The industrialization of knowledge work
I’m back in the office after attending the 2023 Quirk’s Event in New York City, and after a week of catching up on e-mail (thank you to everyone who sent in session-related event reviews!) I finally had a chance to sit down and think deeply about the amazing sessions I attended.
Throughout the event, two recurring discussions stood out to me, one an age-old conundrum – how to effectively share insights across an organization – and the other a current hot-button topic – how AI will impact marketing research and insights professionals.
Sharing marketing research data with stakeholders
How to most effectively – and efficiently – share data and insights across an organization is a topic I’ve continued to see pop up in my nine years within the marketing research industry. So, it wasn’t surprising to see it be a topic of interest within a variety of sessions.
The importance of intentional data use throughout an organization was mentioned during the very first session I attended, “Entertainment habits of a hard-to-reach audience,” by Michael Wehrman, Comcast. During the session, Wehrnman called out how important it is for marketing research teams to determine when, how and who has access to internal data.
It was also great to sit in on case study sessions presented by researchers who clearly work for organizations that understand the power of research insights. In his presentation, “How Thomas’ refreshed their brand to attract younger audiences,” Mike Jensen, Thomas’s English Muffins, said, “As we become a more marketing-focused organization, we are spending more money and we need to make sure the creative is right. We’re competing against the whole [breakfast] landscape.”
But what about marketing research departments that are struggling with visibility within the organization? Companies where key stakeholders aren’t even looking to access internal data?
Daron Sharps, Pinterest, shared a tangible step researchers can take to ensure their capabilities and overall roles are clear across the organization. Sharps suggests adding a one-page Google slide with a high-level look at what you do and how you do it to a company-wide communication forum, such as a Slack account.
In her presentation with Mary Earley, Monica Wood, Herbalife, summed up the role high-level stakeholders have in the success of marketing research: “You need at least some form of appetite from the senior level to make anything happen.”
During the session, Wood and Earley discussed how stakeholder buy in can assist researchers in creating an identity as an insights department, no matter the size of the team. Being known across an organization as key players – and not order takers – can help researchers find success when they ultimately present data and insights.
Skills researchers need for an AI future
While there were many thought-provoking discussions on AI and marketing research at the Quirk’s Event – and some interesting new tools! – I was most focused on discussions around the skills researchers need to stay relevant.
To my excitement, a panel discussion titled, “Generative AI: Your new partner or the next threat,” with Kathy Cheng, Brian Gee, Daniel Berkal and Sidi Lemine, moderated by Ayoub Aouad, focused in on the skills researchers need to build in 2023 and beyond.
The first – and possibly the most important – skill: comfort with AI. The group seemed to agree that researchers must start playing with the AI tools out there – imagery, video, text and more – and simply become comfortable with AI.
Beyond that, panel participants spoke to the importance of developing skills that allow researchers to use AI to combine quant and qual in a more seamless way.
As one panelist remarked, AI is fundamentally the industrialization of knowledge work. It’s less of a skill-set shift and more of a mind-set shift. As the saying now goes, AI is not going to take your job, but someone who knows how to use AI will. Instead of worrying, start sharpening your skills and work to be less precious about your discipline.