SEEK: BLOG

TURN YOUR INSIGHTS INTO ACTIONABLE IDEAS AT FEI

To learn more about turning your insights into actionable ideas, make your way to Boston on May 16th-18th for the Front End Innovation (FEI) Conference. We'll be there!

In our last seek:note article “How To Make Your Job Matter: An Open Letter To The Market Researcher” we made the bold statement that consumer-driven ideas are your currency and that research should not be submitted as facts only.  We received great feedback and a few questions of how we suggest connecting the research step to actionable ideas. 

Well, I’m glad you asked and I’m happy to share one such idea:

Each year, around 700 of the world’s best front-end-of-innovation thinkers get together in Boston to share their newest concepts and build ideas together (FEI, Front End of Innovation Conference).  While the first years of FEI attracted mainly “innovation” professionals (defined by me as anyone with innovation in their title), Seek has witnessed a significant number of market researchers and consumer insight professionals attending as well.  A number of our most successful projects this past year came directly from conversations we had during FEI 2010 (including one project that recently yielded A ratings -top 20%- in BASES for 3 of 4 concepts tested).  What made the projects successful… the direct connection of consumer insights to the idea generation process.  Most of our readers understand the process needed to generate great consumer insights.  Attending FEI will help you make the leap to determine how to take the insights a step further and create consumer-driven ideas.

Also, yours truly will be moderating the various “FireStarter” sessions to ensure things move along and remain high energy.  It is a session that combines 3 energetic, corporate innovation professionals to present 10 minute stories based on one central topic.  There is also a bit of time set aside for engaging Q&A.  

We hope to see you all there.  If you are interested in registering, go to the FEI website and enter in teh code FEI2011SEEK for a 20% savings (Seek doesn’t make a dime if you decide to register through the link, we just want to see you again in person). 

Written by Geoff Zoeckler, Innovation Consultant
geoff@seekresearch.com 

IS A LEADERSHIP BOOK A GOOD QRC TRAINING GUIDE?

Leadership has always fascinated me. As a student, athlete, employee, and family member, I am always intrigued by the moments that make leaders brilliant and the unfortunate moments when leaders lose their stuff.  As a Qualitative Research Consultant learning the art of moderation and facilitation, I am continuously excited by the overlap that exists between great leadership and great qualitative research. 

Here are just a few overlaps I’ve identified. There are many more (I’m sure of it!). 

Good leaders truly listen. They sift through the BS, the emotion, and the politics in every situation and identify the root cause– the truth that will help the organization move forward.  

This is at the very core of qualitative research. Discovering the needs/wants/desire of the people we serve is why we exist. This also applies to guiding a team. We learn in research consultancy to approach challenges with our teams in a way that sifts through personalities and hierarchy, searches for root cause, and allows true learning and success to emerge. 

Good leaders thrive on change. A recent article from Accidental Creative summed this up best with the challenge that “healthy teams have a level of dissent in their strategic conversations.” 

On research, whether it be concept development or exploratory, we should encourage healthy debate, difference of thought, and true engagement to be sure that we land somewhere REAL. This is the beauty in Seek methodologies like Mock Jury, Presidential Debate, and American Idol (aside from being a whole lot of fun, of course). 

Good leaders let their people shine. This is perhaps the most obvious leadership principle, but it can also have the greatest impact–because it is often the most difficult. 

This is extremely important, and also poses challenges in the research field.  It is easy to forget that we are not here to shine. We are here to lift up and value the consumers and allow our team members to shine in the process. A good researcher identifies the brilliance around them and creates experiences that allow people to unlock this brilliance. 

By Emily Grogan, Qualitative Research Consultant
emily@seekresearch.com

Invention is the Mother of Necessity

Invention is the Mother of Necessity. 
I know, I know, it’s backwards.  Or is it?  

The idiom purists among you might very well say that necessity is the mother of invention. And they would be right... ten years ago. In our highly social, information-hungry world, the opposite is more often true.

For instance, how much did you “need” an iPod in 2001? What about instant web search in 2002?  A Facebook page in 2005? Forward-thinking companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook are building wildly successful business models by predicting our needs instead of reacting to them. After all, who knows what possibilities the future holds better than those on the cutting edge?  

We trust innovative companies to tell us what we need because they’re actually better at predicting it than we are.
Their crazy ideas change the world.

It shouldn’t be all that surprising. Nor should it be a skill limited to California startups. We’ve all got crazy, forward-thinking ideas that we know will change things. But the crazier the idea, the harder it is to get people to buy in. Believe me, we know. After 10 years of pushing the envelope, we’ve got it boiled down to a science.  

In order to get everyone on board with your crazy idea, you must be sure, you must be clear, and you must be memorable.

1_Be sure. “Research is a business strategy to minimize risk.” Sadly, I can’t take credit for that quote, but I can tell you that at Seek we believe it 100%. Our job as researchers is to make absolutely sure that you’re absolutely sure that the direction you’re headed in is absolutely the right one. In one sense, we’re a bit like those wacky silicon valley companies. We often design new methodologies to solve research challenges that are somewhere on the horizon for our clients, even if they haven't been fully articulated or recognized yet. We’re not crazy, we’re just thinking ahead.

2_Be clear. It doesn’t matter how good the idea is. At some point, you’re going to have to convince a whole bunch of people that you’re right. That’s really what it boils down to. There is no such thing as an idea that “speaks for itself.” And no matter how advanced you get in your organization, “because I said so” will always have its limits. One beautiful paragraph can take the place of hundreds of laborious conversations. Spend your time and energy crafting the most effective message and you’ll be surprised how difficult it will be for people to disagree with you.

3_Be memorable. Words are nice. Pictures are better. Storytelling is king. When you take facts and figures and transform them into a compelling narrative that has all the rawness, beauty, and humanity of a great film or novel, something amazing happens–people start to feel the story in addition to just hearing it, reading it, or seeing it. How much more buy-in could your ideas get if people felt truly inspired by them the same way you do? The crazy ideas that have a compelling story will ultimately win out over the ideas that only have a PowerPoint.

Which brings us back to our point. The research, storytelling, and idea generation methods that you’ll need tomorrow are being invented today. Strictly speaking, the job of companies like Seek is to provide you with the tools you need before you know you need them. So, if you want to know what’s next in consumer electronics, ask Apple. If you want to know what’s next in web search, ask Google. And if you want to know what’s next up in research, ask us. We’re probably already working on it. And if we’re not, we’d certainly like to be.  

Crazy ideas, anyone? 

Written by Jonathan Smith, Production Coordinator
jonathan@seekresearch.com 

SPOTLIGHT ON SARA HINE

Sara Hine
sara@seekresearch.com
Role: Inspiration Consultant
Team: Inspire 

Q. Most Recent Big Win

• Just pulled off a new deliverable...Experience Stations that brought trends to life for our client...and received rave reviews!

Q. All of us have areas we like to talk about most. What Are Your Favorite Topics of Conversation? 

• Life’s messiness, Astrology, Injustice

Q. What Are You Most Passionate About? 

• Extraordinary people who have overcome great odds or given themselves fearlessly to a cause 
• Beauty expressed through fashion and design
• Social change through art and community 

Q. What is on your playlist, reading list, or movie queue?

• Playlist: The National, Why, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, The Seedy Seeds, M. Ward, Fleet Foxes
• Reading List: All Over Creation, Made to Stick
• Movie Queue: Roman Holiday, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Harry Potter 

Q. What are 3 of your favorite things on this planet?

• Pizza
• Bagpipes
• Hmmm...my sisters