8×8

The Challenge

One of the most significant challenges 8×8 faced was the democratization of research across its product and design teams. Patrizia Bertini, Head of Design Operations at 8×8, explained that in her experience, research bottlenecks were a common issue in many product organizations. She noted that empowering teams to run research quickly and efficiently is essential for staying ahead of competitors and delivering successful products.

Without a streamlined research platform, 8×8’s teams were experiencing slowdowns in time-to-market, limited iteration cycles, and missed opportunities for innovation. A major hurdle was the traditional seat-based model of many research tools, which restricted access to research and testing capabilities. This model made it difficult to manage resources effectively, especially during organizational changes, and often led to critical research being delayed or left undone.

“The biggest problem I see with other tools is the seat-based model,” Patrizia said. “It’s hard to decide how each person should be allocated research time, and sometimes people miss the opportunity to test when they need to. The lack of flexibility really slows things down.”

Without the ability to quickly conduct and iterate on research, teams struggled to make informed decisions at the speed required in today’s competitive landscape.

The Outcome

Since adopting PlaybookUX, 8×8 has experienced a transformation in how it conducts user research and tests new products. With PlaybookUX’s flexible, easy-to-use platform, 8×8 can now rapidly test prototypes, gather valuable insights, and iterate at speed.

For Patrizia and her team, one of the key benefits has been the ability to empower multiple departments to conduct research on their own, without waiting for perfection or limited access to testing tools. “Our design teams are able to test prototypes quickly without waiting for everything to be perfect,” she shared. “We want to test as much as possible, iterate quickly, and move forward. PlaybookUX allows us to do that in a very straightforward way.”

The impact of PlaybookUX has extended beyond just product and design teams. The company has also expanded its testing efforts to include content and writing teams. “We’re pushing our writers and content teams to test more frequently and understand how their language impacts the user journey,” Patrizia explained. “This is an area we hadn’t explored as much before, but with PlaybookUX’s templates and ease of use, we can now test content alongside design and product features.”

PlaybookUX has also helped 8×8 streamline participant recruitment, saving time and improving the quality of their feedback. Patrizia emphasized how easy it is to use PlaybookUX’s panel to recruit people from diverse backgrounds and regions. “It’s always been great and easy for us to recruit our target demographic,” she said. “When people who aren’t familiar with our product can still navigate it and complete the tasks we assign them, that means our product is on the right track.”

The PlaybookUX platform flexibility and ease of use have been especially valuable in accelerating the research process. Templates have been a game-changer for 8×8, enabling the team to launch studies quickly and efficiently, whether synchronous or asynchronous. Patrizia explained that organizing templates by product, audience segment, or research method has helped save time, allowing team members to customize their studies without starting from scratch.

“Having templates has been key,” she said. “It reduces the effort needed to launch studies, and we’re able to get insights faster. We can focus on refining our studies rather than spending time setting them up.”

Another standout feature for 8×8 has been the onboarding and ongoing support provided by PlaybookUX’s Customer Success team. Patrizia praised the personalized attention and flexibility during the onboarding process, which allowed the team to get up to speed quickly on complex research methods such as card sorting and tree testing. “Onboarding was fantastic,” she noted. “Our Customer Success Manager was very aligned with our goals and helped us set up training sessions that were tailored to our needs. I know I can always reach out, and I’ll get a response immediately.”

Key Results:

• Accelerated product testing and iteration cycles
• Empowered cross-functional teams (design, content, product) to conduct research independently
• Streamlined participant recruitment from diverse backgrounds and regions
• Reduced time spent setting up studies with reusable templates
• Excellent customer support and personalized onboarding

With PlaybookUX, 8×8 continues to drive innovation and maintain its competitive edge in the cloud communications space.