Q&A with a client-side researcher
Editor's note: If you're an end-client researcher and interested in participating in a Q&A with Quirk's, please e-mail me at emilyk@quirks.com.
Do you have any advice for researchers facing budget cuts in the coming year?
It’s time to get creative! Here are some things you could try:
Trying smaller sample sizes, with fewer target groups, is always a good place to start. Mine your prior research as there can be some great insights that might not have been the primary subject but could answer your current needs.
If you don’t have the budget for a large quant study, a qual study leveraging key customer profiles might have to be good enough to at least make directional decisions.
Try out some DIY platforms. While it puts more of a workload on your internal team, if you have people but not dollars, this might be a necessary switch. AI tools can be really helpful in crafting/editing survey questions.
Finally, if you have nonconfidential, general learning needs, look for agencies that offer omnibus-type studies where you could add a few questions for a small cost rather than running an independent study.
What has had the biggest impact on your career?
The pandemic. After 20+ years on the agency side, being laid off during the pandemic gave me the time to step back and look at what I liked about what I was doing versus what I was missing. I took the opportunity to move over to the client side and I love it. While I’m focused on one industry, I am getting to do a much wider range of research than I have in the past so I’m still learning every day, which is important to me.