Driving B2B Sales for Spark: A Research-Driven Approach
Researching Why Teams Don’t Choose Spark — an Email Client for Business Communication
Spark is an email client designed for individual and team communication, offering tools such as shared inboxes, email delegation, and collaborative draft editing. While the B2C version has a stable user base among individuals, the B2B version has struggled to achieve consistent growth.
To explore the reasons behind low adoption in the B2B segment, the Spark B2B team initiated a one-week research sprint. The goal was to better understand the needs and decision-making processes of business users and identify obstacles that prevent teams from choosing Spark for their daily communication.
My Role
Conducted an interview with a trial user, analyzed and synthesized insights, and generated ideas for product improvements.
Research Workflow
We started with a kick-off meeting to align on the research goals with the Spark B2B team. After that, we prepared interview scripts, conducted user interviews, and analyzed the insights. Based on the findings, we developed user personas and a customer journey map. The sprint concluded with a presentation highlighting the key barriers affecting product sales.
1. Kick-off meeting
We started with a kick-off meeting to align on the research goals with the Spark B2B team. After that, we prepared interview scripts, conducted user interviews, and analyzed the insights. Based on the findings, we developed user personas and a customer journey map. The sprint concluded with a presentation highlighting the key barriers affecting product sales.
User Interviews
We collaboratively developed a shared interview script following a structured format — starting with an introduction, followed by warm-up questions, a core section, and closing questions. The content of the script was also informed by an alignment session with Spark's stakeholders.
I personally interviewed a user who was on a trial plan. The collected insights were analyzed across several layers: factual user data, actions, internal and external factors, pain points, challenges, hypotheses, and notable quotes.
CJM & User Persons
To build the customer journey map, we grouped similar insight cards from different respondents and tagged them with themes and signal strength — the more signals, the more common the insight. This helped us prioritize findings and map them across key user journey stages. Based on this structure, we also developed user personas that reflected typical user goals, behaviors, and pain points.
Presentation
At the end of the sprint, we consolidated all research findings and extracted the most valuable insights to present to the Spark B2B team.
The presentation was designed to clearly communicate key challenges and opportunities. I was responsible for shaping and presenting the conclusions section.
Results
6
Suggestions for improvement
6
Suggestions for improvement
6
Suggestions for improvement
Feedback
“God, why didn’t we do this earlier? It’s an absolute goldmine of insights. Huge thanks to the whole team.”
— Artem, Customer Success
“We can literally take actionable steps straight from this.”
— Serhii, Product Manager
Tools
FigJam • Grain • Zoom • Figma
