ABOUT
ROB MANZANO,
FOUNDER OF PLAYBOOK RESEARCH
“Growing up bilingual, studying translation and linguistics felt like a natural path to a professional career. But my first step out of school – deciphering the complex language of IBM Mainframe System software – was not the type of translation I’d imagined. Craving more tangible connections, I plunged into the world of public relations and communications. I founded my own agency and was soon in the thick of Europe’s vibrant music festival scene, intermixed with the very artists who supplied the soundtracks to my life. Undergoing such a major career shift made me curious if more was out there – something even more fulfilling.
This curiosity and longing led me to the rewarding field of user research. It was an unexpected turn, but then again, when has a linear journey shaped an interesting story?
I’ve learned a lot over the past 18 years, but what I cherish most about user research is its central role at the intersection of technology, business, design, and human needs. My expertise is combining each of these pieces, ensuring technology responsibly serves its true purpose for people. UX and Insights keep me passionate and invested, evolving my initial focus on usability at Nokia to spearheading user insight teams at Spotify, Zalando, and SoundCloud - moving beyond user research to integrate customer satisfaction solutions and analytics capabilities.”
“Perhaps this is the part of the story where our paths meet. Today, I’m set on guiding businesses and individuals toward making informed decisions that prioritise sustained success and deliver genuine value to customers. By intelligently harnessing different types of data, we can avoid costly mistakes that impact more than our finances.
When you truly know and understand your customer, you can offer them truly useful and desirable solutions. My journey has equipped me with insights that I’m eager to scale up, ensuring that technology and innovation work for us in ways that are good for the bottom line, great for people, and protective of the planet we share.”
-
Spotify, Senior Insights Manager (2022 - 2024)
I spearheaded the development of global research and insights capabilities, including a company-wide insights management product, a global user research learning experience (UXR Golden Path), and an end-to-end UX measurement program.
Zalando, Product Insights Director (2017 - 2022)
I transformed a modest user research team into a robust product and user insights organisation of over 60 professionals. My leadership integrated traditional user research with user satisfaction data, analytics, and machine learning to drive informed decision-making.
SoundCloud, UX Strategy & Insights Director (2014 - 2017)
I was instrumental in establishing the user research department, fostering a user-centric company culture through impactful research programs and UX frameworks.
Nokia / HERE, Principal User Researcher (2006 - 2014)
My tenure at Nokia was marked by significant contributions to usability and user-centric product development, initiating the usability / user research practice, and implementing a comprehensive agile testing program.
basicpeople, Co-founder (2002 - 2006)
Running my own PR agency was an exciting venture. It refined my leadership skills, resilience, creativity, and adaptability, allowing me to thrive in the dynamic, competitive live entertainment industry. This experience laid a solid foundation for my subsequent career in customer-centricity, organisational development, and leadership development and coaching. -
Accredited UX Professional
User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA)
Accreditation #03020100
(2023)Professional diploma: UX and Usability Consultant
artop - Institut an der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
(2007 - 2008)Professional diploma: Public Relations & Communications Consultant
Deutsche Akademie für Public Relations
(2002 - 2004)Linguistics, Translation and Interpretation, B.A./M.A.
Licenciado en Traducción e Interpretación, Universidad de Salamanca, Spain
(1994 - 1998) -
Tailored to your unique needs, our playbooks cover a wide range of solutions designed to enhance your insights and user-centricity capabilities.
The ultimate configuration of services will be crafted based on a thorough understanding of your unique situation, existing capabilities, and mindset.We offer our services in English, German, and Spanish!
Organisational design
- Current state evaluation
- Needs and context analysis to identify best-fitting UX / user insights strategy
- Enhance existing / develop missing capabilities
Leadership
- Interim team leadership
- Team building
- Stakeholder mapping & strategic engagement
- Strategic insight communication
- Conflict resolution
Strategic user-centric product development process
- Analysis of current product development process
- Integration of user insights into product development cycles
- Guidance on data interpretation and insight generation
- Strategies for integrating insights data into broader business decision-making
- Definition of user-centric goals and metrics
Cultural transformation
- Strengthen user-centricity as part of your existing company culture
- Customised training programs to train your team in user centricity and user research methodologies
- Development of internal coaching and mentoring systems to foster continuous learning
- Executive coaching to ensure top-down support
Hiring & professional development
- Assistance with UX and hiring, including leadership and staff roles
- Skill ladders & development assessment frameworks
- Individual coaching (for ICs and leads)
- Candidate sourcing from our professional network
Insights management
- Requirements analysis and tool selection
- Database configuration & taxonomy development
- Establish rituals and habits for insights creation and activation
- Integration with existing productivity tooling (e.g. Jira)
- Al-assisted transcription & analysis
UX and user research methods and operational capabilities
- Comprehensive method toolkit for both quantitative and qualitative research, e.g.:
- Ethnographic research
- Usability and concept testing
- Diary studies
- (Unmoderated) remote testing
- Surveys
- A/B testing support
- Usability (agile and benchmarking formats)
- Implementation of user-centric frameworks (e.g. personas, process maps, jobs-to-be-done)
- Note taking/analysis framework
- User panel / user database
- Legal and procurement processes
User feedback capabilities
- NPS / user satisfaction metrics
- Customer satisfaction framework
- Feedback community
- Behavioural/transactional analytics
