JetBrains Research
Research is crucial for progress and innovation, which is why at JetBrains we are passionate about both scientific and market research
Bringing Real Users Into a Product Team Gathering – A JetBrains Research Story
In product development, assumptions about how people will use a tool don’t always align with the practical reality.
Last spring, during a gathering of our Junie team, we set out to bridge that gap by trying something new. We ran two hands-on user workshops – one online and another in our Belgrade office. For the first time ever, we brought external users directly into an internal event.
Here’s what happened, what we discovered, and why we think this approach is worth repeating – both for us and for other research and product teams.
Why we did it
At JetBrains, user research is a continuous effort. Our UX Research team, part of the larger Strategic Research and Market Intelligence team, conducts studies, surveys, and experiments for multiple products. Usually, our role is to provide synthesized insights to product teams.
This time, however, we wanted to flip the model. Instead of delivering results, we created a space where everyone on the product team – developers, designers, and managers – could experience first-hand contact with real users.
That kind of direct exposure can help foster empathy and transform abstract feedback into tangible improvements.
Overcoming the challenges
It wasn’t all smooth sailing:
- Recruitment: We had just two weeks to recruit participants and prepare interview guides. We solved it through snowball sampling, reaching out via personal connections.
- Rewards: Reward logistics were tricky, as some countries don’t support common gift card providers.
- Training: Many team members had never conducted live interviews before, so we gave them a crash course on user research.
These adjustments proved that meaningful research activities can happen even under tight constraints.
The online sessions
We met with five active users via video to explore how they work with Junie, what tasks it helps them complete, and where they see room for improvement.
After the interviews, the team regrouped to share observations and brainstorm potential roadmap ideas.
In-person workshop
Five small business owners joined us in our Belgrade office.
Each team had 1.5 hours to create a working website using our tool and then present the results.
This “build together” format exposed strengths and weaknesses in real-time, with deeper insights often hidden in surveys or retrospective interviews.
📌 Key takeaways
By embedding live user sessions into a team gathering, we:
✅ Gave non-researchers a chance to practice their interviewing and observation skills.
✅ Sparked product discussions grounded in real, shared experiences rather than reports.
✅ Strengthened the connection between roadmap decisions and user needs.
Even a short, structured user research activity during an in-person team workshop or planning session can make feedback tangible, accelerate learning, and increase empathy, proving that UX research doesn’t have to be separate from everyday product development.
The key is to keep it simple, prepare teams with just enough guidance, and focus on authentic user interaction.
💬 Want to take part in future JetBrains research?
Join our research panel to get early access to product experiments, test new features, and share your feedback directly with our teams.
👉 Sign up here to join the JetBrains Tech Insights Lab
Subscribe to JetBrains Research blog updates
