Continuous Discovery: The Key to Staying Connected with Your Customers

Hey there! 👋

You’ve done the customer interviews. You’ve built the personas. Maybe you even mapped a few journeys for good measure. So why does it still feel like your marketing or product decisions are a shot in the dark?

Here’s the problem: research too often becomes a one-off project or a box to tick. But real insight—the kind that drives better decisions—comes from building habits around continuous research.

Let’s talk about what that looks like.

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What’s the difference between research and discovery?

• Have a specific goal or question in mind
• Are time-bound with a defined start and end
• Often involve more in-depth methodologies
• Typically require more resources and planning
• Create deep insights on particular topics or issues.

Continuous discovery means staying connected to your customers all the time—not just during a designated “research phase.

It:

• Is ongoing and doesn't have a specific end date
• Involves lighter-touch, more frequent interactions
• Can be integrated into existing workflows and processes
• Provides a broad, evolving picture of customer needs and market trends
• Helps identify emerging issues or opportunities that might warrant focused research.

Why should you care about continuous discovery?

• Stay in sync with your customers: Their needs are always evolving, and continuous discovery helps you keep up.
• Test ideas on the fly: Got a hunch about something? Continuous discovery lets you quickly check if you're on the right track.
• Prioritise quickly: When you're always in touch with customer needs, deciding what to build next becomes much easier.
• Avoid missteps: Continuous discovery helps prevent investing resources into features that customers don't want.

So, how do you do this?

• Casual check-ins: During customer calls, ask about their business challenges and goals.
• Use existing touch points: Set up regular catch-ups with your sales and support teams to hear what they're learning from customers.
• Analyse existing data: Dig into product usage metrics, website analytics, or support tickets for customer insights.
• Quick polls and surveys: Use simple questions in your product or on social media to gather quick insights.
• Run product discovery sprints: Use focused, time-boxed sessions (1-2 weeks) to tackle specific challenges or explore new opportunities, complementing your ongoing discovery efforts.
• Industry monitoring: Subscribe to newsletters, attend webinars, or join industry events to understand the bigger picture.

Aim for at least one customer touchpoint or discovery activity each week, working on a different activity each week. Schedule dedicated time in your calendar for discovery activities, and treat it as you would any other important meeting

This could look like:

• Week 1: Run 1-2 customer interviews.
• Week 2: Review and update your research repository with industry articles (more on that in the next section).
• Week 3: Analyse product usage data.
• Week 4: Meet with customer-facing teams.

Make it a team norm to engage in some form of discovery regularly.

Centralising and using customer data

Paid tools: Dovetail

• Centralised storage for various data types (interviews, surveys, analytics)
• Tagging and categorisation for easy retrieval
• Collaborative analysis tools
• Customisable dashboards for sharing insights.

Free and inexpensive tools

Google Workspace

• Google Drive: Create a shared folder structure for storing and organising customer data.
• Google Sites: Build an internal website to showcase key insights, updates, and resources.
• Google Sheets: Use spreadsheets for tracking and analysing quantitative data.
• Google Docs: Collaborate on qualitative insights and reports.

Microsoft 365

• SharePoint: Create an intranet site to house all customer-related information and insights.
• OneDrive: Use shared folders for storing and organising data.
• Excel Online: Collaborate on data analysis and visualisation.
• Teams: Set up dedicated channels for discussing customer insights.

Notion

• Create databases for storing and categorising customer information
• Build wiki-style pages for sharing insights
• Collaborate with team members in real time.

Best practices for data centralisation

• Set up a clear, logical structure.
• Make sure sensitive data is only seen by the right people.
• Regularly update your data.
• Have team members lead the charge on using and updating the data.
• Make sure everyone knows how to access and use the insights.

Wrapping up

It doesn’t have to be big or complicated. Start with small, regular check-ins: a quick customer chat, a weekly review of support tickets, a five-question survey. The magic is in the rhythm, not the format.

When you build discovery into your team’s routine, you make better decisions, spot issues earlier, and stay focused on what actually matters to your customers. And that’s what leads to better products, stronger messaging, and smarter strategy.

Start today. That next insight might be the one that changes everything.

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter for marketing and research strategies and insights ➡️