NordVPN is bringing customer research into everyday design decisions with Ballpark, giving its specialist research team more time to explore bigger questions.
Industry
Cybersecurity
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From online privacy to global cybersecurity giant
Nord Security’s story began in 2012 with NordVPN, a virtual private network service built to help people protect their privacy online. That commitment has since grown into a broader ambition: to make digital life safer, from securing everyday browsing to protecting passwords and business networks.
Today, Nord Security is Lithuania’s second tech unicorn and an industry-leading cybersecurity provider, with more than 2,000 employees serving millions of users worldwide.
For the teams behind NordVPN, that growth brings new questions about how customers discover and understand protections beyond the VPN itself. Research helps them explore what customers need, how they interpret security information and what shapes their decisions.
UX Research Manager Renata Razmaitė-Paliukaitė and her colleagues investigate those questions across product and marketing, from acquisition through to retention. Part of their work is helping designers and other colleagues bring customer research into their own decisions, with guidance from the UX research team.
“We don’t want to be a research unit which just gets requests and goes to research. We want to do proactive research.”
Why NordVPN chose Ballpark
For designers working through a project, even a small research question can involve finding participants, arranging sessions and waiting for research capacity. Whether they are checking navigation or testing copy, those delays can make it tempting to proceed on assumptions. As Renata puts it, “There is no such time when you are in the design process; you just need answers now.”
NordVPN had used other research tools, but Ballpark appealed because colleagues could get started without first becoming experts in the software. Renata describes it as:
“Something a non-researcher can open and create a test. Intuitive product. Not overcrowded with unnecessary stuff.”
The relationship with Ballpark also influenced the choice. NordVPN valued the close support through Slack and the direction of the product’s development, alongside an interface that suited people who conduct research as one part of a wider role.
Research beyond the research team
Today, over 70 people use Ballpark. Within NordVPN, researchers, designers, app CRO specialists and UX writers use it for prototypes, information architecture, copy and experiment selection.
That wider participation has changed who runs everyday validation. Designers can investigate interactions, writers can check whether language makes sense, and CRO specialists can explore directions before committing traffic to an experiment. Renata describes the shift in ownership:
“Designers can now run the more straightforward studies in Ballpark themselves, rather than relying on the research team.”
The aim is to help colleagues answer questions within their own work, with specialist researchers available to guide them. The size of users on their workspace shows how far access has spread beyond the core research team.
The same habit extends to deciding which ideas should progress to live experiments. One design leader described having four ideas but enough traffic to A/B test only two. Ballpark helped the team gather an early signal and narrow the options before committing traffic.
This changed when and where research happens. Colleagues can bring evidence into a decision while they still have room to act on it, without every study needing to be run by a researcher.
Helping colleagues through their first study
Making the software available was only part of the work. NordVPN’s research team had previously tried presentations and training sessions to encourage colleagues to conduct their own research, but those efforts had limited impact.
What proved more useful was helping someone complete a real study. A colleague could arrive with a question from their current project, and a researcher would work alongside them to turn it into something they could investigate.
Renata describes this as becoming their “research buddy”:
“If you want to do research but aren’t sure where to start, a UX researcher will become your research buddy. We’ll work through it together and set up your first study from scratch.”
That support can include shaping the question, reviewing the study and checking that the approach will produce useful evidence. Dedicated Slack spaces give colleagues somewhere to ask questions as they become more independent.
Confidence develops through that experience. Someone who has completed a straightforward validation study has a starting point for the next one, along with a better understanding of when to ask for help. Over time, experienced designers can also support other designers, spreading that knowledge further.
Researchers continue to play an important role in protecting quality. They can challenge weak questions and help teams avoid drawing conclusions the evidence cannot support. Renata’s advice is to “make it seem accessible”, so that rigor supports participation rather than making research feel too intimidating to attempt.
“If our CRO specialists who are not designers or researchers can do their own test, it means everyone can do it.”
More room for strategic research
NordVPN sometimes describes research capability as levels in a game. Colleagues might begin by using existing insights, then run an unmoderated Ballpark study before progressing to interviews or direct customer conversations. The complex strategic studies sit at what Renata calls the “boss level”, where specialist researchers bring their deeper expertise.
As colleagues take ownership of simpler studies, researchers can devote more attention to discovery and questions that reach across individual projects. Ballpark also plays a role in that deeper work, alongside other research methods.
When NordVPN began testing early concepts for positioning its product as a broader cybersecurity and next-generation antivirus offering, the research team combined face-to-face interviews with AI-moderated interviews in Ballpark. The AI interviews extended the research to more participants, helping the team check whether the themes emerging in person appeared more widely. That combination gave researchers greater confidence in their findings.
Renata’s longer-term ambition is for those studies to contribute to a connected body of customer intelligence, helping the business build on what it already knows. She also wants research to have a stronger role in shaping the decisions that follow.
“I see research as having a seat at the table where product decisions are taken.”
With multiple teams across the business using Ballpark and designers already running their own validation studies, NordVPN is putting that approach into practice. Customer research is becoming part of more people’s everyday work, supported by a specialist team with greater room to look ahead.
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