How to run a customer research squad

A customer-research mission runs as a closed loop on the Market Research Squad. You draw the path in the mission goals: which interviews, which questions, and the rule that every theme needs a quote. The Mission Commander works inside that path and assigns the themes to Echo. Steering is the approval step. Echo does not invent a customer.

The squad you import

The template is the Market Research Squad, on /squads. Echo, Customer Insights Analyst, extracts jobs, pains, and objections with example quotes, designs interview guides, and says how common each theme is.

Brief, Synthesis Writer, gets a card only if you ask for a one-page brief. Atlas and Radar stay off unless the goals include a market scan or competitor profiles. Ticket themes for the product roadmap are a different agent: Voice, on the Product Management Squad. This mission is interviews, reviews, and support threads you put in the folder. The template has no required connection.

You do this in the xSquads desktop app, on a folder of your own files. Mac now, with Windows coming soon. The product page is xSquads for Work.

How the mission runs

Step 1. Import the Market Research Squad

Open the squad templates and import the Market Research Squad onto the mission. Keep Echo. Keep Brief only if the goals include the one-page brief. Remove Atlas and Radar if this mission is only the interviews.

Step 2. Leave the connector list empty

This template has no required connection. Do not connect treg or Vapi. The themes come from the transcripts, reviews, and threads in the mission folder.

Step 3. Create the mission and set the goals

Create the mission and write the goals in plain language. Those goals are the path: which files Echo may read, what a theme must include, and who is out of the sample. Point the mission at the local folder with the interviews. The commander does not get to widen that path. Goals you can start from, as written on the squad page: pull themes and quotes from these customer interviews, and draft an interview guide for churned customers.

Step 4. Let the Mission Commander assign the work

Save the mission. The Mission Commander creates tasks on the task board and assigns them only inside the goals you wrote. Echo takes the themes, each with quotes and a note on how common it is, and the interview guide if you asked for one. Brief takes the one-page brief only if that goal is present. Radar should not get a competitor profile.

Step 5. Add a task, steer, and approve before the themes are used

Steering is the approval step. Add a task on the board, or correct the Mission Commander in the group chat, when a theme has no quote. A useful task to add yourself: split the pricing theme in two, because the quotes are about packaging, not the number. Echo does not decide the roadmap. Start by approving every theme.

How much to review

Start by approving everything. Autonomy is a dial, not a switch you flip because the themes sound familiar.

Always sign off the sample and the question list yourself. Raise the dial only when themes keep arriving with quotes you can find in the folder. A quote you cannot find goes back. xSquads does not add a customer who was not in the files.

What the goals have to name

The files in the sample, and anyone who is excluded.
The rule: a theme without an example quote is not done.
Whether you want a count of how common each theme is. Echo can quantify. The count has to come from the files, not a round number.
The interview guide only if you want a next round. Name who it is for, such as churned customers.
You review before product or sales treats the themes as decided.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which files can Echo use?

The interviews, reviews, and support threads you put in the mission folder. If a file is not there, it is not in the sample.

Will Echo invent quotes?

It should not, and you reject a theme if you cannot find the quote. The squad page says themes come with example quotes.

Who writes the interview guide?

Echo, when that goal is in the mission. The squad-page starting point is a guide for churned customers. Change the audience in the goals if you need a different one.

How is this different from product feedback themes?

Voice, on the Product Management Squad, groups feedback for the roadmap. Echo is the research pass on interviews and reviews. Same kind of reading, different squad and different next step.

Does the squad need a connector?

No. The Market Research Squad lists no required connection.