Why analysts and tech providers struggle to tell better stories, and how they can improve
Duncan Chapple
Analyst Relations lead for Elisa Industriq & Elisa Polystar @ SageCircle | Analyst Observatory co-director @ Edinburgh University
The response to my recent post about what industry analysts can learn from commercial storytelling has sparked fascinating discussions about how both analysts and technology providers communicate with their markets. Many commenters highlighted a broader pattern: the most successful tech providers have already made the shift that analysts need to make.
What The Discussion Revealed
As Vinnie Mirchandani noted in the comments, the blogging community has been leading this change: "We write posts with plenty of imagery, books, do lots of video, social media etc." But he also pointed out a key challenge: "Enterprise customers still have traditional PR rules and vendors still issue press releases - you need spontaneity, authenticity, more free form for good storytelling."
Sandy Rogers s made an excellent point about the pressure on analysts "to focus more on presenting data and performing comparative product analyses, and less so on best practice guidance." This mirrors what I've observed in the broader technology market - those closest to actual buyers have shifted to more practical, value-focused approaches.
The Distance Problem
An interesting pattern emerged from our discussion: technology providers and analysts most disconnected from end users often maintain less effective approaches. As Dean Bubley reminded us, analysts serve multiple stakeholders - "enterprise strategists, government policymakers & regulators, and a wide range of other stakeholders." This multiplicity of audiences can sometimes pull us away from practical business value.
Three Signs of Positive Change
Some technology providers are showing the way forward. They demonstrate:
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2. Implementation Focus:
3. Partnership Mindset:
Making The Shift
For both analysts and technology providers, success requires new approaches:
As Lawrence Gasman commented, "What is needed is not objectivity but insight and foresight. These are hard to acquire. Facts are just opinion under another name."
Next Steps
The path forward combines innovation with pragmatism. As Martin Whitworth highlighted, this requires "clearly identifying and being transparent about just who their customers are."
James Crawshaw 's comment resonated strongly: as a consumer of analyst research, he "did not want to be told stories" but wanted to "learn the 'truth' to the extent that anyone knew." This gets to the heart of the matter - analysts must maintain rigour while making insights more immediately useful for organizations. So must tech providers.
The market leaders in 2025 will demonstrate how to create real business value through practical innovation and proven expertise. Both analysts and technology providers need to focus less on abstract future promises and more on actionable insights that create value today.
?? Building the Future of Data Intelligence @ DataGOL | Ex-Meta | CDAIO | Harvard Business School??
1 个月our expanded article brilliantly underscores the critical balance between methodological rigor and delivering actionable insights, a theme that resonates deeply with how analysts and tech providers can bridge the gap between strategy and execution. Looking forward to further exploring how we, as a community, can enhance the utility of industry analysis for decision-makers
Market Strategy and Consulting, Research and Insights, Thought Leadership, Emerging Technology, Digital and Business Transformation
1 个月Good points raised here, Duncan. A few business challenges need to be tackled including managing expectations on the speed, scope, and volume of deliverables expected from analysts. Will analyst firm leaders and customers allow the necessary time for indepth research and subsequent bandwidth to capitalize on all those learnings to roll out multiple pieces versus having to move on to another subject? Until these concerns and other business model and value shifts take place - key advice for customers is to leverage analyst access calls to take advantage of much knowledge that often doesn’t see the light of day in hard deliverables. The flow of questions and discussions during these sessions also aids future research and storytelling emphases - as is expanding analyst engagement with varied roles and practitioners in firms. Those challenges help keep all on their toes.
Using 'Systems Thinking' & Cybernetics (CyberSystemics) to explore #complexity & handle the challenges of #Sustainability & #Technology
1 个月thanks for this thoughtful piece Duncan
Thanks Duncan. My recent fiction experience was fascinating. It in grounded in todays SV and analyst world but we found we could include characters and locations we all see in our travels, but ignore because they don’t always work in tech settings. I found we lingered in scenes longer to capture emotional reactions further. Watch this interview with Paul Greenberg about the backstory and the adjustments we had to make https://youtu.be/iBPqINU-ZZs?si=y0sHUzKxgg1tAExI and yet it is captures todays AI, robotics, cybercrime etc - topics us analysts are covering on a daily basis. We need to break out from the straitjacket our MQs and other content vehicles we have lived with for 30-40 years