Q&A with a client-side researcher

Editor's note: If you're an end-client researcher and interested in participating in a Q&A with Quirk's, please e-mail me at emilyk@quirks.com.

How did you first become interested in consumer insights?

I was almost born into consumer insights. My mom started bookkeeping for a marketing research firm in Los Angeles when I was six. By age eight I was helping my much older siblings on Saturday mornings by removing golf pencils from the unused movie exit interviews they brought home from late Friday night movie screenings. The scratch paper I colored on was the back of unused questionnaires. Eventually, I started working in the office during the summers in high school and worked my way through college there doing everything from copying and coding to starting to write questionnaires and reports.

When I added anthropology as a second major in college, I laughed when the degree overview sheet listed “marketing research” as a potential career. It was the last thing I saw myself doing for the long haul at that point. However, by the end of college, my desire to help companies develop great products and great advertising overwhelmed my desire for multiple years of grad school. Thus, here I am.

Do you have any tips for small research and insights teams that are working to communicate findings across a large organization?

I strongly recommend two things:

First, create a strong network both inside and outside your company.  

Inside your company, find the stakeholders and allies that value insights. Those folks will help make sure your POV and insights are present at every meeting, especially when you can’t clone yourself to be there. Their support will help you entrench the importance of insights throughout the company and help you get additional resources over time. Additionally, befriending insights professionals in other areas (such as product or customer insights) will help make sure you aren’t wasting your precious time focused on work that another team might be better suited for. 

Outside your company, connect with other insights professionals through groups like the newly formed Professional Insights Collaborative – thanks to Quirk’s for making that happen … yes, a shameless plug – and the Insights Association. Connecting with peers at other companies can help you come up with new ideas for your company, get recognized for the work you’re doing that your non-insights coworkers might not take for granted and have an outlet to commiserate. I’m part of a monthly virtual coffee with several industry peers that I’ve met over the last few years that is amazingly helpful from both a professional and personal standpoint. 

Second, I highly recommend finding a way to organize your insights and democratize them via a knowledge management platform. Giving your key stakeholders direct access to the insights you already have in house helps everyone keep insights top of mind. It also frees up your small team’s time to work on and think about the bigger questions your business is/should be asking. Getting the “Can you send me a copy of X report?” requests off your plate allows you time to help answer questions like, “From our consumers’ standpoint, what should we, as a company, be focused on?”

Who – or what – has influenced your career the most? 

The biggest influence on my career was when I stepped away from marketing research/consumer insights for a couple of years in my mid-20s to work on a cruise ship in Hawaii. Not only was it a fascinating experience that introduced me to my husband, but I’ve also carried several valuable career lessons with me ever since:

  • I probably never would have left L.A. and worked for other suppliers or end brands. I was content where I was and would likely have been a lifer there. Taking the bold step to leave everything for Hawaii has helped me get over the fear of making decisions that resulted in moving positions and companies to advance my career.
  • No matter how much you may dislike a coworker personally, you have to be able to set that aside to get the work done. Believe me, having to be professional while working the front desk next to someone who is a nightmare of a roommate isn’t easy. It makes getting along with difficult coworkers on land a breeze … I know they aren’t going to follow me home.
  • No matter how heated meetings get, no business stakeholder is ever going to be as mad as a little old couple from the mainland that has been saving their whole lives for a cruise around Hawaii and feel their vacation has been ruined because their cabin isn’t up to their expectations. In tense meetings, I still think back to the raw emotion I dealt with from upset vacationers and the techniques I developed to help deescalate the situation and let cooler heads prevail.
  • Finally, I’ll never run out of topics of conversation for business dinners. It’s been 25 years since I left the ship and I’m still telling the stories from that experience. In fact, I’m writing a book about it – another shameless plug. Stay tuned!