Sometimes small changes make a big difference. Here are five changes that focus on what insight managers can do to help deliver research that will get their business where it needs to be:

1.Make the agency’s life harder – refocus your objectives so they focus on customer behaviour change.

Sometimes research objectives in a brief let us researchers off the hook. They reflect the questions that we might ask in a project rather than the answers that the client needs. If you focus your research objectives on the consumer behaviour that you want to change, you’re likely to get closer to the key answers that will transform your business.

2.Add on two weeks extra fieldwork time for a project

Experienced insight managers train their internal clients to work to 4-6 week lead times in qual. However, adding a couple of weeks onto this time frame can be a game-changer in terms of what research can deliver. It means, for example, that we can explore – over the course of 3-4 weeks – on-going behaviour (with diaries, bulletin boards, repeat interviews and catch-ups), which means we can see how people really behave, think and feel, rather than how they say they do. Sometimes projects need to be turned around quick-smart, but other times it can be really smart to slow it down for the sake of deeper insight.

3.Get in there, don’t view, observe

The one way mirror is a big barrier between you and the research group. For some reason watching what’s going on behind glass filters out the real vibe in the room. Come into the room, make yourself known to respondents and take it all in! These days respondents are really comfortable with clients in the room, so there’s no need to be ‘shoved behind the mirror’ to watch a group.

4.Join in with analysis

Real insight is delivered when the researchers on a project get together and analyse their interviews (not particularly when the interviews are happening – it’s applying thought that’s the magic ingredient). Clientside researchers can add hugely to the analysis process because they understand what their business needs from the research, and what their business can and can’t do with the findings. Good agencies will happily share in the analysis process with you, so if you can spare the time, the project will really benefit from your input

5.Elbow the debrief in favour of a conversation about research findings

The ‘classic’ debrief is often far too much about one-way communication. Be brave, on your next project cancel the debrief and do something more useful instead. Why not get your internal clients to watch a ‘sharefile’ of the findings (could be a film) and then hold a Q&A session with your clients and the research agency… to get thinking ‘flying’?