How to Effectively Manage Complex Research Schedules
By FlexMR
- article
- Research Management
- Project Management
‘Simple’ market research is a myth. Even the ‘simplest’ research experiences require some forethought and design to properly fulfil the objectives, but there’s no denying that in the face of more complex research experiences, the ‘simpler’ research projects can seem like a breath of fresh air.
What’s more, complex market research seems like it is only getting more complex as we take inspiration from other industries. But incorporating strategic know-how from marketing strategies, and embedding tactics from other industries such as psychology and creative means that we have more powerful research methods, tools and tactics at our fingertips than ever before. Complexity, in this case, has led to innovation and more powerful research experiences and insights.
So, with these new innovations and complexities, how do insight teams effectively manage complex research schedules?
Aid from Technology and Other Industries
As we incorporate tactics from other industries and add more elements into already complex research schedules, there are still more that we haven’t yet fully embraced that could revolutionise the way we work. For example, while there are a multitude of research-based artificial intelligence tools out there, their implementation is still met with an amount of trepidation that we cannot fully alleviate without a widespread fundamental knowledge of how these tools work.
Through these tools, artificial intelligence has the capacity to be embedded in most stages of any research process, complex or not, from the initial request to analysis and activation. And for the most part, the tools are incredibly useful as they allow researchers to cut down time spent on some of the more time-consuming tasks such as data cleaning, significant qualitative and quantitative analysis, participant and insights communications, and instead spend more time managing any complexities and challenges that arise in more complex research schedules. With the rate technology is advancing, insight teams will soon have more access to innovative research tools than ever before, which will serve us well as we take the time to focus on how to better research experiences, make them more relevant and insights more powerful than ever before.
However, insight teams must be careful as artificial intelligence is not here to take over everything, and must not be relied on fully. The human touch is still needed in all aspects of the research experience to catch any technological errors and guide the research from start to finish. While these tools take over the extraneous tasks, insight teams can focus on navigating complexities and embedding more useful tactics from other industries that will help them keep complex research schedules on track. An example of this would be to see if we can use sprint reviews to revolutionise the research experience, and take the onus off traditional debriefs as the main channel for insights communication.
Sprint reviews are traditionally an agile development practice, but they have a lot of potential when applied to market research processes. Using this agile method, we would mimic the same format development sprint reviews take and would transform the typical project-based research experience to instead form continuous streams of research with regular check-ins and adjustments alongside the usual debriefs. Now this could be seen to create a complex research schedule in and of itself, however, these sprint reviews could also simply be used to shift the current traditional research structure only slightly by adding these sprint review meetings into the schedule, and would benefit those stakeholders and insight teams who want to embrace agile working but aren’t ready to fully leave behind their tried-and-true traditional research experience.
There are Sprint Review services such as FlexMR’s latest service offering already popping up to take advantage of this new opportunity. These more agile opportunities are primed and ready to help insight teams manage more complex research schedules, allowing the flexibility to adapt in the face of any challenges that crop up along the way in those complex schedules.
More Time for the Important Stuff
The nature of complexity brings forth an anxiety in most people as they anticipate needing to be a lot more hands-on in these less-simple situations. However, with the tools and tactics mentioned above, there shouldn’t be too much more that insight teams need to contend with than usual. The AI-tools, for example, will take tasks out of the hands of researchers entirely, which will free up time for sprint review meetings or more time dedicated towards insights communication and activation.
This means we have more time to communicate with stakeholders and attempt to spark a culture of Customer Salience in their organisation. With some automations and new practices employed, these complex research structures might just leave insight teams with a few more minutes to work on educating stakeholders on the power of insights, laying down the right foundations for a more customer-centric culture, and embedding insights within the heart of decisions made across the stakeholder organisation. A worthy cause that insight teams have been fighting towards for years now, and with these new ways of working in market research, we might just be able to achieve this goal.
Managing Complexity
Now, looking back over this article, you would be correct in assuming that the role of the insight team described throughout doesn’t look usual. The role insight experts are used to inhabiting is that of a researcher, with strengths in data collection and analysis, with some insight generation and communication there in the second half of the research process. But with these changes in tactics, tools and even structures, the role of the insight expert becomes more like a manager and advisor than a researcher.
These complex research schedules that we face almost daily are subtly shifting our role anyway, but in a way that leaves us taking on more tasks than ever before unless we choose to embrace those tools and tactics above. It is easy to become overwhelmed when there are yet more tasks and responsibilities in front of you without anything being taking off your list – so to face complex research schedules with any form of success will require adaptability and adoption of some extra resources. Go with the flow of innovation, learn new ways of working, embrace complexity and the new practices that come along with it, and you will find your place in the new age of market research that is upon us.
More about FlexMR
FlexMR InsightHub
Author
