Don’t confuse speed with simplicity.

Delivering valuable insight quickly demands more thinking not less.

Achieving effective and impactful insight at speed needs more planning, more discipline and more focus on critical thinking to help interpret the findings in a way that is easy for the business to digest.?

In the first of our new blog series sharing the Incite Opinion, Melanie Lewis explores why faster is not necessarily easier!?

I recently found myself in deep conversation with my 10-year-old niece, trying to describe the excitement and anticipation of my weekly visit to the local video store to rent the latest blockbuster.?

The need to leave the house so you would watch a movie was totally unreasonable to her – “What, even if it was raining?” “Yep, if you wanted to watch it – you had to go and rent it”.??

Her astonishment grew as I explained that the video store only stocked a small number of each movie. If someone got there first, then you’d need to wait until it was returned before you could rent and watch your chosen film.?

It got me thinking. Technology has had a significant impact on every aspect of our lives – creating new challenges and expectations that didn’t exist back when I was 10 years old.??

In fact, I can’t think of a part of my working life that hasn’t been reshaped by technology in some way. In the world of insights and market research, technology has been a huge enabler - expanding what we can do, how we do it and who we can reach to take part.??

It is hard to ignore that this advancement in technology has also contributed to a shift in our relationship with time. We are increasingly impatient with a need for immediate satisfaction and can be unforgiving when things take more time than we want them to.??

As the appetite for ‘instant insights’ increases, I’ve worked with lots of clients who use agile research techniques to supply the business with (almost) immediate access to data. This approach can be useful and, when used to answer the right questions, it is a great way of demonstrating the power of bringing consumer feedback into decision making.?

However, it is not without risks.??

Prioritising speed will require you to make compromises. You’ll need to spend less time on other aspects of your project. On a project-by-project basis, we need to balance ‘speed’ with other aspects of a project which, when done right, could offer more value to the business than just a giving them a quick answer.??

For example, a focus on speed could mean…?

1. You don’t have time to fully understand the challenge or business question you are trying to answer. This could mean that your project misses key points or doesn’t have the depth needed to fully answer the challenge – requiring supplementary work and effort.?
2. There isn’t time to engage with relevant stakeholders or to check in with them to make sure they are aligned on key points. Building engagement is essential so your project can ‘live-on’ after the presentation. Without this buy-in, there is a risk that even when the business has the right information – they struggle to make the difficult decisions.????
3. Without time to review existing research and identify hypothesis, there is a risk that you will duplicate existing insights or deliver findings that totally contradict previous research.?
4. There isn’t enough time to invest in creating impactful deliverables. Outputs revert to just reporting results, lack business focus and don’t go far enough to engage the team and support them to take the necessary action.???

Let’s be honest, we know time will always be a factor when designing and delivering consumer insights. In fact, the pressure of a deadline can bring clearer focus and helps to get the adrenaline pumping.?

So if the Need for Speed is strong and all-consuming, here are our top tips:?

• Clarity is key: clear objectives, deadlines and an overview of the outputs needed.?
• Avoid scope-creep: linked to the point above, once the objectives are set try to avoid adding to the list – it will distract from the key goals.?
• Communicate, communicate, communicate when things are moving quickly, it can be easy for misunderstanding to creep in. Make sure you keep everyone on track by communicating frequently and keeping updates structured and to the point.??
• Choose a trusted and supportive team: knowing that you can rely on the team to navigate any unforeseen challenges and be committed to the end-goal is critical to delivering projects at speed.??

Over the next few weeks we will be sharing the Incite Opinion, with our takes on methodology (e.g. All ideation frameworks are valid), the future of the research and insights sector (e.g. When not to listen to consumers) and some of our more specific points of view on?sector-related challenges.?

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