Building and scaling UX research operations

Overview

BIKE24 is one of Europe's largest retailers in the cycling industry. However, by the end of 2021, the company had conducted zero customer interviews or UX research. Without foundational user insights, designing customer-centric solutions and improving business results was nearly impossible.

As the newly hired Product Design Lead, I was responsible for building a product design team and ensuring our work delighted customers and drove business success. My first major initiative was establishing a discovery platform—introducing continuous UX research practices at BIKE24.

Key Outcomes

3 months later:

• Conducted over 60 customer interviews
• Identified 20+ usability problems
• Uncovered 5 new feature opportunities and 3 new business opportunities
• Developed 3 data-rich personas with customer journeys

By the end of 2024:

• Integrated continuous discovery into daily work
• Conducted 100+ qualitative research sessions (both generative and evaluative) and 50+ A/B tests
• Reduced time to recruit and conduct interviews to less than a day
• Identified and solved customer problems costing millions
• Increased ARPU by 20%
• Established detailed personas and user journeys used at every level of the company for strategic decision-making

Key Challenges

1. Lack of stakeholder buy-in for UX research
2. No tools or processes for recruiting and conducting research
3. No central repository for documenting and analyzing insights
4. No experienced researchers or advocates in the company

Approach: Building the Research Foundation

1. Find a High-Impact Project to Secure Buy-In

Challenge: Lack of reliable personas and customer journeys

Solution: I identified a major gap impacting multiple teams—there was no clear understanding of BIKE24's customers. Existing personas were created by external agencies, lacking real customer insights. By highlighting this issue, I gained strong buy-in from stakeholders who were eager for real, research-backed personas.

Example: When I presented real customer interview snippets alongside the outdated personas, stakeholders were shocked by the discrepancies. This led to immediate executive support for a new research initiative.

2. Assess Current Processes and Tooling

Challenge: No existing research tools and limited customer access

Solution: I conducted an internal audit and found that the company lacked dedicated UX research tools. Budget and legal constraints made purchasing new tools difficult, especially at first to prove the value of research. Additionally, customer access was restricted due to privacy policies. After discussions with the legal team, we identified a workaround to engage customers while complying with regulations.

Example: By collaborating with the legal team, we established a protocol for reaching out to customers via existing CRM systems while ensuring compliance with GDPR regulations.

3. Build Research Operations Using Existing Tools

Challenge: No infrastructure for UX research

Solution: Leveraging our remote-first work environment, we adapted internal tools:

• MS Teams for video interviews and recordings
• MS Bookings + Outlook for scheduling
• Miro+Excel for documentation and synthesis
• Emarsys for customer segmentation and outreach

Using this setup, we conducted 30+ customer interviews in the first two weeks.

4. Deliver a Successful Project and Share Results

Challenge: Demonstrating the value of research to get real buy-in and advocacy.

Solution: Over three weeks, we interviewed 60 of our most frequent customers, analyzed insights, and brought in our marketing stakeholders to create detailed, accurate personas together. These personas became a crucial tool, informing strategic decisions across departments and embedding UX research into company culture. We would have never gotten such a tailwind when it comes to advocacy if we had not brought in our marketing stakeholders. They did an awesome job promoting working with our personas and the value of user research.

5. Establish a Research Repository for Accessibility

Challenge: Research findings were scattered and inaccessible

Solution: We initially used Excel and Miro for documentation but saw high demand for a central repository. We transitioned to Confluence, creating a structured research repository that made insights easily accessible company-wide.

6. Scale, Streamline, and Advocate

Challenge: Expanding UX research for the full spectrum of methods.

Solution:

• Introduced usability tests, card sorting, and A/B testing as standard practices
• Created templates and research playbooks to scale operations
• Built a curated list of customer problems ranked by severity
• Enabled teams to conduct any research study within hours, making UX research a core function

Results & Impact

Short-term:

• 60+ interviews, 20+ usability problems identified, 5+ new feature opportunities
• Established a UX research function from scratch

Long-term:

• Conducted 100+ qualitative research sessions and 50+ A/B tests
• Reduced time to recruit and conduct interviews to less than a day
• Significantly de-risked multiple large redesigns
• Increased ARPU by 20%
• UX research became a daily part of BIKE24's workflow
• Personas & user journeys are used across all levels of the organization for key strategic decisions
• Identified and solved multiple high-impact customer problems worth millions

Reflections & Acknowledgments

This project transformed BIKE24 from designing in the dark to a user-centric organization. I'm incredibly proud to have led this initiative, but it wouldn't have been possible without the support of:

• The Head of Product, Christian (for championing research at the executive level)
• The Product Designers, Product Managers, and Marketers who collaborated on this journey
• The entire team for embracing UX research and making it a cornerstone of product development