Redefining Product Strategy for a Global SaaS Knowledge-Management Platform

• 14in-depth interviews with senior insights buyers, leading to 2 AI personas for product development
• 80+ hrsof research synthesised into a strategic roadmap
• 4sectors: FMCG, retail & apparel, QSR, consulting

Insights and analytics functions are trying to move from “order takers” and report libraries to proactive growth engines. In reality, their mission is often buried under demands for immediate, digestible answers.

For my client, a global SaaS knowledge-management company, this created a second problem: its platform risked being seen as a static repository where data goes to die. The business needed to understand how to evolve from storage into a “thinking partner” that helps insights teams earn their seat at the table.

I led a lean, foundational research programme around the platform's two core audiences: the Strategic Navigator (senior insights leaders) and the Stressed Orchestrator (insights managers).

• Planning & design: objectives set to inform Marketing, Sales and Product, including an in-house “AI persona” for product and commercial development.
• Qualitative deep-dives: 14 in-depth interviews across FMCG, retail & apparel, quick-service restaurants and consulting.
• Synthesis: more than 80 hours of research distilled into strategic implications and recommendations to win and retain customers.

• AI personas: the research led to the creation of 2 AI personas to support product development.
• Product pivot: evidence for moving beyond the search bar to a conversational insight companion that synthesises narrative answers.
• Operational efficiency: quantified the heavy lift of manual maintenance, leading to recommendations to automate ingestion and integrate with existing workflows.
• Commercial strategy: positioning knowledge management as essential infrastructure by demonstrating risk mitigation and efficiency, such as preventing $50k of duplicated research.
• Institutional memory: mapped the need to capture the “why” behind past decisions, so knowledge survives staff turnover.

Client name withheld for confidentiality.