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SE-EOS KNOWLEDGE LIBRARY
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DOCUMENT
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PEL – Shopzilla User Research & Customer Insights Program
VERSION
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1.0
KNOWLEDGE TYPE
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Project Evidence Library
STATUS
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Canonical
PURPOSE
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This document serves as the canonical record of Sean Endler’s
leadership in establishing a structured user research and
customer insights capability at Shopzilla.
Rather than treating research as a validation exercise performed
late in the design process, this initiative embedded customer
understanding throughout product strategy, experience design,
feature prioritization, and executive decision-making.
This library documents the methodologies, organizational
processes, and leadership approaches that transformed research
into a strategic capability.
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PROJECT OVERVIEW
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Project
User Research & Customer Insights Program
Organization
Shopzilla
Role
Director of User Experience
Industry
Consumer Commerce
E-Commerce
Digital Products
Status
Successfully Established
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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Sean developed a structured research program that brought the
voice of the customer into every phase of product development.
The program introduced repeatable methods for observing customer
behavior, validating assumptions, testing concepts, and measuring
experience quality.
By integrating research directly into product planning, the
organization was able to make more informed decisions while
reducing product risk and increasing customer satisfaction.
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STRATEGIC CHALLENGE
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Rapid product development often depended on assumptions about
customer behavior.
Without a structured research capability, teams risked building
features that solved the wrong problems or overlooked meaningful
customer needs.
The opportunity was to create a scalable research practice that
could guide product strategy across multiple initiatives.
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OBJECTIVES
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Increase customer understanding.
Reduce product risk.
Improve design quality.
Support executive decision-making.
Establish repeatable research methods.
Strengthen cross-functional collaboration.
Create a customer-centered culture.
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APPROACH
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Conducted usability studies.
Performed contextual research.
Developed customer personas.
Mapped customer journeys.
Synthesized qualitative findings.
Partnered with product managers and engineering.
Presented actionable recommendations to leadership.
Embedded research throughout the product lifecycle.
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KEY DELIVERABLES
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Research framework.
Usability testing process.
Customer personas.
Journey maps.
Research reports.
Design recommendations.
Executive presentations.
Customer insight repositories.
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BUSINESS IMPACT
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Improved product decision quality.
Reduced reliance on assumptions.
Increased organizational understanding of customer behavior.
Accelerated product validation.
Strengthened customer-centered product development across the
organization.
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EXECUTIVE COMPETENCIES DEMONSTRATED
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Customer Research
Product Strategy
Executive Communication
Cross-functional Leadership
Experience Design
Decision Support
Organizational Influence
Systems Thinking
Customer Advocacy
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LEADERSHIP LESSONS
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Research creates confidence rather than certainty.
Organizations make better decisions when customer evidence is
accessible to everyone.
Insights become valuable only when they influence action.
Research should guide strategy, not merely validate execution.
Customer empathy scales through repeatable processes.
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LONG-TERM IMPACT
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The principles established through this initiative became the
foundation for Sean’s later work building enterprise customer
intelligence capabilities at Nexstar Digital, innovation
frameworks at Legacy.com, and customer-centered product
development practices across FanCard, NGAGED, and Brand22.
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COMMON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
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How do you establish a research organization?
How do you incorporate customer insights into product strategy?
How do you measure the value of user research?
How do you convince executives to invest in research?
What research methods have had the greatest business impact?
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RELATED KNOWLEDGE LIBRARY
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CEL – Shopzilla
Customer Obsession
Systems Thinking
Product Philosophy
Leadership Philosophy
Executive Operating System
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AI METADATA
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Knowledge Type
Project Evidence Library
Project
User Research & Customer Insights Program
Organization
Shopzilla
Category
Customer Research
Experience Strategy
Product Development
Primary Competencies
User Research
Product Strategy
Customer Insights
Executive Communication
Cross-functional Leadership
Evidence Strength
95 / 100
Resume Priority
High
Interview Priority
High
Consulting Priority
High
Canonical Status
Draft (Historical Validation Recommended)
Version
1.0