Among the many themes to emerge from our annual Q Report survey of client-side researchers (covered in great depth elsewhere in this issue), one that jumped out at me this year was agility. I don’t mean agile research, though there were certainly mentions of that in the responses to the many open-ended questions we posed to our audience of insight workers. I mean the ability to move and react quickly as the situation warrants.

Over the course of the pandemic, researchers have already shown admirable élan in responding to the crush of (in some cases newfound) attention visited upon their departments by desperate internal clients trying to make sense of the virus’s multitude of impacts. Based on the responses we received this summer, things haven’t slowed down at all. In fact, it seems like a host of other factors are working in concert with the continuing effects of COVID-19 to impact researchers’ lives and force them to adapt on-the-fly.

The need to learn something new. From brushing up on qual-related abilities like effective presentation skills and storytelling to diving into number-crunching to make sense of all the new, non-research-generated data they now have access to, many respondents cited the need to expand their capabilities – for their own professional benefit and that of their company.

“Learning R and Python programming for data analytics to marry customer data with survey data to gain a richer understanding of the consumer.”

“Use of new research and reporting tools to leverage current responsibilities and serve the stakeholders at my organization.”

“Gaining hands-on experience using new insight technology tools so when the opportunity comes to evaluate purchases I am aware of what the market offers.”

“Continuing to explore agile and remote methodologies; continuing to evolve and trying to keep up with changing/improving research technology.”

The need to react to internal changes. Though organizational overhauls are nothing new, many readers said their firms were going through a variety of shifts and disruptions, from centralizing insights into a single point of contact to wholesale revamps driven by management shakeups. No matter the causes, researchers know their ability to roll with the punches is key.

“Company just underwent massive re-org; new teams being created, new relationships/partnerships forming.” 

“We are pivoting to a more programmatic approach and integrating tools and platforms that support enterprise-wide VOC activities in a more holistic way (e.g., win-loss analysis, community panels).”

“Lots of restructuring of our insights organization; greater focus on customer experience versus operational insights.” 

“Adapting to economic impact of pandemic (reduced budgets) and trying to develop a better understanding of changing impacts on different customer audiences.”

The need to battle perceptions. At the same time as they are evolving their skill sets and reacting to internal changes, they also have to contend with shifting views of the insights function, both internally and in business at large. They realize they can control some of the perceptions by continually delivering strategic value to their organizations but at a certain point preconceptions may be hard to overcome.

“I think on some level execs understand it is important but there is a lack of awareness of what insights can provide to an org. Also, insight work has to be done well to be viewed as legitimate and valuable.”

“It feels like we are having a moment probably because so much has changed, entities are hungry for new perspectives and an understanding of the ‘new normal’ (ugh that phrase!).”

“Insight is valued but research is not. Finding ways to get to insight without spending money on research is the biggest challenge in my current role.”

“I think we will continue to become a more important part of the overall product development process, being brought in earlier and earlier in the cycle. We will be looked at to provide more insights, guidance and strategic recommendations. Maybe someday we will even get control of our entire budget.”

Wouldn’t that be nice?