Conversations for Research Rockstars

Ready to add a new market research methodology to your toolchest? Mobile ethnography is an option for scalable qualitative research. Using a recent case study, Kathryn reviews the key benefits. Also, Happy Anniversary! We celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the Conversations series with a gift for our fans.

4 clues that your clients are bored with the market research they are receiving, and how to proactively manage them to mitigate this risk. Bored clients won't use your research. And are unlikely to become raving fans of research in general, or the researcher with whom they have worked. Don't let this happen to you!!    

When was the last time you refreshed your PowerPoint template? Have your reports pretty much looked the same for 5+ years? The brutal reality is that people do judge a book by its cover--and they judge a market research report by its "look." Here's how to tell if your reports look current...or dated.

Will your next great market research & insights career opportunity require showing that you can work with multiple data sources? Demonstrating your ability to find and apply new methods? For many people looking to advance their careers, the answer to both questions will be "yes." Here's some proof, and some tips on how to prepare.

Market Research & Insights professionals can apply for jobs in various types of companies. Often, the first decision is: should you pursue "client-side" or "supplier-side" openings? Here are some decision criteria to help you choose.

Market Research & Insights professionals face a dilemma in social situations: how do you answer the question, "What do you do?" So, how do you answer this question?

Market Research & Insights career opportunities are shifting. Do you have the skills employers are seeking? In this conversation, Kathryn illustrates new skills trends by looking at recent job postings from leading companies.

Care about market research data quality? Lessons from the field of behavioral economics can be used to optimize market research methodology choice and design. In this conversation, host Kathryn Korostoff reference's Daniel Kahneman's famous book, Thinking Fast & Slow, to show how market researchers can use the concepts of "fast and slow" thinking.

Response rates for online surveys can be dismal. What to do about it? One option: improving our survey invitation emails. Can they be better? What specific attributes would make them more effective? In this conversation, Kathryn identifies 5 invitation attributes that have been shown (through research) to improve survey response rates. Might some of these items help with your surveys? https://trai...

Learning to become a data-fluent market researcher? A good first step is learning about common data sources. In market research, we commonly use data collected from surveys, focus groups, social listening and more. But what about our colleagues on the "big data" and analytics side? What data sources do they use? At the highest level, we can talk about 5 categories of data. In this conversation, we...

Data-centric businesses need data-fluent advisors. Or as Mckinsey likes to call them, "translators." What professionals will meet this need? Is it a good career path option? Market researchers seem to assume that people with big data jobs are better positioned. But that is not necessarily so. In this conversation, let's talk about why market research and customer insights professionals are actuall...

Hiring a market research company has pros and cons. But here are 4 cases when it will likely be the best (and safest) choice. Please share this episode with anyone who may be deliberating over whether or not to hire a market research company.

Big data isn't perfect. Unfortunately, biased experts often over-promise and often under-deliver. What do market research & insights professionals need to know about big data risk factors? In this conversation, 7 reasons why Big Data projects fail, and what we can do to help clients make data-agnostic choices.

7 reasons why writing qualitative market research reports is hard, and what you can do about it. As a market research professional, you may need to write reports based on your focus groups, online focus groups, IDIs, ethnography or online qualitative methods. And it's a tough job.  Check out the diagram on page  6 of this PDF for a great example of how to simplify your reporting process by jump-st...

In a February 2018 HBR article, McKinsey identifies potential demand for millions of "translators." But look at the definition: sounds like market research & insights. So what is the difference between a market research and insights professional and a "translator"? And is an "analytics" professional more qualified to pursue this career path than an "insights" professional? In this conversation, Ka...

Thinking about your market research and insights career path? Ready to refresh your career goals? Here are some tips on how to refresh your career plans to align with current demand for insights professionals. These career coaching tips are for anyone who is planning to start or advance their market research and insights (MR&I) career in a corporate/brand environment. If your interest is in a care...

Do your market research survey respondents speed through your questions? Does that impact data quality? In any given questionnaire, the amount of time participants spend completing it can vary. In some cases, that's legitimate. But in some cases, it's a red flag that you have bad respondents, and thus potential data quality issues. In this conversation, Kathryn Korostoff discusses how to find your...

Why are some market research & insights teams moving to R? Because as these teams become the central synthesizer for multiple data types and sources from across an organization, they choose to use the tools that their peers in related data functions are using--often especially R. And R can be as geeky or as friendly as you want--depending on what you use it with. Learn more about R and why some in...

Meetings that make an impact with special guest Carol Galvin. In this conversation, Kathryn speaks with Insights veteran Carol Galvin about how to make sure these critical end-of-project meets are successful for the researcher and the client. Carol has been in the market research and insights profession for 30+ years, most recently as a Distinguished Market Intelligence Professional and Team Lead...

How many questionnaires do you see that are full of 5-point rating scales? 5-point rating scales can be useful, but there are many other types of scales--and not all scales are rating scales at all. Unfortunately, many people know rating scales, so they default to them. In this conversation, learn about two problems with over-relying on rating scales, and about sources for expanding your scale rep...

Bias can get introduced at various points in a market research project. Here is a look at an often overlooked source of bias: bias that gets introduced during analysis and reporting. Professional researchers are often trained to mitigate bias during the research planning and data collection phases of a project. For example, survey researchers are trained to word questions and select scales that mi...

Why many marketers still love focus groups and how to make sure yours are excellent. Yes, many marketers still love focus groups as a market research method. Today's focus groups are very different than ones you may have seen 10 or more years ago. Today, they can be online or in-person, formal or casual. A great focus group can effectively discover customer attitudes and perceptions: what do peopl...

Why "DIY" is the most misused term in market research today. Misuse of this term undermines credibility and business relationships.

How do you prepare for big, new market research survey projects? Often, professional market researchers will do focus groups or in-depth interviews (IDIs) to generate hypotheses that will drive key content for the questionnaire design. But what if you don't have time or budget for those methods? We have a great tip.

How to write questions that best measure priorities and preferences? It's a common need: to understand customer priorities. For example, you may want to know which of 5 new color choices you should add next to your laptop case product line. Or maybe you want to know which of 6 local restaurants people see as most or least family-friendly? In this conversation, we look at two easy options that capt...