As everyone across the industry works to find their footing in this first month of 2021, we thought it wise to look back at the articles published in Quirk’s e-newsletter and magazine in the past year and highlight a few that introduced new or interesting approaches. We hope you find an actionable tip or two to take with you as you take on the new year.
This compilation includes the following topics: counterintuitive thinking; inclusive consumer research; presenting stats to non-statisticians; new-to-the-world tech products; and improving MR’s influence and involvement around corporate strategy initiatives.
How counterintuitive thinking can inject some fresh perspectives into your research
“When designing a research project, experience obviously matters but if there’s a project where you are stuck or want to generate some innovative ideas, the Einstellung Effect says it might be useful to bring in someone who’s unfamiliar with your situation. The Einstellung Effect refers to a person’s predisposition to solve a problem in a specific manner, even though better or more appropriate methods exist. David Epstein, in his book ‘Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World,’ uses trench-digging to illustrate this: ‘Everyone is digging deeper into their own trench and rarely standing up to look in the next trench over, even though the solution to their problem happens to reside there.’
“A specialist may dig a deep trench and only employ methods they’re familiar with and construct hypotheses within the confines of their specific expertise and POV. A generalist – the outsider – may have a wide breadth of knowledge and experience, allowing them to pull from many different sources to find solutions in experiences across a broader range of options.”
Takeaway: If you’re experiencing strategic challenges, it might be time to take an unexpected approach to your research. Consider incorporating a broader range of opinions – specifically that of an outsider – when designing a research project. Read the full article.
4 principles for inclusive research with BIPOC consumers
“The first principle when conducting research studies, especially among BIPOC study participants, is the responsibility of both the client and researcher to do their due diligence prior to even starting the study. Both must better understand the context of the BIPOC experience and obtain at the very least a cursory understanding of history, traditions and culture.
“The old adage ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ is especially true in this case. Find out what you don’t know. To start any study you need to make baseline assumptions, but if you are starting in the wrong place, all your findings can be off. Google should be your new best friend when it comes to accessing information, not your BIPOC neighbor, colleague or Afro-Latino friend from college. They have enough stress and anxiety associated with being BIPOC on their plate right now, and it is not their job to be your teacher. “Know up to glow up” means take time to know more to better inform study design, recruiting and objectives in order to get higher quality results, especially when using online studies where body language that tells silent stories is missed or goes unnoticed.”
Takeaway: To conduct inclusive research, you must first find out what you don’t know. This means understanding your own biases and assumptions before launching into research design. Read the full article.
Presenting statistics to non-statisticians
“Everyone knows that 50% means half and that five is greater than four, but a lot of the coefficients and other statistics generated by multivariate techniques are not so easily understood. When communicating with marketing people, I usually do not try to explain what certain numbers specifically represent, first because my audience doesn’t really care and, second because I don’t always have a good understanding of them myself. Instead, it is often more relevant to simply designate certain levels as high, medium and low or, even better, create a basic index which puts them on a 100-point scale (like in a test at school). These are frameworks that everyone understands and using an index like this has an added benefit. It lets me combine different statistical techniques to provide a more comprehensive picture of what is going on with the data.
“Let’s take an example of trying to determine what factors drive the decision to purchase or not purchase carpeting at a particular retailer. People who shopped for carpeting at this retailer were asked to rate their experience on several factors having to do with price, product, service, etc. Several different statistical techniques were then applied to the data, including linear regression, logistic regression, discriminant function analysis and ANOVA.”
Takeaway: Being able to clearly present statistical analysis to clients, marketing people and other non-statisticians is a valuable skill. Consider leveling the knowledge playing field by using a well-known framework that simplifies the data breakdown when communicating complex numbers. Read the full article.
Advancing research in an ever-evolving technology industry
“Some research requires an intense process of educating the customer on what they are assessing. This is often because the concept is new or the business model requires the customer to understand it well enough to determine the likelihood of purchasing at different price points. To do this, we have engineers walk them through the technologies, give tutorials and even clarify and provide opportunities for the customers to ask questions during data collection.
“Extensive pre-testing of survey instruments is common for more complicated research designs or when the product concept is novel. It is critical to create a base-level understanding around what a product does, and more importantly, why they should care about it to ensure we are getting feedback that leads to actionable insights. In some cases, the best way to learn about customers and new technologies is to observe how they use them. Using third-party opt-in research platforms, we can see what features are used, how long they use them, what they avoid and other applications they use them with.”
Takeaway: When working with complex tech and new-to-the-world products, it’s important to create a base-level understanding of the product and what it does before conducting research. Read the full article.
Moving insights from cost-center to strategic partner
“Whatever the corporate strategy initiative may be, start by positioning it as a problem. That way, your task becomes to find a data-informed solution. Something that can be fact-checked. This allows you to develop various hypotheses to identify the “real” problem. It also provides a roadmap for research and analysis you need to vet the hypotheses quicker and to do so simultaneously.
“Which problem you frame and how you frame the problem are key considerations. Ideally, you should be able to frame your problem very succinctly. For example, if I’m a restaurant brand with declining sales (compared to last year) you can probably frame my problem as Why did sales decline and what should I do now? Framing the problem correctly takes time, though, and you need to ensure you work on the right problem.”
Takeaway: This article locks into key steps corporate insights teams can take to move from being seen as a cost-center to a strong asset for driving strategic agendas and unlocking growth. Read the full article.