Q & A with Susan Fader
Susan Fader will be presenting her session “Build it close to the ground and knock it down – Refocusing your data-gathering and analytic lens” at the Quirk's Event – New York in July 2022. The goal of Fader’s session is to help attendees get the most out of their data by practicing good listening and observation skills.
Fader took the time to answer some of our questions about her session and what she does to prepare for an event.
“Technology has really supercharged the research community’s ability – but don’t forget sometimes the insight will come from one human to human conversation.” – Susan Fader, FaderFocus
What would be the one thing you would want an attendee to take away from your session?
If you make the wrong baseline assumptions on which your mountain of data is built on, you are using the wrong context to interpret and analyze the data.
Most research studies assume that baseline assumptions about the target are static, but human behavior and the world around them is not static – it is constantly changing/evolving and impacting how people make purchase decisions and interact with brands, and COVID has only increased how fast this is being done. So before you start any research project, do a check-in to make sure your baseline assumptions about your target, competitive world, taxonomy and other relevant measures, have not changed.
In addition, how businesses categorize people may not match how these people self-perceive.
What is the main thing that the world of big data can learn from the world of qualitative research?
A qualitative researcher’s superpower is wide-open listening. Sometimes the insight gem you are looking for can be just one point of data in your mountain of data versus how frequently something is found in aggregated data.
What do you do to prepare before speaking?
An ironing board is key for me – one more practice run the day before my presentation. The board is positioned in front of a mirror with my laptop on it – and it is the perfect height!