I began this project by collaborating with a business analyst to review internal research and Tableau reports. To understand best practices, I explored online resources like Baymard Research. Additionally, I conducted a competitive analysis to see how other platforms strategically design and utilize product reviews.
To understand experts’ needs, motivations, and challenges, I conducted 30-minute interviews with 10 participants. I developed an interview protocol and collaborated with a UX writer to recruit participants through Pendo on ExpertVoice. After that, I transcribed the recordings and analyzed the data using affinity diagramming.
To prioritize findings, form hypotheses for further testing, and gather remaining questions, I organized a workshop with key stakeholders. Through 3 structured activities, we consolidated our understanding of the problem space and narrowed the scope. As a result, we developed three hypotheses and identified four key questions for the next steps.
Using the outputs from the workshop, I designed a short survey to validate the findings and hypotheses for general EV users while also addressing the remaining questions. The survey, created on Lyssna, consisted of three sections. I deployed the survey on the ExpertVoice website through Pendo, targeting to 150 responses to achieve a 95% confidence level with an 8% margin of error.
Experts on ExpertVoice value insightful reviews, especially for time-sensitive decisions, as reviews play a crucial role in their purchasing process.
Experts are internally motivated reviewers who trust ExpertVoice and enjoy recommending products, so we should leverage their internal motivations and foster a cycle of engagement and exchange.
Top 3 reasons why experts read reviews
Top 4 factors experts care about
Top factors for Health & Nutrition
Top factors for Apparel & Accessories
Prioritization of existing/wishlist features created based on interview results
What motivates you to write reviews on ExpertVoice?
Promoting a cycle of exchange
Other platforms experts use for reviews
Experts are turning away from low engagement
When I first started this project, unlike other interns assigned to direct product teams, I had to create my own group of stakeholders and manage them. When I invited relevant stakeholders to the kickoff meeting, they didn’t provide the feedback I needed and often didn’t follow through on action items afterward, which was frustrating.
To address this, I sought guidance from my mentor and manager, reached out to experienced researchers for advice, and implemented clearer action items while setting better expectations with the team. Although it wasn’t entirely successful—since this project wasn’t part of their planned workload—I took ownership and drove it to completion.
As the first and only product researcher at a company with low research maturity, I often suffered from imposter syndrome, questioning whether my work was valued or impactful. Without established research processes or a clear framework, I had to carve out my role and justify the importance of my work. To overcome this, I focused on small wins—sharing meaningful insights, collaborating closely with stakeholders, and showing how research could drive decisions. With time, I learned to trust my expertise and realized that being in uncharted territory was an opportunity to shape the research culture. The positive feedback from stakeholders reminded me that my contributions mattered and built my confidence to keep advocating for research.
