Creative thinking in data analytics produces real business differentiation
Editor’s note: Maria Vorovich is co-founder and chief strategy officer at “anti-research” firm GoodQues. Throughout her career, Vorovich has pushed research boundaries and repositioned brands including Covergirl, Marriott, Kiehl’s and McCormick. She has held positions at advertising agency Grey and global agency Air Paris. Vorovich speaks at SXSW, contributes editorially and lectures at Columbia University. Find Vorovich on LinkedIn.
There’s something undeniably comforting about boring.
Boring is pragmatic. It’s predictable. Efficient. And in a world that rewards outcomes and penalizes risk, boring is often good, especially for business.
Sometimes, boring is exactly what you need. When you’re up against tight timelines, limited budgets or the simple reality that something just needs to get done, there is nothing wrong with choosing the route that’s been traveled a thousand times before. Familiarity can be the difference that keeps projects moving, protects resources and ensures the basics are met.
Quadrilateral buildings dominate our cities for a reason. They’re cheaper to construct, easier to furnish and wildly scalable. Office parks, warehouses, apartment complexes and schools are all built on the same principle: don’t surprise anyone. Just get the job done.
But in the moments when getting by is not enough, when you need to surprise yourself, surprise others, uncover something new or gain real depth, boring will not take you there. Predictability gets you to the finish line. Creativity opens a door you did not know existed.
Consider the High Line in New York City. It was once an abandoned rail line that could have easily been knocked down. That would have been the logical and boring choice. Instead, the city chose a creative path. They transformed the old tracks into a walkable park infused with greenery, benches, sculptures and unexpected moments of beauty. The result linked neighborhoods both physically and socially and sparked public imagination far more than demolition ever could.
That same instinct bleeds into how we approach data. When it comes to methodologies, we overvalue the neat and tidy. We champion comfort over curiosity. And the more data we have, the more vigilant we must be about resisting that comfort. This is precisely when we should push ourselves to explore unexpected ways to ask questions, to engage respondents and to inspire them to tell us their stories with vulnerability, honesty and depth.
The baseline isn’t the enemy. It’s the beginning
Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes that hover over waterfalls. His work was radical. But he never skipped the basics. His buildings still have fire exits, plumbing, foundations. He met the code, then broke the mold.
That’s the kind of creativity data needs.
You need structure and proven methodology, but that’s just the beginning. The magic is in what you do after. Focus on the part that makes someone feel, not just understand. It’s easy to stop at the baseline. It’s harder, and much more human, to make the research and the output unforgettable.
To humanize data, we have to let it misbehave
Give yourself permission to experiment.
Rethink your research design. Let your analyst wander. Let the slide deck break the template. Ask “What if?” more than “What’s next?”
And, most importantly, stop doing things the way they’ve always been done. Question the process – not to create chaos, but to make space for something better.
As an example, take the most fundamental part of research: writing questions. Whether qualitative or quantitative, how we ask questions shapes what we learn. You can go generic and ask: “How do you feel about this brand?”
Or you can push yourself and consider:
- Could we tweak the language to feel more connective, more human?
- Could we swap jargon for colloquial phrasing?
- Could we use metaphor to make the question easier to grasp?
- Could we include an image to spark deeper thought or emotion?
Those small, creative choices make research come alive.
And that’s what our stakeholders are starving for. Not another stat. Not another pie chart. A sliver of truth, with a side of soul. Something that says: “I see the person, not just the segment.”
Predictability gets you by. But creativity is what stays with us
There are thousands of wildly successful businesses built on predictability, from generic law firms to mid-tier SaaS platforms. They function and they profit. But try to name 10 of them. You probably can’t. Their impact is forgettable.
Because predictability isn’t designed to stir emotion; it’s designed to reduce friction. That’s why so many brands sound the same, look the same, act the same.
And research is no different. Templates make things clean and consistent – looking buttoned-up and professional. But they also flatten the work. When every report follows the same structure, uses the same phrases, marches through the same sections, it becomes almost impossible for the story to breathe. The data might be rich and layered, but the expression of it becomes muted.
If 80% of our deliverables are templated for efficiency and scale, then we need to fiercely protect the remaining 20%. We need space where the story can be told a different way. Where language can stretch. Where symbols, metaphor, narrative arcs and visual storytelling are allowed to carry meaning that bullet points never could.
There’s a reason you don’t remember the last quarterly research report. But you can still quote a movie that made you cry 10 years ago. Predictability smooths. Creativity stirs.
Data’s obsession with efficiency is its existential crisis
We’ve built an entire industry on dashboards and deliverables. We optimize timelines, automate outputs and strip the work of its weirdness, its messiness, its humanity.
But creativity is not the enemy of business. It’s the edge.
In a world racing toward efficiency, sameness is guaranteed. What’s rare, and what cuts through, is research input and output that surprises you. Research that teaches you something. Research that lingers.
Remember that boring is the baseline and creativity is the human differentiator.