From analyst to impact player: Developing the next generation of market research talent
Editor's note: This article is an automated speech-to-text transcription, edited lightly for clarity.
Gen Z is starting to make up more and more of the workforce. How can mangers and organizations help their professional development and retain them as employees?
Christina Nathanson, director of market and customer insights and Ilana Rosen, senior analyst, market and customer insights at Quest Diagnostics shared insights they learned first-hand. In this 2025 Quirk’s Event – Virtual Global session, hear the story of Rosen joining Quest Diagnostics as an intern and the professional development she went through with Nathanson.
Session transcript
Joe Rydholm
Hi everybody and welcome to our session, “From analyst to impact player: Developing the next generation of market research talent.”
I'm Quirk's Editor, Joe Rydholm.
Before we get started, just a quick housekeeping note that if you'd like to interact with other attendees during the presentation, you can use the chat tab to submit your comments and questions.
This session is presented by Quest Diagnostics. Enjoy!
Christina (Tina) Nathanson
Hi, good afternoon. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Today Ilana and I are going to share a story with you. This story is on developing the next generation of market research talent and how we, as market research leaders, can support those who are new to our industry and how we can move to be greater impact players, not just in our industry, but also in the future of their careers.
So, hi, my name is Tina Nathanson. I'm the Director of Market Research and Customer Insights at Quest Diagnostics. I bring a diverse background of both corporate and agency side market research.
Ilana Rosen
Hi everyone. I'm Ilana Rosen. I am a Senior Analyst at Quest Diagnostics. I've been with the company for over three years, and I started originally as an intern.
Christina (Tina) Nathanson
We're going to be going back and forth in our story today, hence the tennis theme. So, welcome to the match.
Ilana Rosen
Today I'm going to walk you through my story, which is just one example of many early career talent employees.
As I go through this, think about how other employees potentially your own might be able to benefit from hearing about my story and might be able to relate to my experience.
Then think about how you can continue adding value to their career.
Like I mentioned, I joined Quest on the market research team as an intern. By the fall, I transitioned into the marketing leadership development program where I supported the health systems marketing team. In this program, I worked on our hospital executive marketing initiatives. By the winter, I was promoted to Senior Analyst and rejoined to the insights department.
Throughout my time on this team, my responsibilities expanded, which included managing our brand tracker and leading our internal research community, Quest Voices. I also took on additional learning and development opportunities.
So, began the principle of market research class through the University of Georgia, which I've since completed.
Also, I recently joined the Young Professionals Employee Business Network as the Community Outreach Chair where I organized a company-wide blood drive at our headquarters.
As we go through this presentation, you'll see how, just like in tennis, developing early career talent is all about reach, agility and playing the long game.
Let's begin the match.
Today you're going to hear both of our perspectives from me, the employee and Tina, the manager, on the importance of developing your company's talent pipeline.
We'll start with the game, and we'll go through what it is that Gen Z employees want and expect from their team.
We'll move on to the set, discussing specifically which skills can help develop their career. Then finally we'll conclude with the match, which discusses how all of this benefits both the manager and employee, but specifically how it helps with employee retention.
Let's start the game.
To set the scene, this is some information on why this is so important and timely. There are currently 50 million Gen Z employees in the United States and over 17 million of them entered the workforce in just the past two years. Finally, 30% of the U.S. workforce will be Gen Z by 2030.
So, it is really critical that our personal and professional development is prioritized.
Christina (Tina) Nathanson
As Alana just mentioned, there's millions of Gen Z entering the workforce. And to be honest, we really can't expect this early career talent to become a high impact player or a high impact insight player overnight.
It takes practice and skill development. Technical skills that are learned in school or even at an internship are not enough. But the real game is understanding the strategy, storytelling, collaboration and others just to get the job done. So, how can we fill this gap
It's important, and we'll talk about this later, to expose early career researchers, like Ilana to all levels of the organization, to more peers, mentors, executives early on and how they can evoke emotions and skills like curiosity and collaboration. I'll be talking about that as we go on.
All of this is going to build communication agility. It's going to boost their confidence and really accelerate their ability to read the room. Just like knowing your opponents gain in tennis, right Alana?
Ilana Rosen
Yeah.
Christina (Tina) Nathanson
The key takeaway here is, insight leaders, we need to really invest our time and resources into coaching and giving them the necessary skills for success.
Why does this matter?
As we go through our story, you'll see how this doesn't just benefit the manager, but it also benefits the employee and analyst by having growth in their career. It's a true win-win experience for everybody.
Ilana Rosen
Exactly.
So, let's take a closer look at what it is that I, like the rest of my generation, want and look for.
According to a 2025 global study conducted by Deloitte, early career talent want on the job learning and practical experience, mentorship and guidance from experienced colleagues and feedback and performance reviews.
These are all things that my team, including Tina, helped provide, which I really attribute my success thus far.
I'll be talking a little bit more about this as we go through the rest of the presentation to give specific examples of how these areas helped and how Tina helped fill the gap.
Christina (Tina) Nathanson
Thanks, Ilana.
Now, we're into set, setting up for success. What are the core competencies that drive growth for Gen Z and how could leaders like us best structure a skills framework development for their success? What do we need to grow and what do we need to give them to get them through and build their skills from the bottom up?
Ilana Rosen
In terms of building the foundation of a high impact player, these are the critical skills and competencies we believe are key.
Really getting hands-on experience is the most effective way to keep developing these skills.
It's important to note that the onus is not just on the manager to get their employees involved in these more advanced projects. It's also up to the employee to raise their hand, ask questions and take responsibility for their own career growth.
Christina (Tina) Nathanson
Let's just stay here for a moment, Ilana, looking at all of these building blocks. Data fluency, active listening, critical thinking, emotional quotient, having the ability to think and act like your patients, right? Your health care professionals, who are our targets. We work together and we build from the ground up.
There's a framework that we follow at Quest. That framework is, you might've seen this before, it’s pretty common, the 70-20-10, where 70% is experience based, 20% is relationship based and 10% is education based. So, experience based, relationship based and education based.
70%, I mean you're going to come in likely with a lot of experience as an analyst with knowing how to work through projects. You might've been in university where you had some hands-on experience working with people. That's good. Having that project and understanding how to lead a project or complete a project is great and that's a lot. That's just a large proportion.
But also, job shadowing, which is something we don't really think a lot about, which I've employed with others that have worked for me in the past. Ilana would join me on a project, and she would shadow me through that from the beginning to end. She may have an active role in some parts. She may have a passive role where she's learning and understanding because how else are you going to know how to work with a particular stakeholder colleague on a project in the future if you don't see how they interact on a real-life project?
I also had this opportunity when I worked on the agency side, I would just work on projects with other people, and learn so much from another perspective.
The relationship based is also really critical.
I'm not Alana's mentor. A manager shouldn't be a mentor. I'm a guide. I can guide her, but I'm not a mentor.
So, helping your team be able to get people in your industry, there's tons of opportunities like Quirk’s, Insights Association and Green Book where you can go to network at conferences. It's great to find people that would be a good fit for you, to give you perspective and feedback in the moment, 360 feedback is always critical. There's times for formal feedback, but there's also times where in the moment it may serve better than a week or two later when it's too late.
Having that good relationship with your team and your analysts makes a big difference. Also, getting them access to the networks as I just mentioned.
Then last, the education based.
Ilana came in as an intern. She did not have a background in market research. Her career trajectory had her coming in as an intern, then rolling onto a marketing leadership development program that I started at Quest and she was going to pursue this marketing path. But as the market researcher and also the one who ran the program, I think market research should be the first step in any marketer's pathway. Understand your customers, know your customers. We made it her foundation.
She decided to stay in the field, which we're so excited about it. So, getting that learning and education, which then she went on to take the market research course at University of Georgia, and she's got that solid foundation. Congratulations Ilana, for passing the course. We're so proud of you.
Ilana Rosen
Thank you.
Christina (Tina) Nathanson
But doing that and then also getting exposure to other leadership programs that are available really helps.
So, setting that development foundation early on, I think this is the crux of setting your analysts up for success.
Ilana Rosen
I 100% agree.
So, now I'm going to walk you through three specific examples of things that I think really helped me develop those core competencies the most. And that followed the development framework Tina just described.
The first is the emphasis my team and managers placed on long-term skills building.
I'm sure you've all heard the expression, “If you give a man a fish, you'll feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you'll feed him for a lifetime.” It's a bit of a cliche, but it couldn't be more true.
One way I've been able to do this is through the class with the University of Georgia that allowed me the ability to learn and study more advanced analytical skills prior to working on these projects myself. As well as shadowing other projects, like Tina just described.
This brings me to my next point of hands-on experience.
Having that set educational background through my class really allowed me to jump into more senior projects and gain that hands-on experience myself. There's really only so much you can learn, in my opinion, by shadowing someone. So, you have to start doing it yourself and actually gain that hands-on experience.
I think those two combined really helped accelerate my on-the-job learning.
Then finally, the thing I don’t think gets talked about enough is the concept of psychological safety.
My team's done a great job of building a culture and providing me with a safe space, which gave me that push of encouragement I needed to go outside of my comfort zone and keep broadening and deepening my skills with these advanced projects.
Christina (Tina) Nathanson
Now that we are back to the match, this all ties back to the long game we talked about at the beginning of the presentation. What we do early in their career is how we win the long game. The stronger the start, the longer they stay and the further they go. This is about retention and trying to keep them with you.
These words are the building blocks for success as well. We see storytelling, insights, market research, advancement, growth, learning by example, data, knowledge and so forth. These are all the words that build their success. So, keep them going, get them early.
This was the AI photo that I generated from a photo of Ilana and I. It kind of resembles us maybe a little bit.
Ilana Rosen
A little bit.
Christina (Tina) Nathanson
But it's kind of creepy too.
But when early career talent feels coached and not just managed, they stay longer. They grow faster and bring more to the court or the table, if you will, walk with them across the metaphorical field.
Retention isn't just about good training, it's really about being seen, stretched and supported. The exposure that we've given Ilana to senior leaders very early on, the exposure of her being in different types of projects, from qual to quant to competitive intelligence and stretching your mind. We've given that opportunity to her.
Then also that psychological safety net that she has.
She knows that we're a team of four people and our broader team is seven, eight people. We all care about each other, and we lean on each other in good or bad. And I think this is so important for anybody's career. We happen to have it nice. I really love it.
So, how do we continue to coach these next generations?
Well, these are the four plays that win the match. Ilana might've touched on this, and I also have some other thoughts, but that whole mentorship pairing, I talked about it before, intentional matching across levels. It builds trust, context and early support.
Get someone from the outside, highly encouraged, to help mentor.
Ilana had a good mentor. When we did this presentation in the past and now, she could probably do, she does this in her sleep, right? So it's just having somebody talking to you about things that work well for you works better than in some cases than me or her manager telling her how to do it.
That real-time feedback, again in the moment, it really fosters a fail fast mindset. And it does accelerate learning because if I say, ‘oh, Alana, when we did this project and you wrote the proposal, you missed a few things and we need to make sure we cover on that,’ I'll tell that to her. We'll fix it quickly. Get that out. And the project is back up and running.
Don't look at it as negative. Think it as a gift for learning the ins and outs.
There are tons of opportunities to learn outside of your own team, like the University of Georgia's market research program, going to conferences just like this. You're going to see projects that maybe don't even apply to your industry that are going to help you think about your industry or your role in another way. Open your mind, stay curious, really critical and that the learning continually flows beyond the desk.
Then lastly, giving access to leadership. Whether you're shadowing someone at a senior meeting and being an observer or working on a project that might be more strategic in nature and not more tactical, that something like you may be quick turns. I think this is important to get them involved early on because it builds their confidence.
It also helps them understand the bigger picture of the actual impact of the work they're doing behind the scenes into what is happening in the real world.
I cannot say giving this early on, I did not have that opportunity very early on, and I wish I did, but I feel it's so critical right now. And don't think that they're going to embarrass themselves. Everybody's human, but believe me, with all these plays in the match, you're setting them up for success, not for failure.
What are our next steps and takeaways for us to give to you?
The first one is listen.
Go in with your eyes wide open and stay curious. Curiosity continually fuels growth. The best early career researchers ask the questions, the ‘why’ behind the ‘what,’ and they go beyond what they're doing to help gain visibility into that big picture. This is going to accelerate your learning by getting that exposure.
Ilana Rosen
Secondly, mentorship and networking, as we mentioned, are critical. It gives you a fresh perspective and allows someone to coach you and push you outside of your comfort zone, outside of your manager and team.
So, next steps, if you are an early career talent, you should really take advantage of all opportunities to network and gain mentors.
If you are a manager, you should really encourage your employees to attend conferences so they're able to meet others in the industry.
Christina (Tina) Nathanson
Then lastly, underscore, underscore, underscore, invest in your people early and often.
I know sometimes you might not have physical budget, but like Alana said, go to a conference. There's many free opportunities that you could take advantage of.
But investing early in skills pays the dividends later. Whether that's the formalized training, which is reasonably priced and getting that hands-on development. You'll keep them, and it'll help them thrive.
Maybe even on your own team, if you have a larger team, offer rotations. Let them get exposure to a different products or services that your company offers. Or if you're in a corporation, if you're on the agency side, maybe a different manager. Let them work on a project with a different manager and a different team because it's going give them exposure to different styles. Because that's real life.
You're going to be moving jobs, and you're going to have different personalities and different leadership styles. And I think it's critical because it's going to build that adaptability early on. It really gives you varied perspectives and exposure to different methods because somebody may have another way of analyzing or looking at a particular problem in a different way.
And it will also strengthen their engagement. And really, like I said, make them stay because retention is critical.
With that, we say thank you so much for joining us this afternoon and continue to ask us questions in the comments. Thank you so much and have a great day.
Ilana Rosen
Thank you.