From Market Research to Business Insights Strategist: 4 "How Do” and 4 “How To” Success Steps

For many companies – even those with elaborate data mining initiatives, years of tracker research, and extensive market research budgets – the market research data generated doesn’t always yield the comprehensive business  insights needed to proactively identify opportunities, drive business decisions, or address emerging customer needs and market situations.

At the AMA Applied Market Research Conference in Las Vegas this week, I am leading a session to help Market Researchers evolve into Business Insight Strategists. Balancing Data & Dialogue: Cultivating Insights that Matter was designed for market research professionals who find themselves in the never-ending stream of projects to manage in mind.  It’s easy for market research professionals to overlook the opportunity to add the value that will turn market research results into comprehensive decision support tools.

But taking the key steps is what creates a business insights strategist.

Four "How Do" Questions

Stepping back and seeking the answer to these four “How Do” questions can begin the culture transformation:

1. How do I maximize the data/information I already have to more effectively support new insight needs or research initiatives?

2. How do I identify the most important information and let go of what isn’t really relevant to the decisions that need to be made?

3. How do I get internal alignment on the scope as well as implications of the research?

4. How do I show the value of a holistic – rather than ad hoc – approach and develop a plan to continually cultivate insights that matter over time?

Four "How To" Steps

In Balancing Data & Dialogue, we work through a 4-step “How To” process for identifying and assessing the information needed to get actionable results to facilitate:

1. How to move beyond the research or information objective to clearly define the business opportunity or challenge the organization is facing.

2. How to define and align critical information needs to comprehensively address the challenge

3. How to identify, evaluate and integrate the benefits of various data sources to fulfill the critical information needs.

4. How to apply the Brainzooming action planning process to successfully activate the insights.

The Insight Integration Matrix

A core tool in the process for a business insights strategist is our Insight Integration Matrix that serves as a guide for aligning data sources against critical information needs. – Barb Murphy

The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these benefits for you.