Voxpopme 8: Two key tips or tricks for communicating insights that resonate with the C-Suite and drive real results
Along with a group of market rese
archers from around the world, I was asked to participate in Voxpopme Perspectives – an initiative wherein insights industry experts share ideas about a variety of topics via video. You can read more about it here or watch the videos here. Viewers can then reach out over Twitter or upload their own video response. I’m more of a writer so you’ll catch me blogging rather than vlogging. 🙂
Episode 8: Share two key tips or tricks you have for communicating insights that resonate with the C-Suite and drive real results.
Alrighty, tip number one: Sample Sizes.
The reasons for choosing sample sizes are a foreign concept to many people, leaders included. Many people depend on you to provide helpful guidance when it comes understanding what an appropriate sample size is, the drawbacks of those sizes, and how results can be interpreted given those choices. One tip I’ve used is to give them specific examples of what might and might not be statistically significant when the results do come through. For instance, rather than sharing the margin of error around a specific sample size, instead I’ll say something like:
With this sample size, a result of 30% would be statistically different from 37% but statistically the same as 36%. Are you prepared to choose a winning concept that is preferred by 30% of people rather than by 36% of people?
Tip number two: actionability.
As someone who loves raw data, cleaned data, charted data, graphed data, and tabled data, sometimes it’s hard to take the next step and make the data useable and actionable. But business leaders don’t always care about individual data points. They may not even be concerned with summaries of the results. What they really want is your informed opinion about what the data actually mean, and the appropriate options that should be considered as a result of the data. So, beyond reporting that 30% of people like a certain thing, use your understanding of the rest of the results to indicate why they like a certain thing, why they might not like it, the implications of moving forward (or not) with that thing, and how that choice might affect other products on the market already. Take the data as far forward as you possibly can in order to give them fodder to spark further ideas.
Bonus tip!
Know your own weaknesses. I know that data visualization is not my strength. When I need data to be visualized well so that it is understandable by everyone, from junior to senior and expert to newbie, my only option is to find an expert. And here’s an example of how an expert would illustrate missing data. I would have never thought to do it like but look at how effective it is. It’s worth the extra cost.
http://www.thirdway.org/infographic/the-absurd-way-we-report-higher-ed-data
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Voxpopme 3: Is market research slow to adopt new technologies?
Along with a group of market researchers from around the world, I was asked to participate in Voxpopme Perspectives – an initiative wherein insights industry experts share ideas about a variety of topics via video. You can read more about it here or watch the videos here. Viewers can then reach out over Twitter or upload their own video response. I’m more of a writer so you’ll catch me blogging rather than vlogging. 🙂
Episode 3: Think about the barriers and resistance to new technology in the research industry that you’ve come across. People say that market research is slow to adopt. Is it true?
No. 100% no.
My absolute defiance to this question stems from one very important definition: what is market research? For me, market research is any scientific process (whether qualitative and quantitative!) that helps us to better understand consumers and markets. As you see, that definition says nothing about surveys or focus groups or big data or artificial intelligence. Methods and technology play no part. Companies marketing themselves in the market research business play no part. That definition doesn’t say System 1 Research, Affectiva, or Ipsos. It also doesn’t say Google, Facebook, or Tesla.
With that in mind, the market research industry is full steam ahead. We are awash with companies at the forefront of artificial intelligence, machine learning, neural networks, virtual/augmented/modified/extreme reality. If you can name a way awesome technology, I can guarantee you that someone is using it for market research purposes. Of course, the company might have been formed three months ago in someone’s basement or maybe even two years ago. And, even though they’re doing it, the company might not even know what “market research” or “consumer research” is.
What our industry is REALLY good at is claiming that other industries are trying to barge into our territory. We’re REALLY resistant at acknowledging that market research companies exist outside of those claiming a spot on market research supplier lists. That there are many other companies doing what we thought we could claim as MINE MINE MINE.
So on that note, if you’re looking forward to a career in market research, don’t necessarily seek out a company that markets themselves as market researchers. Seek out companies that work to understand consumers and markets, whatever the name or size of the company and whatever industry or methodology they use. There are a ton of really cool companies out there doing some amazing things even though they’ve never heard of ESOMAR, MRIA, Insights Association, ARF, AMSRS, or MRS before. Once you’re there, feel free to introduce us to them. We’re lovely people!
Voxpopme 4:. What is an insight?
Along with a group of market researchers from around the world, I was asked to participate in Voxpopme Perspectives – an initiative wherein insights industry experts share ideas about a variety of topics via video. You can read more about it here or watch the videos here. Viewers can then reach out over Twitter or upload their own video response. I’m more of a writer so you’ll catch me blogging rather than vlogging. 🙂
What is an insight?
Ah yes, the never-ending question in our business. I have a fairly simple yet vague definition of insight. It’s anything that turns on a lightbulb over your head. It’s that piece of knowledge that makes you sit straight up or jump out of your seat or pop your eyes out of their socket. The one that makes you go “OH MY GOD” or “HOLY SHIT.”
True insight is rare. You’re really lucky if you get even one out of each research study you run.
If you think about it, we go into most research projects with ideas, hypotheses, expectations. We create a data collection tool, collect data, run the analyses, and confirm what we hypothesized all along. We just have the data to back it up now.
From my perspective, insights were never an idea or hypothesis or expectation. They come out of nowhere and smack you in the face.
The trick with an insight is to capture it before it dissipates. To realize that what is running through your mind is magic and that you need to take note of and write it down.
If you love it, don’t set it free. Catch that puppy and write it up. If you do set it free, you’ll never be able to turn it into an actionable outcome.
Voxpopme 5: How can you best educate, develop, and improve yourself in market research?
Along with a group of market researchers from around the world, I was asked to participate in Voxpopme Perspectives – an initiative wherein insights industry experts share ideas about a variety of topics via video. You can read more about it here or watch the videos here. Viewers can then reach out over Twitter or upload their own video response. I’m more of a writer so you’ll catch me blogging rather than vlogging. 🙂
Episode 5: How can you best educate, develop, and improve yourself in market research?
Our industry is really lucky to be one that is focused on learning, educating, and sharing knowledge. We have an abundance of mentors who love to help people grow. No matter your budget, you have great options for learning more about market research.
But given that not everyone has the funds to attend conferences, buy books, or take classes, I’ll share three of my favourite free options.
Blogs: Literally hundreds of market researchers around the world keep personal blogs. They share their unique opinions based on their unique experiences about a plethora of topics from focus groups and surveys, to chatbots, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. You don’t need to know anything about the topics and you don’t even need to agree with a single thing they say. All you need to do is have an open mind to consider the ideas they’re sharing and you’ll quickly become a more informed and better decision maker.
I keep a list of hundreds of blogs in my RSS reader but here are some of my absolute favourites:
- Affectiva: If you’re ready to see what else is out there in market research land besides questionnaires, this is a great place to start. Facial coding, emotion, AI, biometrics, yeah baby!
- FlowingData (Nathan Yau): Lovely collection of beautiful charts, maps, infographics, and visualizations. Good place to stay on top of new and beautiful data.
- Pew Research Center: For the absolute best production of research about digital, social, there is no alternative. Every post could be considered a how-to guide on analyzing and presenting data. The topics are usually from the USA but the methodologies are universal.
- Lexalytics: Really nice posts on applying social media research to real life problems.
- Math with Bad Drawings (Ben Orlin): Lots of people hate math. Lots of people can’t draw. This blog uses bad drawing to help readers better understand math. It makes me smile!
- Not awful and boring examples for teaching statistics and research methods (Jess Hartnett): If you recall back to your statistics classes in university, most of them were pretty darn boring and made it really easy to tune out (Yup, I think 9 out of 10 of mine!). This blog has so many great ideas on how to teach statistics in ways that people enjoy. If you need a refresher, start here!
- System 1 Research Blog: Extremely well written thought pieces about marketing and research in all aspects of products, brands, life, and culture
Webinars: Ideas that start in personal blogs often make their way into companies where they turn into full-fledged research projects and then webinars. Sure, sometimes webinars feel like sales pitches but if you read between the lines, you can collect many tidbits of knowledge. Besides, learning about competitors’ products will help you in many ways – to improve your own products, point an existing client to a product that might work for them, or even partner with them on a project. In addition, Ray Poynter regularly runs webinars on a variety of topics with guests from around the world. In both cases, you can likely view them after the fact. Just register for the original webinar so you can the link afterwards.
Online conferences: I have two absolute favourite online conferences. You’ve probably heard of the NewMR festival that Ray Poynter runs. I’m also a big fan of VizFest which is run by Keen as Mustard marketing and E-Tabs. These two events run once per year over several days and they host speakers from around the world on a variety of topics. Some of the top speakers from other conferences speak here so if you have no budget to travel because you’re a solopreneur or a tiny company, you can still enjoy some of the best and brightest in the industry!
So there you go! Free and informed!
Annie’s Big Giant List of Market Research Blogs
I was fussing around with my RSS reader today, cleaning out the blogs that haven’t posted in a year or that never really caught my interest. I realized that the end result might be of interest to folks who are wondering whether there are any good marketing research, data, statistics, charts, neuroscience, etc blogs out there. The answer is yes! Enjoy!
AMSRO
Association for Survey Computing
BAQMaR
Blog – Experts in Qualitative Research
Data Science 101
Abbott Research
Accelerant Research
Acuity Eyetracking Blog
The Ad Contrarian
Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
Big Think
Blackbeard Blog
Affectiva Blog
Elevate
Voices of CMB: The Chadwick Martin Bailey Research Blog
The Visual Linguist
Exponential Blog
GfK Insights Blog
Joel Rubinson on Marketing Research
L&E Blog
Lightspeed Blog
Luminoso Blog
Market Research Blog
Medallia
MRII | Marketing Research Institute International
MSW Research Blog
Pureprofile Blog
qSample Blog
SurveyAnalytics Blog
CSC Blogs
Neuroskeptic
Forrester Blogs
Qualitative Research Cafe
BPS Research Digest
BrandSavant
BRIAN F. SINGH
Brian Juicer Blog
Business Over Broadway
Canadian Viewpoint
Chandoo.org – Learn Excel & Charting Online
Chart Porn
Chief Customer Officer 2.0
CIBRA
CivicScience
Cogs & Marvel
Curiously Persistent
Quirk
Dariusz Galasinski
Data ColadaData Colada
Doyleresearch
EMC
Eye Faster
FiveThirtyEightFiveThirtyEight | Politics
FlowingData
frankonlinemarketing.com
GRBN.org
Greenlight Insights
IAB Canada
I Love Charts
InsideBigData.com
Insightrix
InterQ Research
Junk Charts
Numbers Rule Your World
Qualitative Research
KL Communications, Inc.
Koert Bakker
Learn and Teach Statistics and Operations Research
The LoveStats Blog
LRW Blog – Turning Insight into Impact
Marketing Research Association
mathbabe
Math with Bad Drawings
MSRA
My Research Rants
NewMR
Not awful and boring examples for teaching statistics and research methods
Psychological Statistics
QualBlog
Question Science
Sampling and choosing cases in qualitative research: a realist approach
Research and Reflect
Research Design Review
RW Connect
SayWhat Consumer Research
MarketingSherpa Blog
SmartData Collective – The World’s Best Thinkers on Data
Sociological Methods & Research recent issues
Snarketing 2.0
StandPoint Group
StrategyOnline
Survata Blog
deniseleeyohn
Researchscape Posts
SteveMossop
DataScienceCtrl
MustardResearch
The Advertising Research Foundation
Qualitative Research
Sociological Images
This is Statistics
YouGov US Opinion Center News
Tom Fishburne: Marketoonist
Touchstone Research Blog
Latest blog entries
Kantar.com News Feed
UsabilityGeek
WhatUsersDo Blog
Latest Research from ABI Research
AdWeek: AdFreak
Adweek : Advertising Branding
Aware
The Market Research Blog from B2B International
Blog – Behavioraleconomics.com | The BE Hub
Big Data Made Simple
Branding Strategy Insider
Brand Quarterly
Brian Solis
B2B Research
Corona Insights
Crimson Hexagon
Data Science Association blogs
Featured Posts – DataViz
DC’s Improbable Science
Dialsmith
DigitalMR m
driveresearch
E3S European Sensory Science Society
ESOMAR – News
E-Tabs
Everyday Sociology Blog
Putting people first
Statistical Thinking
All Gallup Headlines
G&R: Advertising Research & Consulting
HCD Research
iModerate
Information Marketing Association
In-Mind
Insights Association
UX Daily – User Experience Daily
Interactive Video Productions
Ipsos Knowledge and Ideas
itracks
MarketingProfs: Research
FreshMR
Martec
mbblog
MRS What’s New
Multivariate Solutions
Naftali Harris: Statistician, Hacker, and Climber
NatCen Social Research
Neuromarketing
Paul Long’s Market Research Blog
Paul Olyslager
Pew Research Center » Topics » Social Media
Pew Research Center
Predictive Analytics Times
PRS IN VIVO
PsyPost
Q Research Solutions
Forum: Qualitative Social Research
Qualtrics Blog
Quester
Research – Government affairs
Research – Latest news
Market Research Training from Research Rockstar
Research Through Gaming
RetailCustomerExperience.com News
Influential Marketing
Ruby Cha Cha
Sensory
Sentient Decision Science
Sklar Wilton
Social Media Research Foundation
StatsLife – Significance magazine
SurveyGizmo – Online Surveys, Polls, & Landing Pages
The Analysis Factor
The insights guy.
Thinknowresearch
ThreeHundredEight.com
TRUSTe Blog
Versta Research Blog
Blog Posts
Vocal Laboratories Inc. blogs
Vox – Science of Everyday Life
Polling: Political Polls & Surveys – The Washington Post
Wooldridge Associates
YouGov
Adoreboard
Converseon
Datafloq Read Blog Posts
Customer Experience Matters®
Grumpollie
iMotions
indico
Insights about Insights
The Lipstick Economy
Latema’s Blog
Maru/Matchbox
massincpolling
MFour
NACDA
New Research Speakers Club
QualPage
Random Domain Intercept Technology | RIWI
RTi Research
ruthlessresearch
RW Connect
Sweet Insight Blog
Branding Strategy Insider
closertobrands
Customerimpactinfo
Illume blog
The IMPACT Blog
Kelton Global
Lexalytics
MeaningCloud
People For Research
Sprinklr
Synthesio
Voxpopme Perspectives: Video posts… in writing
Along with a group of market researchers from around the world, I was asked to participate in Voxpopme Perspectives – an initiative wherein insights industry experts share ideas about a variety of topics via video. You can read more about it here or watch the videos here. Viewers can then reach out over Twitter or upload their own video response.
Except the video blogging thing wasn’t working for me. I do my best thinking in writing and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to watch me read a post. So instead, I’ll be sharing my thoughts in written posts. Feel free to write back if you’re so included. Stay tuned!
6 reasons to connect online with people you’ve never met
Everyone has their own strategy with LinkedIn. Some people choose to only connect with people they’ve physically met. Others choose to connect with people they’ve at least spoken to, whether physically or on the phone. I, however, have a different strategy.
I like to connect with anyone who touches my industry regardless of whether we’ve ever spoken or crossed paths. I might be in market research, but if you’re in marketing, AR/VR/MR/XR, big data, analytics, data journalism, neuroscience, biometrics, polling, surveys, focus groups, mall intercepts, sampling, research panes, etc, I’ll probably be open to connecting with you.
Why?
Well, I’m not a sales or business development person so you’ll never see a pitch from me, disguised or otherwise. I don’t do sales, I won’t do sales, I’ll never do sales. But I have numerous reasons for connecting with so many people:
- Conference speakers: On occasion, I am asked to recruit and chair tracks of speakers at conferences. Having built a broad set of connections over the years, I can quickly find and invite people meeting the expertise requirements without resorting to a tried and true list of the same people I talk to everyday. And, I can even invite people based on geography as I’m careful to grow connections around the world.
- Webinar guests: You never know when someone is going to ask you to recommend an expert on a topic, or when you yourself would like an expert to join you during a webinar. Make those connections early, and you won’t waste time waiting for people to notice and approve a LinkedIn invitation.
- Article authors: Want an expert to contribute their opinions to a blog or article? You guessed it. Building up connections over the years means that I can quickly reach out to experts in many areas to see if they’d like to contribute their knowledge in a magazine or journal article.
- Job seekers: I love being connected to so many people because it allows me to be aware of job notices. I see many and share many, and hopefully this helps unemployed people find a new job just a bit more quickly. Plus, when someone comes to me personally, sometimes I can direct them to a job posting I saw just that day. (On a related note, pay your interns!)
- To put a face to a name: I like to get know people I plan to meet before I actually meet them. And, I often open a person’s LinkedIn profile when I talk to them on the phone. I like to see the face of the person and, sometimes, it helps to have a quick outline of who they are and what they do to help focus conversations. This has helped me many times over the years when I’ve participated in global standards committees where participants live on different continents.
- To be in the know: I wish I knew everything about my industry and the future of my industry but I don’t. I’ve not yet grown my psychic abilities sufficiently. Following people who live in hundreds of cities around the world means that I get to understand opinions that I would never, ever otherwise have the chance to consider. I see stories about augmented reality being used for medical training, I learn new theories about marketing, and I am amazed on a daily basis at the work happening all around me. LinkedIn connections are fabulous teachers.
The next time you see a link request from someone you don’t know. Consider whether any of these reasons would make it a worthwhile connection. It might not work for you but it certainly works for me.
The Book of Blogs: Social Media Research Chords and Lyrics #NSMNSS
Are you ready kids!
For the musicians among us, let’s celebrate the launch of “Social Media in Social Research: Blogs on Blurring the Boundaries” edited by Kandy Woodfield with a little song. Please enjoy this slight adjustment to Peter Gabriel’s song. I couldn’t help myself!
If you take a video of yourself playing the song, I’ll post it here for everyone to enjoy. And if you’re lucky (unlucky?), I might post one of myself playing the ukulele.
The Book Of Blogs by Annie Pettit
(Better known as the Book of Love by Peter Gabriel, from the 2004 Movie “Shall We Dance”)
*** Capo on Fret 1
*** Actual Key Is Ab / Play in Key of G
Each line transitions through G C D G
Intro – G/C/D/G — G/C/D/G — G/C/D/G — G/C/D/G
The book of blogs is long and helpful
You can learn social research from it
It’s full of charts and facts and figures
and instructions on new methods
And I……..
I love it when you read it to me
And you……….
You can buy me the Book of Blogs
The book of blogs has insight in it
In fact that’s where insight comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is up for debate
And I……..
I love it when you read to me
And you……….
You can buy me the Book of Blogs
Bridge: G/C/D/G — G/C/D/G — G/C/D/G — G/C/D/G
The book of blogs inspires to try it
It’s written by such great authors
It’s got advice on social research
You should try to implement
And I……..
I love it when you read to me
And you……….
You can buy me the Book of Blogs
And I……..
I love it when you read to me
And you……….
You can buy me the Book of Blogs
And I……..
I love it when you read to me
And you……….
You ought to buy the Book of Blogs
You ought to buy the book for me
Launching Today! Social Media in Social Research: Blogs on Blurring the Boundaries #NSMNSS
On Wednesday October 29, 2014, a brand new book is being released including a chapter by moi! It’s called “Social Media in Social Research: Blogs on Blurring the Boundaries” and it’s edited by Kandy Woodfield who is the Learning and Enterprise Director at NatCen Social Research, and the co-founder of the NSMNSS network. Buy the book on Amazon and leave a review!
Social research as a craft, a profession, is all about making sense of the worlds and networks we and others live in, how strange would it be then if the methods and tools we use to navigate these new social worlds were not also changing and flexing. Our network set out to give researchers a space to reflect on how social media and new forms of data were challenging conventional research practice and how we engage with research participants and audiences. If we had found little to discuss and little change it would have been worrying, I am relieved to report the opposite, researchers have been eager to share their experiences, dissect their success at using new methods and explore knotty questions about robustness, ethics and methods.
Our forthcoming book of blogs is our members take on what that changing methodological world feels like to them, it’s about where the boundaries are blurring between disciplines and methods, roles and realities. It is not a peer reviewed collection and it’s not meant to be used as a text book, what we hope it offers is a series of challenging, interesting, topical perspectives on how social research is adapting, or not, in the face of huge technological and social change.
You can join us for the virtual launch by following the tweets here or the blog posts here. I won’t be able to attend the launch but you just might catch me in a quick video. I’ll see you there virtually!
The Roles of Blogs in Public Opinion Research Dissemination #AAPOR #MRX
… Live blogging from beautiful Boston…
Reg Baker, SurveyGeek
- First blog post was on randomization
- His company considered him to be a methodologist because he subscribed to POQ, he kept answering the same questions so he wrote the answers in a blog and referred everyone there
- Twitter is how you build blog traffic, We love the retweets of our blogs
- There is a social media bubble of all the people talking about the same things you do, and you meet people around the world only because of your buzz
- Two families of blogs – those sharing research results and those in the commentator category
- Biggest peak of all – sarcasm sells – begged people to not use words like disruptive, holistic, superlatives; next largest blog was how to write a mobile pitch piece about the hyperbole around mobile research
- Conference blogging gets lots of hits, as do posts in a series
- Hardest thing about blogging is you need to do it all the time and it’s hard, you need to do it day in and day out, something people care about want to hear about
- Useful and fun way to share information, it can get you into trouble, say things you wish you didn’t say
Annie Pettit, LoveStats
- If you missed my talk, it was a ten minute psychoanalysis, you missed out 🙂
- Here are two posts I wrote previously…
- 6 reasons why you should start a blog now
- Should you blog at conferences?
Adam Sage, SurveyPost
- Put a viewpoint out there to start a discussion
- Peer reviewed research takes a lot of time
- Focus on twitter, crowdsourcing, infomatics, concepts that are difficult to publish before they are outdated
- Blogs consider the readers to be the jury
- Ripe for innovation, more than just you shouting with a megaphone
Marjorie Connelly, New York Times
- They post blogs and vet blogs that go on many different places on their site
- Website has no print deadline so they can post at any time
- Blogs offer a different voice than the print paper, columnists often have their own blogs and they often use polls to support their arguments – they have no control over those polls
- Often breaking news or incisive posts
- Use live blogging for celebrity events like debut of the ipad, Tony Awards
- Venue for things that wouldn’t be accepted into the paper
- Let authors say more and more deeply than the printed paper
- Can do early releases of data in order to tease a later print version
Jeffrey Henning, ResearchScape
- Started his Vovici blog as part of content marketing, and he needed something to do in the newly formed merged companies
- First blog post was about asking demographic questions, designed only by considering what google wanted
- His new company “ResearchScape” needed the same kind of marketing work
- His ranking of 50 top blogs turned into 50 days of posts
- Realized not a lot of people are sharing results of studies – white space in the blogging world to support more
- Journalists do a poor job of putting research results into context – Jeffrey gives them an F. Researchscape is trying to fix this and Jeffrey gives himself a D for what he’s done so far. He wants to improve to a C+ next year.
- A blog is a place to practice in a small audience, help you become better at explaining methodologies
Casey Tasfaye, FreeRangeResearch
- You don’t know your opinion until you write it down
- Assumptions about what research is changes when you try to write it down
- Place to combine all her data sources – school, friends, talks – and make sense of it. It’s about her trying to figure things out.
- Her blogs explores intersections of different worlds, shares discussions about polls, reports events and conferences, things she reads, research findings
- Her meditation calendar is a good source of blog posts
- Good place for problem solving, discuss them in a public way
- Also talks about digital parenting – how does she deal with her kids and social media
- Tries to have a blog roll, lists of organizations, lists of helpful links, lists of good tools
- Twitter is a good tool for listening, amplifying, and discussion
- very little engagement on the blogs themselves but lots on twitter
- #WJchat is good to listen to
- Twitter is a great way to follow conceptual trends
- A lot of research doesn’t get published and blogging can deal with this
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The LoveStats Blog 