The User Research Strategist: UXR | Impact | Career Making Continuous Discovery Work | Petra Kubalcik (Omio)
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Petra Kubalcik is an accomplished user research professional with over two decades of international experience. Originating from Australia, she has honed her research skills across Japan, Hong Kong, the UK, Czech Republic, and most recently, Germany. Petra has led research teams at Dyson, Cookpad and currently serves as Head of User Research at Omio. She is a champion of user-centricity, ensuring that user perspectives remain central to strategy, innovation and development. Petra has personally conducted research in over 40 countries, bringing a global perspective to her work. Outside of her professional endeavors, she is dedicated to volunteering, sailing, woodworking and supporting the Wallabies.
In our conversation, we discuss:
* Why continuous discovery is often misunderstood and how separating continuous from discovery can clarify your goals.
* What makes a strong foundation for setting up a continuous discovery program, including the importance of stakeholder goals and UX maturity.
* How to design effective cadences and role-sharing models depending on whether you’re doing discovery or continuous touchpoints.
* The artifacts and outputs that make these programs sustainable and useful, from pathway playbooks to Miro boards.
* Red flags that indicate you shouldn’t implement continuous discovery and what to do instead.
Some takeaways:
* Continuous discovery is not always discovery. Petra emphasizes that many stakeholders use the term continuous discovery when they really mean frequent customer touchpoints. Researchers need to clarify whether the goal is to explore new insights (discovery) or simply maintain regular user input and adjust the program accordingly.
* Start with a crystal-clear ‘why.’ Without a well-defined reason for starting continuous discovery, the effort can quickly become unsustainable or directionless. Petra urges researchers to treat these programs like any other research project: define the objective, understand stakeholder needs, and forecast what success looks like. Your “why” will be your compass when things get difficult.
* Programs must match UX maturity and resources. Continuous discovery isn’t right for every organization. Petra warns against starting these programs in low-maturity teams with limited resources, unclear goals, or minimal stakeholder buy-in. If you’re fighting at every step, you risk burnout and low-impact work.
* Cadence and involvement should flex by context. A one-size-fits-all cadence doesn’t work. For light-touch programs with PMs or designers leading sessions, weekly or biweekly cadences might work. For true discovery efforts, a slower pace is essential to allow for iteration, depth, and evolution in the research plan.
* Build reusable frameworks and artifacts to lighten the load. To scale continuous discovery, Petra recommends investing in repeatable templates such as objective-setting docs, note-taking guides, playbooks, and pre-aligned outputs. For example, a “pathway playbook” outlines flows users will walk through and provides a structured format for collecting and analyzing data. These tools ensure quality while keeping researchers sane.
Where to find Petra:
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The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of the host, the podcast, or any affiliated organizations or sponsors.
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