INSIGHT on INSIGHT: Improving the odds that insight is applied
The value of any research, or the insight that research produces, is limited by how effectively it is applied.
Data that is collected, but never analyzed doesn’t really exist, does it?
Presentations sitting in the back of file cabinets don’t pay out, do they?
New learning that never makes it to decision-makers probably isn’t influencing their decisions, right?
While research always begins with defining the right objectives, there needs to simultaneously be a plan to apply (or act on) the anticipated insight. Insight without action is little more than academic at best, and worthless at worst. Ensuring application happens involves a couple of important steps:
Be sure the decision makers aren’t just aware of the research, but they are given the opportunity to provide guidance and input into the design. This accomplishes several ends:
- It creates a sense of ownership.
- It helps incorporate the knowledge and perspective of more people.
- It improves the odds of others viewing the results as legitimate and worthy of guiding decisions.
- It could reveal additional issues or questions needing to be answered.
Force team members to identify their assumptions, hypotheses or gut instinct that the research may prove to be right or wrong: This is not done to embarrass anyone. Rather, it is done to establish a starting point of awareness. Having this will better demonstrate how the research has provided new or better understanding. It can also prevent certain nay-sayer personalities from dropping the “that’s what I thought all along” comments at the end of the project.
Think through what groups you want included in analysis: The number of groups included in the analysis of a project is a key component to the overall cost of research, but that number can also be a critical component to the value derived from the research. There is obviously a likely point of diminishing returns, but the group not included in the analysis might also be where the biggest insights are hiding. Here are some guidelines to help determine what groups to include in the analysis of your project.
Visualize the desired results in advance: Thinking through the specific slides or graphs or tables or statements you’d want produced from the research makes if far more likely you’ll actually get what you wanted. Visualization can have a huge impact on how the insight tells a story, including how easily it is understood and how convincing it is. This begin with the end in mind approach while make sure you’re asking the right questions, in the right ways to create what you have in mind. Remember that it is hard to make pie charts or stacked bar charts with multiple-choice questions. Just like it is hard to understand a complete picture of relative preference across attributes with a question that only allows respondents to select one answer.
Realize what decisions are already made and which are outside the influence of the research: Many companies do research later than they should. In other words, they have probably made numerous decisions and already committed to going down certain paths before they ask the questions to reveal which path is best to go down. Be careful when designing research that could threaten those in authority or undermine parts of the organization. Keep research focused on the areas it can make a positive influence and not the areas it will only cause disruption.
Involve buyers or external audiences in the design: It almost always makes sense to involve a retailer in the design of research that will ultimately be presented to them. Similar to doing this with internal decision-makers, it helps create buy-in and ownership. It can also create a different avenue to interact with the buyer when not trying to directly sell them something. Most buyers are pretty knowledgeable and opinionated, making this a great opportunity to learn more about how they view their business and what questions they’re trying to answer.
While none of the above steps will guarantee your insights result in the maximum amount of positive action, they will definitely improve the odds. Overlooking any one of these can compromise the story you want to tell with the insight or make it more difficult to get the attention and commitment you need from decision-makers.