How We Define and Mine for Meaningful Insights with Impact

As an industry, we tend to throw around the word insight without putting parameters around how we judge one and defining the role it plays in programming.?

As we talk about Meaningful Insights at dna Communications, here’s a glimpse into how we define and mine for them.?

First, what we don’t consider an insight: an observation, an objective, a stat, a trend, or a piece of data. While they each play a part in getting to an insight – on their own, they are not insightful.?

When getting to an insight, we start with a rich understanding of the audience we want to reach and engage. Asking questions like: what motivates them, who is in their world, what do they think about, what do they think about us, and who are they as a person???

Once we answer these questions, we get into the mindset of our audience and pressure-test the story we wish to tell them, from their perspective. Asking ourselves questions like: what part of this is meaningful to me, what is my comprehension of the story, is this giving me something that was missing from my world or something that solves a pain point I am experiencing? Essentially, how does this story live on my terms??

During this interrogation, we look for the cross section of audience needs and our value – striving to find multiple potential ways in. This is where we get to uncover human insights – something that is not just a fact – but a leap that merges different facts/observations together to see something in a new light. Ultimately, we judge anything that bubbles up to the top based on the following factors:?

• Is it intuitive??
• Does it feel right??
• Is it concise??
• Is it human at the core and part of our audience’s culture??
• Is there a surprising tension??
• Is it credible / accurate??
• Is powerful enough to drive an attitude / behavior change??

Without the right insight, you can’t develop the right communication, you can’t break into your audience’s world, and you can’t deliver your message effectively.??

How do we see the role of an insight? Something that programs and ideas should be built on. Something that is ultimately interwoven into everything that we do.??

At dna, we strive to bring together people with different backgrounds (both personal and professional) and lived experiences to avoid group think and hopefully help us get to more meaningful insights and work. We encourage healthy tension — to question where we are going and if that makes sense. We strive to get to insights that ring true with the community and that set us up to do work that can have a meaningful impact.?