product Management

October 2, 2023·36 min·2 clips

Ari Zelmanow says debating whether non-researchers should conduct research is 'like rearranging the furniture on the Titanic'—the real question is whether the researcher's job is to collect evidence or to interrogate it.

Investigative reporting becomes the working metaphor. Ari Zelmanow ties his detective background to his work leading UX research for Twilio's communications business, where customer insight is evidence, not a hunch. The host lingers on the point. If someone gets shot outside, Ari asks whether you would only talk to police witnesses or to everyone who saw something. That example carries the episode. Research does not have to sit only with researchers when useful signals show up across the organization. Still, evidence needs rules. A signal becomes a fact only after teams check it, compare it against other signals, weigh it, and fit it into a case that holds up. The newsroom approach gives that work a practical shape: gather widely, verify carefully, tell the story, then negotiate what happens next. The host brings the discussion back to business value, pressing on growth, value creation, adaptability, risk mitigation, and speed. Ari agrees and tightens the point. Metrics, submetrics, churn, acquisition, and empathy all need to connect to outcomes leaders already care about. Empathy is not tossed aside. It becomes part of how teams create value instead of something floating outside product decisions. Product, research, marketing, and other teams can use the same evidence habits to understand decisions and customer value. Roddy closes by naming why the approach travels well: it helps teams turn scattered signals into better decisions.

As heard by us

A useful case for treating product research like evidence gathering and translating it into business value.

Roddy Knowles brings Ari Zelmanow, head of UX research for Twilio's communications business, into a product conversation about evidence, influence, and value.

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Why you'd press play

A detective's lens on UX research and the business value it can move.

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