Marketing researchers discuss tips for ensuring insights drive action

In 2020, Quirk’s annual Q Report looked at how researchers were handling the challenge of redefining insights and identifying the skills necessary to survive the unknown. This year, as the marketing research and insight industry continues to face a changing economy, we dug into the ways client-side researchers would most like to improve internal communications and better understand why some stakeholders do not look to the insights function first when making important business decisions.  

In the survey, we asked respondents to think of a time when internal stakeholders didn’t include the insights function in important business decisions and gave them a list of possible reasons. Lack of awareness of the insights function’s capabilities was the top choice (26%) with stakeholders using other internal data to understand the issue close behind (21%). 

We also asked an open-ended question, “In what areas would you most like to improve your ability to communicate with internal departments or internal stakeholders?”

While there were a wide variety of responses, including a respondent who stated they have “complete buy-in for the customer insights function,” many pointed to the struggle to establish credibility and convey the power and importance of insights: 

  • “I would like to do a better job of conveying the importance of including insights early in the decision process, starting with survey objectives and a data analysis plan. Too often, stakeholders e-mail me a Word document with a list of questions and ask me to do a survey.”
  • “I'd like to create greater awareness of our capabilities and how our work can add value.”
  • “In how we communicate insights so that we can be more persuasive and memorable.”
  • “Establish credibility and trust with corporate communications and expand my scope.”
  • “I would love for internal partners and stakeholders to better understand the value that research and insights bring and have the ability to measure ROI on research/insights work.”

[For a deeper dive into the verbatims from the 2023 Q Report work life and salary and compensation study, check out Quirk’s Editor Joseph Rydholm’s article, “Better communication seen as key to defining, enhancing researchers’ role and internal standing”.] 

To in effort to promote conversations within the industry about ways researchers can develop lines of communication, establish credibility and foster stakeholder relationships, we decided to look at tips from client-side researchers who are passionate about ensuring insights are not only communicated throughout an organization but also acted upon. 

Proactively bring forward the insights that matter. 

“Apply what you’re already skilled at doing as a researcher to your business partners. Build empathy for them, understand their needs, what they care about, what influences them and why. Then figure out how you can help them. Do they need information to help them make a decision? Do they need insight to illuminate the path forward? Do they need something they don’t yet know they need? Just as consumers can’t always articulate their needs, our business partners don’t always know what they need or should be asking for. When we proactively bring forward what matters – vs. just answering questions we receive – we play a role in setting the business agenda and strategy and become true business partners.

“And to ensure insights are not only shared but also acted upon, think about some of the principles of advertising. Just as consumers need communication that captures their attention, is relevant and clear, so do our business partners. It’s our job to figure out what’s most relevant to them, and to share that in a clear and concise way that makes them want to “buy” what you’re selling. We need to go beyond reporting the “what” and translating that to the “so what.” Why should we care about this? What does this mean for us? And also the “now what.” What should we do as a result? Don’t leave your business partners to have to figure out what it all means. And make sure the “now what” gets shared with those that are in the position to make decisions and act – do you know who those are?” Rachel Pruitt, Target

Work with stakeholders to define business values. 

“To prove business value, you and your stakeholders must define that value together. Do your homework before that discussion, we are researchers after all! Make sure you understand the business value your stakeholders deliver to the organization and how they do it. Build trust by reinforcing that you succeed when they succeed. Not every research effort will add the value you expect but your commitment to partnership will help you earn opportunities and success will come.” Ed Kahn, Mutual of America

Involve decision makers in initial project conversations. 

“Promote two-way dialogue through all points of the research process. I’ve found that the most successful projects take a more hands-on approach, with decision makers heavily involved in conversations as soon as initial project scoping. ... By aligning on action standards up front, decision makers are ultimately given the implications of research at an early stage, which results in greater personal investment and buy-in. It also gives leaders the opportunity to provide feedback if the outcomes are not sufficient, which can result in scope modifications – in many cases scope expansion – that will greater serve the needs of the business. 

“This initial project alignment also sets the stage for more efficient results conversations, where instead of establishing KPIs, there is a more productive focus on debriefing results and implementing next steps. Having a two-way dialogue is equally important here, as reactions to research pave the way for future research considerations and results that drive more action.” Jessica Noteware, Chobani

Cater insight conversations and reports to each specific audience. 

“Thinking about your different audiences and the way they best absorb information is so critical. … I think insights functions and researchers can often get a bad rap or really bring about a stereotype in organizations – ‘the nerdy data people’ who are too in the weeds or only speak numbers. When I first came on board, I saw some decks that made my eyes glaze over. I worked closely with our leaders Matt Paolucci and Allison Masor to think about who our stakeholders are from leadership and NPD to creatives and about ways the data and insights can come to life that translates to their learning and working styles. We call it “slideology” and revamped our different reports to cater to their different needs. 

“When it comes NPD, we can get more into the minutia with graphs and tables, but if we’re working with marketing or creative, we’re leveraging higher-level storytelling and imagery to convey our points. We certainly aim to blend the two approaches as much as possible so we’re not being duplicative in our work and can lean on decks that work cross-functionally. 

“Another example is that when we’re thinking about our reports, we try to design the deliverable in the format that we know can easily be lifted and leveraged directly by the stakeholder. Asking ourselves questions like – if sales wanted to put this into a customer facing deck, would that be, OK? What would we need to change about it?”  Elizabeth Pfeiffer, Chobani

“It’s common to see push back through questions like: Why should I care? Are the results actionable? Can you just send the findings via e-mail? I think it’s imperative to drive excitement within the org and showcase the impact of the work to enable reach. Fine-tune your output to be concise, interesting and actionable. Look for different ways of showcasing the work – panel discussion, trivia, workshop, etc. – which will make the findings more relatable and shareable.” Marat Fleytlikh, Kraft Heinz 

Foster relationships across the organization.

“Our team has earned a bigger seat at the table by building strong relationships with all product disciplines and other departments that are key to our success, including product experience, customer success, sales, marketing and the analytics team. We have work groups centered around specific problems to solve, for example improving new user onboarding, where multiple functions and disciplines combine efforts for efficiency, so we don’t work in silos. In these work groups, we apply some of the road mapping best practices. When you have clear goals and priorities, you can easily identify the missing pieces and work together with other stakeholders to improve.

“On top of all the strategic planning work, we have also made our research documentation and all research communication more transparent, visible and accessible to all stakeholders. Our stakeholders feel more educated about the product research process, and it helps them have a more holistic view of our users and their needs.” Mariann Lowery, Stack Overflow for Teams

The Q Report survey was fielded from May 24 to July 10, 2023. In total we received 1,969 usable qualified responses, of which 707 were from end-client researchers and used for this end-client report. An interval (margin of error) of 2.17 at the 95% confidence level was achieved for the entire study. (Not all respondents answered all questions.)