Conversations for Research Rockstars

Market research project management has evolved a lot over the past few years, largely thanks to the many online project management tools now available. But while tech certainly helps, it's only part of the project management success equation for market research & insights professionals. The basics of project management still apply. So how to tell if your basics might need a refresh? A good place t...

Planning to moderate your first online focus groups? Are you prepared for the differences between online versus in-person moderation? In this Conversation for Research Rockstars, Kathryn Korostoff describes 3 big differences moderators experience--and how to prepare for them. Related Article YouTube Twitter LinkedIn

Have you noticed the rapidly rising expectations for the design and "look" of market research reports? Unfortunately, when we are working to meet project deadlines, it's hard to take time to evaluate our current reporting style. But how long can we delay? At what point will dated-looking deliverables negatively impact perceptions of our work? Includes info on a free PowerPoint template to get you...

Are market research professionals widely experiencing career anxiety? The feeling of stress we may have when thinking about our 5-year career path options? Of course. And a lot is due to technology trends. In this episode, host Kathryn Korostoff discusses the realities of how and why market research career paths are changing, so that we can refresh our market research career path plans without get...

Soft skills, especially those that relate to client management, may be the key to really thrilling market research & insights clients. And client management is often the hardest part of our work. Not sure if you agree? Well, have you (or someone on your team) ever experienced pain with any of the following: --Getting agreement on sufficiently precise research objectives --Setting and managing clie...

Need to create a market research training plan for yourself or a team? It can be overwhelming. After all, in an ideal world, you would do a needs assessment and a gap analysis before creating the plan. Alas, that may not be feasible. So how to create an effective plan, in less time? In this conversation, Kathryn Korostoff shows how to craft learning goals, gives several market research & insights...

Qualitative research demand is shifting to more rigorous methods and analysis approaches. My hypothesis is that over the next year, we will see strong demand for qualitative research…but it will skew to what we might call hard-core qual. Thus, market researchers will be expected to deliver projects that meet the ever-increasing needs for scale and speed, while also being rigorous. What do you thin...

Running a lean market research & insights team in 2019? While the reality of lean teams exists in many professions, market research & insights teams have some unique conflicts that exacerbate the challenges. That's because some of the big trends for our profession in 2018 continue to be strong in 2019. Specifically, these three: 1. Advancing consultative skills 2. Advancing data fluency 3. Shrinki...

Now is a great time to refresh your Market Research & Insights Career planning. Do you have a career plan? A goal? It's time to step back from the treadmill of work and deadlines and think about your 2, 3 or even 5 or 10-year career goals. Do you currently have a clear vision of what kind of work you want to be doing 5 years from now? What types of colleagues do you want to be working with? What s...

Do market researchers over-rely on sample size as proof of survey data quality? Do we under-invest in other data quality contributors, such as instrument design and scale validity? In this conversation, Kathryn and special guest Ken Faro, discuss current thinking on survey research data quality. Special guest Ken Faro, PhD. Ken is the VP of Research at Hill Holiday. Be sure to check out Ken's rela...

New market research methods are great—but I still value the tried and true. Survey research, for one, is still very important (especially for populations and research goals that can't be served through transactional data, 3rd party data, etc.). And luckily, we have more information (research on research) than ever about how to maximize survey data quality. One part? Maximizing response rates. In t...

Rampant in the market research and insights world for a few years now: widespread misuse of a popular piece of research lingo. And recently, I notice this misuse is getting even worse. As a profession, I think we would all agree that common market research jargon should be used precisely. But when it comes to the phrase "DIY Research," all bets are off. I commonly see the phrase used to mean 4 ver...

As a Market Research & Insights professional, you likely have clients. They may be internal, or external—but if you design and execute projects, your work is likely funded by some kind of client. For many researchers, the client's job role may be in insights—say, the Insights Manager at a footwear brand. Or the client may be the CMO, or a brand manager or some other business role. So regardless of...

A fundamental skill for all market research & insights professionals is the ability to develop and document hypotheses. We are in a field that seeks to help clients objectively understand customer attitudes and behaviors. This type of exploration requires precise thinking in order to select the right methods. And the best way to start this process? Documenting your hypotheses. Well-informed, consi...

"Sure, big data tells you what consumers do, but you need market research to find out the WHY." It's a common statement these days. But is it factually accurate? Or is it a self-soothing platitude for those of us in the market research & insights professions? Factually, what are the best options for finding out the "why" behind consumer behavior these days? And which of those options are in the ma...

Question: With all the focus on big data, what is happening with qualitative research demand? Answer: An interest in deep-dive qual. Data-centric organizations are still embracing qual, but when they do it, they want it to be rigorous, to go past the surface. And that often means ethnography. Anecdotally, I have seen some evidence of this in job posting trends—sometimes with an intersection to UX...

Market Research & Insights teams are under constant pressure to be efficient. To do more with less, or at least more with "the same." But how? By evaluating our resources and processes. Today we focus on resources—the tools, people and other assets that are the building blocks of the MR&I function. One way to Identify potential efficiency boosters is by evaluating how the Market Research team is s...

CX is hot. We know that. And as an MR pro you know that CX intersects heavily with MR—indeed, one could argue that CX research is really just a subset of market research—using many of the same methodologies. But for various reasons, CX is hot… and getting a lot of C-Suite attention and budget. So as an MR pro—or team leader—you are probably thinking about how to align with this growth area. The fi...

Market research career paths are changing. Are you ready? New market research skills can help you prepare for evolving career paths. First step: choosing which of several emerging career paths you want to pursue. Do you want to be a market research generalist? A specialist? or do you want to pursue adjacent opportunities?

What do you hear more often: "market" or "audience"? And what's the difference?

How to mitigate the risks associated with rating scales in market research questionnaires? Know all your scale options. Likert scales are great for many cases, but so are semantic differential scales. Not familiar with semantic differential scales? Tune in for some quick tips that will help your professional market research instruments shine.

What happens to market research demand if major consumer brands move to Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) business models? D2C is perhaps the single most disruptive trend in consumer marketing today. In this conversation, I share some fascinating proof points about the D2C trend, and also identify potential implications for the market research and insights profession. This conversation is important for any...

Scale length is always a hot debate in the world of professional market research. Even versus odd? 5, 7, 10, 11 points? The best advice: do an experiment to see what provides the best data for your topics, and from your populations, of interest. Link to the PDF mentioned on scales research HERE

These days, market segmentation means different things to different people. For those of us in market research, we need to be aware! And vigilant about the correct use of the language, to avoid confusing our clients and colleagues. Here is what you need to know.   If you like these conversations, we encourage you to visit our web page and have a look at our courses: https://training.researchrockst...

How do you define "Market Research"? What about "Marketing Research"? Are they the same...or meaningfully different? Using 4 definitions from published sources, let's take a look and decide for ourselves. In this episode, Kathryn uses examples related to product positioning and customer loyalty to see which phrase is most accurate. Disagree with her take? Great!