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. 

Shefali Khanna

Manager, Consumer Insights, Brookfield Properties

What led you to a career in research and insights? 

I started off college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in a major unrelated to research. A few months in, I didn’t feel that it was the right fit for me and I dropped out of my major. Undecided, I started taking – and crashing! – classes in a variety of subjects to see what interested me. I took an economics course and it felt relevant to me, and I could connect the dots between what I learned in the classroom and what I saw in the outside world. Combined with having a more generalist mind-set, this ultimately led to my first job at Ipsos, where I could apply my social science background along with my diverse interests to tackle business challenges. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced everyone to pivot. What has been the most challenging shift for you and your team? 

Prior to COVID-19, we did a considerable amount of in-person research. This was everything from ethnography to shopper intercepts at properties, observational research during market tours, IDIs and focus groups, you name it! And suddenly, all of the tools either had to shift to digital methods or be paused in the interim. We had to adapt to more agile approaches and really make sure our insights were highly actionable in the current situation to each audience.  

Could you share tips for researchers who are struggling to engage with key stakeholders? 

Since the pandemic started, I have made it a part of the standard research process to conduct stakeholder interviews at the beginning of a project. I identify a variety of stakeholders – those who are both the end receiver of the insights, as well as other cross-functional members who will benefit from the research, even if it’s not directly applicable. This helps to make them feel more involved in the outcome and also helps keep our team more top-of-mind if they do have other business questions in the future. I also schedule check-in meetings periodically throughout the year so that the lines of communication remain open. 

Do you see yourself leveraging any new methodologies or tools in the next year? 

It’s a passion of mine to try out new tools, so definitely on the radar! We have recently onboarded with a multi-method qualitative platform that we are excited to use and hope to continue to use in the future for a variety of business questions. We are doing more ideations as well, so using tools that can help with remote or hybrid ideation. As we look to continue to use insights for innovation, we expect to expand our UX research capabilities as well for new products, tech and services. We are also exploring tools that leverage AI and neuroscience capabilities, to get a different layer of insights beyond traditional methods and hope to implement soon.