Data Science + Market Research = Research Science

Posted by on in Insights, Methodology & Analytics, Operations & Execution, Strategy & Product

A great many market researchers are “numbers people”. This shouldn’t be a surprise, when we consider how central statistics, sampling, projection, and prediction are to our business. But the all-too-common gulf between market researchers and our data scientist colleagues is a surprise. This disconnect between market research and data science inhibits capabilities in the short term and hurts long-term competitiveness. Which is silly, because this disconnect is completely unnecessary.

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What Sets Insight Products Apart?

Posted by on in Insights, Strategy & Product

Whether we’re selling or buying insights, the systematic evaluation of their relative merits is a vital career skill. On the one hand, it allows us to defensibly establish which solutions will provide the most value for our money. And on the other hand, it provides us the means to best articulate the value of those solutions to our internal and external clients.

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How Partnerships Drive Value for Insights Businesses

Posted by on in Insights, Strategy & Product
(This week, I’m at the ARF Re:Think 2016 conference. If you’re there, let’s grab a cup of coffee and chat – it would be great to learn more about how you are or can be using partnerships to increase value. Ping me on Twitter @InsightIndustry to meet up.)

The insight industry is simultaneously one of the most competitive and most collaborative fields out there. One second we’ll be competing tooth-and-nail over a new account or project, and the next we’ll be working hand-in-hand to develop or market new products together. These longstanding partnerships are driven by a solid strategic and economic rationale.

At the most basic level, we enter into partnerships – often with ostensible competitors – because working together will either improve performance (raise quality, boost sales, strengthen profitability, accelerate delivery, etc.), decrease risk (remove a potential competitor, decrease needed investment, lock in supply, etc.), or almost always: do both.

I believe partnerships create these benefits by delivering value to your back-office (helping your profitability, accelerating time-to-market, raising the quality of your products, etc.) and your front-office (which ultimately improves sales). Taken together, these benefits deliver strategic value in the form of reducing risk factors, boosting profitability, and strengthening competitive position.

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Product Portfolio Strategy: Offense or Defense?

Posted by on in Case Study, Insights, Strategy & Product

When building an insights or analytics product portfolio, is it better to focus on the portfolio’s offensive or defensive characteristics?

Neither.

This is a false dichotomy. A good portfolio strategy will strike a balance by using your products to acquire clients, undermine competition, and boost your brand (offense), while simultaneously protecting/growing margins, increasing client retention, and resisting downward pricing pressure (defense).

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