One of the rules of product research is “insights are best shared,” says C. Todd Lombardo.

The subtext is never write a report that no one is going to read. 

C. Todd is the vice president of product and design at Openly, an insurance-tech company empowering agents to deliver a higher standard of service through cutting-edge technology and comprehensive options.

He joined UserTesting’s CEO Andy MacMillan on the Human Insight Podcast to talk about all things product management, such as how he shares insights and aligns the company with what customers want. 

Instead of writing reports, C. Todd said, product leaders should ask themselves how do you bring people along for the ride? How can you share the insights you’re getting from your customers? Can you involve others in your organization before the insights are even generated? 

For example, he is often asked how he involves an executive in a design sprint. 

His strategy, he said, is to apply a multitouch inclusion strategy.

Include them the first half hour of the first day when you are doing your assumption storming and trying to understand the problem you are solving so that they have the opportunity to co-create with you and shape the problem you’re trying to solve. 

Bring them in again at the end of the third day when you’ve gotten your sketches ready and your starting prototyping. “These are the solutions we think we’re going to to try and build, prototype and test, what do you think.”

And then bring them in again at the end of the last day. “We tested this and here are some of the videos from our conversations, these are some of the things we learned.”

By doing that, they’ve had more visibility — and buy in — into the whole journey. It’s not easy, C. Todd says, but it’s the best way he’s seen teams get executives involved. 

Listen to the episode to get more insights from C. Todd. Also, in a new podcast segment we’re calling UserTesting Insights, you can also hear what podcast listeners thought about the Human Insight Podcast’s old introduction and its replacement.