2020 – 2023 Program Manager of Partner Innovation Center
An ongoing dialogue with your end user is the ultimate goal in a product-led way of working. However, B2B conversations can be challenging: you can’t just approach anyone. Not every company is suitable, and how do you make sure you get the right people around the table?
Our product teams were spending too much time selecting the right people to talk to for qualitative research, which created a barrier to regularly engaging with our end users. We asked ourselves the question:
How can teams easily test concepts and ideas with partners?
In collaboration with research agency MWM2, we launched the research community deeljemeningmet.bol.com in 2022. Here product teams can communicate quickly and easily with sellers (our end users) on bol.com. For example, by showing a new screen design for in their sales environment; presenting scenarios for a new policy for their assortment; or choosing a name for a new proposition.
Research methodologies used in the community:
Role & Activities
- Retrieving internal requirements on legal issues and IT;
- Selecting an appropriate third party to set up the research community;
- Making segmentation for right partners;
- Inviting and onboarding suitable partners;
- Ensuring internal awareness of the research community;
- Implementing working methods for the product teams wanting to use the research community.
Challenges
- How do we get our selling partners to log in with a single sign-on (SSO)?
- How do we ensure proper representation of the +50k sellers?
- In what way do we report outcomes to the product teams?
- What role do product teams have in participating in discussions that arise?
- How do we keep partners well engaged and response rates high?
Results
- 200 partners in the research community;
- Two research questions per month (contributed by product teams);
- Participation in the research community contributes to a sense of partnership (key NPS driver).
Partner & Community Seminar 2023
