One of the open-end questions in our 2018 Q Report survey of corporate researchers focused on finding out more about what the respondents saw as the biggest MR-related changes their organizations would make in 2018-2019. As you might expect, the answers ranged in tone from hopeful and enthusiastic to dour and fatalistic. Some foresaw growth and new opportunities for their departments while others worried that budgets and project timelines would continue shrinking.

In general, though, our readers sounded ready for what was coming. How are you feeling about your future situation? What actions do you think you’ll be taking? In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, here’s a snapshot of the plans some corporate researchers have in mind for 2019. Maybe you’ll get some inspiration (or a shudder of recognition!).

Automate!

“We will be moving to a more robust self-service online survey tool this year.”

“More self-service dashboards.”

“Hoping to continue to drive further automation, allowing for more time to focus on actual insights.”

Get agile!

“Expect more implementation of agile solutions available on Internet.”

“Adapting and supporting agile research teams/approaches for rapid, iterative learning and testing.”

Make your business case!

“Measure ROI on research spending.”

“More focus on demonstrating the impact from research.”

“Ask for additional revenue brought in or money saved (efficiencies) because of our insights.”

“Build holistic & actionable insights for the entire organization based on all the many data sources available.”

“Working on partnering with other business units to have them pay for our services.”

Try something new!

“Machine learning – more investment in technology to look for data patterns.”

“Digital transformation.”

“More front-end innovation research.”

“Rollout of design thinking.”

“Go more online and neuro.”

“Using new methods like machine learning; focus on analytics; adopt artificial intelligence.”

“More focus on behavioral science and emerging methods.”

Make do with less!

“We have zero budget for secondary research! We used to complement our reporting with secondary and now have no resources.”

“Cutting project budgets; hope not to have to cut staff; will do more in-house to compensate for lowered budgets as fewer projects will free up some capacity.

Learn to tread water!

“For us, it’s just maintain the status quo for now. Organization is going through some fairly dramatic changes through the end of this year, so I expect we will see more changes in 2019 than 2018.”

Update your résumé!

“Expect team to either be moved to a less prominent role or be cut altogether.”

“Might eliminate it.”

“Reorganization, probably. If I had to guess, I think most of research and market research will be subsumed under CX at some point.”

“Possible elimination of market research.”

“See the role mostly becoming a database function. With little MR.”

“They will probably have to replace me.”

Raise your profile!

“Increasing the amount of our research shared outside our traditional audiences. Sharing more quick-data snapshots with graphics over social media.”

“Take on larger more strategic projects vs. responding to stakeholder needs.”

“Partnering with other parts/teams of the org more frequently.”

“We have just hired a new MR person full time. This not only recognizes the value of market research but also allows us to deliver greater work more consistently and raise the internal value of MR.”