#148 - Connecting Research to Revenue with Claudia Natasia of Riley AI
May 14, 2024
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Claudia Natasia, CEO of Riley AI, discusses linking research to revenue, strategic frameworks for growth, leveraging competitive analysis, creating meaningful insights, tracking research impact, and elevating projects. She emphasizes triangulating data types, balancing primary research with existing information, and making impact with decision makers and executives.
Triangulating data leads to unique insights for strategic decision-making.
Aligning research with core business objectives enhances team value and success.
Different stages of company growth require tailored research focus for maximum impact.
Deep dives
Focus on Triangulating Data and Finding Insights
Triangulating data by combining diverse data sources and delving deeper into insights can differentiate your findings from competitors who rely on singular data sources. This approach involves distilling meaningful signals to uncover unique insights that can drive strategic decision-making.
Integration of Research with Business Objectives
Grounding research activities in the understanding of core business objectives enhances the value of research teams within the organization. By aligning research goals with high-level business objectives, researchers can proactively contribute to the success of the business and shape planning and project strategies.
Aligning Research with Revenue Goals
For new startups focusing on customer acquisition, research studies should aim to identify ideal customer personas and user behaviors that drive acquisition. In contrast, mature companies with retention challenges should focus on understanding user retention factors through usability studies and feedback.
Adapting Research Focus Based on Business Lifecycle
Aligning research studies with the fundraising stage of a company, such as acquisition-focused studies for seed to series B companies and retention-centric studies for more mature businesses, helps direct research efforts towards enhancing specific business objectives.
Utilizing Data Sources for Impactful Research
Leveraging user behavior clustering and competitive analysis to extract valuable insights can drive impactful research outcomes. Collaborating with product analytics teams and integrating telemetry data can further enhance the effectiveness of research initiatives.
Fostering Cross-Functional Collaboration Through Insights
Establishing regular communication channels for sharing research insights with cross-functional teams can facilitate collaboration and ensure researchers are recognized for their contributions. Engagement with executive stakeholders through newsletters and routine updates helps showcase the impact of research initiatives.
In this episode, Erin and Carol tackle one form of research impact growing in importance and necessity: revenue. Their guest is Claudia Natasia, co-founder and CEO of Riley AI. Before starting Riley, Claudia grew product teams at early-stage companies and worked in the financial industry. These experiences showed her the importance of linking user research outputs to the bottom line of a business.
During their conversation, Claudia breaks down what revenue typically looks like for a company and where you can find the specific revenue goals for your company. Then she digs into the important processes of weaving those revenue goals into a research strategy from the start, offering examples from her time on product teams.
The discussion also explores the importance of triangulation, or combining multiple data types to form a more complete whole. Claudia explains that user researchers should balance conducting primary research with existing information to help clarify how UX is linked with wider business goals. She offers suggestions for teams big and small looking to make impact with the highest level decision makers and company executives.
Episode Highlights 06:07 - Strategic frameworks for company growth and revenue 12:05 - Leveraging competitive analysis for market success 22:06 - Creating meaningful insights for your business 30:05 - Tracking research impact: Setting expectations and routine updates 37:13 - Elevating projects: Moving from junior to senior stakeholders 44:39 - Triangulating data: Connecting research to company success
About Our Guest Claudia is a leader with 10+ years experience leading product, strategy, and data teams across the enterprise and financial technology space. Her work has directly influenced companywide strategies, leading to a $5B total valuation, a successful international acquisition, and multi-million dollar growth fundraising rounds. She advises and angel invests in early stage startups, in North America and Southeast Asia. Her areas of focus are enterprise, finance, and consumer AI-generated content.