Building a successful UX research platform
When I started PingPong in 2016, the UX research landscape was fragmented and complex. Most tools were either too expensive for small teams or too complicated for non-researchers to use effectively.
The problem we set out to solve
User research is critical for building products people actually want, but most teams struggle with:
- High barriers to entry: Traditional research tools required extensive training
- Cost prohibitive: Enterprise solutions were priced out of reach for startups
- Time consuming: Setting up studies took weeks, not hours
- Poor user experience: Both for researchers and participants
Our approach: Stay lean, stay focused
From day one, we committed to a few core principles that guided every decision:
1. Simplicity over features
Instead of building a Swiss Army knife, we focused on doing one thing exceptionally well: making user interviews easy and fast. This meant saying no to feature requests that didn't directly serve this goal.
2. Customer-driven development
We talked to our users constantly. Every feature was validated through real customer conversations before we built it. This kept us grounded in actual needs rather than assumptions.
3. Bootstrapped growth
We never raised external funding, which forced us to be profitable from early on. This constraint actually helped us stay focused and build a sustainable business.
Key lessons learned
After six years of building PingPong, here are the most important lessons:
Build for your users, not for yourself
As designers and researchers, we had strong opinions about how research should be done. But our users often had different needs and workflows. Learning to separate our personal preferences from user needs was crucial.
Small teams can move mountains
We stayed intentionally small (~8 people) throughout our journey. This allowed us to move quickly, maintain quality, and keep our culture strong. Sometimes constraints breed creativity.
Focus on retention over acquisition
We spent more time making existing customers successful than acquiring new ones. This led to strong word-of-mouth growth and lower churn rates.
The outcome
In 2022, we successfully exited to Hotjar (now part of Contentsquare). PingPong became Hotjar Engage, and our vision of democratizing user research continues with a much larger platform and reach.
What's next
The future of user research is bright. As more teams recognize the value of customer insights, tools need to become even more accessible and integrated into existing workflows.
If you're building a research tool or thinking about starting in this space, I'd love to chat. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn.