Our short story

Hello

I’m Fraser Deans, the founder of Insight Pipeline. I started Insight Pipeline earlier this year. We’re small. From tiny acorns grow mighty oaks. This little startup has a big mission: help product teams unearth meaningful insight through authentic customer conversations.

People often ask why we built Insight Pipeline. Here’s the short story…

I’ve worked in product teams across many different companies: startups, mega-corps and everything in between. In every case, learning the customers’ real stories was where the insights lay. Those insights helped us build better products for both our current customers and new ones.

Product discovery calls are fascinating. You learn a lot about the lives of your customers. And when my team didn't have these authentic research conversations, we had a tendency to go off in the wrong direction, spending time building features that weren't helpful and no one wanted. Despite their importance, teams don’t conduct enough product discovery calls.

When I came across Teresa Torres’ continuous product discovery approach, it made sense to me. She advocates for speaking to your customers regularly, on a cadence.

We all know we should talk to customers. It’s cliché. But product teams still shy away from frequent customer conversations because finding customers willing to talk and scheduling time with them is frustrating.

We’d reach out to customers. Many wouldn’t acknowledge our requests. Some were even annoyed that we disturbed them. Others were too busy.

Response rates are low, and it’s no surprise. Most approaches feel spammy. Customers already receive hundreds of forgettable emails a week, so why add to their endless inbox?

I searched for a tool to help me with this. But there wasn’t one out there.

The idea for Insight Pipeline came from that frustration. Let’s automate the process of speaking with customers. Let’s allow customers to opt-in. Let’s get around company gatekeepers monopolising customer relationships. Let’s move away from mass spammy emails. Let’s make customer conversations a regular part of our working week.

I mentioned that we’re small. That’s important. It means we’re working really closely with our early customers to build a tool you’ll love. A tool that ticks all the right boxes. It means when you contact us, you speak with the people that know the product and our customers intimately.

We’re at the beginning of our journey. We’re excited to create a tool that is loved by product teams. We’re ready for the challenge!

Thank you for reading and giving Insight Pipeline a try. I love chatting with folks who care about their customers. We can talk about your current product discovery headaches. Schedule a chat with me here.