Natasha Gorobinskaya

Context Restaurant discovery was treated primarily as a search, ranking, and recommendation problem, and efficiency improvements alone were not opening meaningful new growth. The organization needed to understand how diners actually discovered and chose where to eat.

Approach Behavioral research into how people discover restaurants, exploring the wider set of influences shaping dining decisions, including the role of other people.

MethodsMixed-method survey, in-depth interviews, and co-creative workshops.

Key insight Social influence was a central driver of discovery. Diners relied heavily on recommendations and the choices of people they trusted; discovery proved to be as much a social act as an informational one, an underused dimension in a product built around search.

Impact Redirected product strategy toward a social layer for discovery, contributing to the launch of social features and opening a new growth direction for the platform.

Context Video Chat showed low adoption during hypergrowth and was being considered for removal. The strategic risk was making a product decision based on incomplete evidence.

Approach Rather than asking why the feature was underused, the research reframed the decision, examining the role of presence during collaborative work and the value that emerged when video was embedded in workflows rather than evaluated as a standalone feature.

MethodsContextual observation, in-depth interviews, and behavioral analytics.

Key insight Low adoption reflected product friction, not lack of value. Video strengthened presence during complex collaboration, improved attention, and reduced coordination friction. These benefits were largely invisible in conventional product metrics.

Impact Shifted the discussion from feature adoption to collaboration quality; the team continued investing and later accelerated the strategy through the acquisition of a dedicated video collaboration company.

Context Enterprise adoption lagged behind individual user growth as organizations introduced collaborative work practices at scale.

Approach Studied governance practices, collaboration workflows, and knowledge management across enterprise organizations to understand how collaborative tools were introduced, adopted, and sustained.

MethodsEnterprise interviews, workflow analysis, and mixed-method survey.

Key insight The primary barrier was organizational capability rather than product functionality. Successful adoption depended as much on governance and shared ways of working as on product features.

Impact Informed enterprise product priorities and broadened the strategy beyond collaboration features, aligning investment with enterprise workflows and organizational needs.

Context Google AdWords adoption in the Russian market remained below expectations during an early stage of expansion, with a strong local incumbent dominating search advertising. The risk was misinterpreting market signals.

Approach Contextual interviews and market research into how business owners evaluated advertising investments, allocated budgets, and assessed commercial risk, examining the decision conditions behind commitment.

MethodsContextual interviews, mixed-method survey, and market research.

Key insight Demand already existed, but the conditions for decision-making were misaligned. Advertisers needed predictable outcomes and early proof of value; low adoption reflected decision uncertainty, not lack of demand.

Impact Shifted the strategy from education-first to confidence-first through guided onboarding and early demonstration of value, strengthening adoption and positioning Google as a credible challenger.

Context BeHer, an early-stage women's health startup, had validated a real problem. The remaining question was whether it was building for the right customer and solving the right problem first.

Approach Applied the OPTICS methodology to distinguish customer interest from long-term product-market fit, using the Experience-Value Framework to separate initial interest from durable value.

MethodsOPTICS: AI-enhanced exploration, customer interviews, and competitor benchmarking.

Key insight The strongest opportunity was defined by behavior, not age: an underserved segment of highly informed women. Acquisition was unlikely to be the main challenge; retention was. The bottleneck shifted from demand to long-term value creation.

Impact Informed four foundational decisions:

• Narrowed to a single primary customer segment.
• Repositioned around an intelligence layer rather than another tracking app.
• Prioritized integrations as the next strategic investment.
• Replaced founder intuition with measurable validation milestones.

Within four weeks, the founder clarified customer strategy, positioning, roadmap priorities, and investment decisions before committing to full-scale development.