Research at Scale: A Fintech Leader’s Playbook for Driving Business Impact

How do you prove the value of research in a world obsessed with ROI? For many, it’s an uphill battle. But in the high-stakes, data-driven domain of financial technology, research isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a core part of the investment strategy.

We recently sat down with research leader Sam Gager, a veteran of the fintech world. He has spent over a decade building and scaling research teams from scratch at industry giants like Lending Club, SoFi, and Payoneer.

Sam shared his playbook for driving impact, embracing democratization, and unifying vast amounts of data to create a true human insights database. 

Here are the key takeaways from our conversation. Or, get a deep dive into what it takes to truly drive business impact at scale by watching the entire conversation on demand.

1. Adopt the Fintech Mindset and Think in Basis Points

Why do financial services companies seem to inherently value research? According to Sam, it’s because they are fundamentally ROI-driven. They understand investing for the future, and they see research as a critical tool for moving the needle on their business.

In financial services, success often comes down to funnel optimization. Even a tiny improvement can have a massive impact at scale.

"I'm a loan researcher at my core," Sam explained. "Everything is a funnel optimization problem. If you're trying to understand where the drop-off is, you can see the real tangible business benefit."

Improving a conversion rate by a few basis points, even mere fractions of a percent, can translate to millions of dollars when applied to billions in transaction volume. This creates a direct, undeniable link between user insight and business value, a lesson any researcher can use to frame their work’s importance.

2. Speak the Language of the Business, Not the Language of Research

To translate research into influence, you have to stop talking like a researcher. Sam’s advice is simple but powerful: identify what makes your business tick and communicate your findings in that language.

"Figure out the language of the business," he urged. "Figure out how you can apply research to the language of the business and speak that language as fluently as you can and not as a researcher."

For social media, it's engagement. For a SaaS company, it could be churn or net revenue retention. For Sam, working in financial services, that language is ‘basis points’. He explained that by fixing friction in a loan application funnel, even a tiny improvement of a few basis points can translate to millions of dollars.

What happens when you’re connecting your insights directly to the core metrics your stakeholders care about? You get to move from being a service department to a strategic partner.

3. Treat All Feedback as a Gift (and Put It in One Place)

Sam is a firm believer that valuable insights are hiding in plain sight across your organization. The key is to see them, collect them, and unify them.

"Feedback is a gift, and feedback comes in many forms," he said. "Whether you're doing design research, marketing research, any kind of research, really. It's all there for the taking."

He advocates for creating a singular repository for every stream of customer feedback:

• Customer Care: Call center recordings, chatbot logs, support emails.
• Social Media: Comments on Reddit, X, and other platforms.
• Surveys: Programmatic NPS, in-product intercepts, and ad-hoc surveys.
• Qualitative Interviews: Usability tests, 1-on-1 discovery sessions, and more.

By bringing these disparate sources together, you can "pick up broader themes" and "triangulate on the size and scope of these problems." This transforms siloed data into a massive, interconnected human insights database that reveals the full customer experience.

4. Embrace Bold Democratization

The idea of non-researchers doing research makes many in the community nervous. But, after initially resisting the trend, Sam realized that it's the only way to achieve true scale.

"I needed friends, and I needed a lot of friends," he joked.

His argument is pragmatic. "If you have 100 PMs in your org and each one of them does one interview a month, that's a low bar and across the course of a year, you're talking about thousands of interviews."

The key is not to forbid non-researcher research but instead guide it. Empower your product managers and designers with good tooling, templates, and defined "swim lanes." Help them write better guides and surveys. A researcher’s role in democratization is to consult and enable, reducing the risk while multiplying the organization's capacity for learning.

The Future Researcher: More Strategic, Less Tactical

When you combine a unified data repository with a democratized research culture, what happens to the expert researcher? According to Sam, their role becomes even more valuable.

AI and non-researchers can handle the tactical, "middle" work., freeing up seasoned researchers to focus on the complex, strategic work that businesses need and crave.

"I'm going to get to do more strategic work. I'm going to get more future-forward thinking work," he said. "It allows you to look around corners. It allows you the space to do that deep thought."

Ready to drive business impact at scale?

Sam’s playbook offers a clear roadmap to transform research from a support function into a strategic engine for business growth. By implementing these key strategies, you can elevate your team’s purpose and become an indispensable driver of business results:

• Frame your insights around the core metrics your stakeholders care about.
• Centralize all feedback into a single repository to spot broader themes and triangulate insights.
• Empower non-researchers to conduct their own research within clear guardrails.
• Free your seasoned experts to focus on the complex, long-term business strategy that looks around corners.

At Marvin, we provide the AI-powered repository and toolset you need. We help you centralize all your customer feedback, democratize research with confidence, and connect insights directly to your bottom line.

See how Marvin can help you scale. Sign up for free or book a free, personalized demo to get started.