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Product teams are inundated with data. After hours of research, you’re often left with a repository full of transcripts and notes, but the path to a clear set of product requirements or actionable next steps is unclear. Translating raw data into a prioritized backlog is time-consuming and difficult. Insights are where raw customer feedback transforms into a catalyst for action. For researchers, product managers and designers, a well-crafted insight is the bridge between understanding core problems and deciding what to build next. In this lesson, you will learn how to craft findings in a way that centers your raw data, builds a compelling narrative, and drives conversation and alignment with your stakeholders.

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Generate a first draft with AI

To help you get started, we recommend that you use pre-defined prompts that will automatically synthesize and structure your data, powered by AI. We call these AI insights (beta). These prompts include Product requirements, Feature requests, Actionable opportunities, Research report, and Voice of customer report. With insights, you can also create your own custom prompt from the title of your insight.
  • To create an insight in a project, open Insights in your project and select + New insight.
  • Next, choose how you want to create your insight. You can:
    • Start from a blank insight;
    • Select a pre-defined prompt with the help of Magic insights (beta) or;
    • Enter a title and select Generate from title with the help of Magic insights (beta)
  • From there, refine your insight. Add text, references, and use formatting and editing tools before sharing with your stakeholders. This insight will live inside the project it was created within.
This feature bridges the gap between qualitative research and the product development lifecycle. It automates the initial, time-intensive synthesis, giving PMs and designers a tangible starting point in a familiar format. It turns days of work into minutes, allowing you to focus on refining strategy and prioritizing the roadmap rather than getting lost in the weeds of the data.

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Center direct evidence

A bullet point in a presentation saying “5/8 users found the checkout confusing” lacks impact and can be easily challenged by stakeholders. It fails to convey the emotional weight of the user’s struggle, making it hard to create alignment and urgency within the engineering team or with leadership. Draw attention to your customer’s thoughts and feelings by embedding a video reel directly in your insight. This isn’t a summary of the problem; it is the problem. Stakeholders can watch a 60-second clip showing multiple users sighing in frustration, expressing confusion, or abandoning a task at the exact same point in the workflow. In most cases, one will be made automatically for you after adding highlights to your insight from anywhere in your project. With this reel, you can embed, customize, and re-order video and audio highlights into a reel directly within insights. Reels make the user’s pain undeniable. They build empathy and create a shared understanding across the entire team in a way that no summary can. For a designer, it’s a powerful tool for illustrating a usability issue. For a product manager, it’s a critical asset for making a business case, justifying prioritization, and ensuring the team is truly solving a felt user problem.

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Curate a concise narrative

Presenting stakeholders with a raw data dump is overwhelming and ineffective. Without a clear narrative, people will draw their own conclusions, or worse, none at all. Your key recommendations can get lost in the noise. Ease stakeholders through your findings by polishing how your data and supporting text is presented. Once your key highlights are in an insight, create a narrative around your findings in whatever way you want. Type / within the editor to pick a template that works for you or create an insight in your style with available formatting options. When adding structure to your insight, ensure you:
  • Arrange content in visually appealing ways and group related references into 2 or 3-column layouts. You can create distinct side-by-side text sections, feature callouts, and embed references, images, or files.
  • Establish clear headings with different sizes, quote blocks, and bulleted lists to summarize key points.
Strong information hierarchy makes your findings persuasive and professional. It allows you to control the story, ensuring that the evidence you present logically supports your proposed product decisions. This transforms your insight from a simple report into a powerful tool of persuasion.

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Share with key stakeholders

Insights are often shared as a PDF or PowerPoint, immediately severing the connection to the raw data. You can share your insights in a variety of ways to ensure they are seen by the right audience.

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Share in present mode

Start simple and talk through your findings in a team meeting or presentation in present mode. Understand who your audience are and emphasize key findings that they are keen to learn more about.

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Share in tools like Slack or Teams

Drop the insight’s share link into tools like Slack, Notion, Productboard, or Atlassian. Anyone with access to Dovetail will be directed straight to your insight. This brings the voice of the customer directly into the tools where your team works. An engineer can go from a Jira ticket straight to a video reel of the user problem they are solving. A designer can reference the full context while in Figma. It ensures that the rich user context informs every stage of the product development process, leading to better, more user-centered products. Remove the barrier to entry and enable access to your project’s published insights via web links. When enabled, anyone with the insight’s unique link will have access to view your project’s published insights outside of Dovetail in a presentable view.