#148 - Connecting Research to Revenue with Claudia Natasia of Riley AI

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May 14, 2024

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.

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ADVICE

Start Research By Learning Company Revenue Goals

Do treat research as part of the business by learning the company's high-level OKRs and revenue goals at the start of each fiscal year.
Ground all research planning and study selection in those business goals so projects clearly map to revenue outcomes.

INSIGHT

Match Research Method To Product Lifecycle

Align study type to the product lifecycle: use discovery research to drive acquisition for new products and usability/retention research for mature products with churn issues.
Example: run persona discovery for acquisition; run usability and behavior-focused interviews when users fail to return after 90 days.

ADVICE

Use Fundraising Stage To Prioritize Research Focus

Do use company fundraising stage as a heuristic: seed–Series B focus on acquisition; $50M+ ARR companies focus on retention and expansion.
This helps prioritize research questions and metrics like LTV or churn depending on stage.

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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.

Resources on Research Impact and Revenue

A guide to showing the value of user research
Claudia's textbook of choice for learning about revenue
The three aspects of high-impact UX research
The Business of Research Slack Community