Your team member lacks market research skills. How will you guide them to contribute effectively?

Nothing beats hands-on learning. Have trained so many newbies in the team. Like any skill, market research improves with practice. Encourage your team member to work on real-world projects, even if they start small. Have asked them to conduct mock research studies too as part of training programs where they collected, analyzed data, and presented findings. But working on a live project presents a high, so the more hands-on experience they gain, the better they’ll become. Have them shadow you and slowly let them become independent.

First and foremost, I would provide fundamental training to the team member on specific market research concepts and methodologies. Partnering that person with an experienced mentor will enable him to learn from experience and get practical advice, hence building confidence and getting insight. I would also recommend useful resources such as relevant online courses, industry reports and tools. This will enable them to observe and contribute more effortlessly to their participation in team discussions and brainstorming. Clearly set achievable goals by actions, with regular feedback to bridge the monitoring process in tracking progress and development in market research skills.

Doing is learning! We often ask team members with diverse backgrounds such as software development and sales to free their minds and try their hand at the various tools we develop, to gain a deeper understanding of the nuts and bolts. The other practice we have seen work is to 'eat your own dog food'. Use tools in every day practice, such as using a survey form to get 360 feedback, using available analysis tools to report on activities, using meeting transcripts to generate conversational insights etc.

My opinion for this is to start by providing them with training resources and mentorship. Encouraging them to take online courses or attend workshops on market research can build their skills. For example, you can pair them with a senior team member who excels in market research. This mentor can guide them through real projects, offering feedback and sharing best practices. Additionally, assigning small research tasks and gradually increasing their complexity can help them gain confidence and competence, ultimately enabling them to contribute more effectively to the team.

To excel in market research, your secondary research on the topic must be strong before moving on to primary research. To connect with industry experts, consider industry-related market research reports from Google Scholar, Fortune Business Insights, and Allied Market Research, despite understanding the industry's core area. Knowing the job titles is another crucial element. Suppose, working on a study that needs to focus on the energy sector, such as oil and gas, petroleum, and utilities. In this case, you need to be more aware of which industry segment you need to target, and who you need to contact with. Conclusion- Thorough understanding of the topic and right approach to reachout whether company-specific or keyword-focused helps.

For a team-member not-so-familiar with MR, the best way to contribute and feel comfortable is to actually do MR. In a recent situation, on realising that a team-member wasn't familiar with a particular methodology; he was pulled in end-to-end, in all aspects of that project i.e. developing the research design, pitching it to client, winning their conviction, data collection, analysis, insight-generation and report-writing. At each stage, opportunities were created for him to ask, debate and challenge the decisions being made. Having seen the journey in all its phases, the team-member was able to better appreciate the methodology and learn when to NOT apply it.