When the Insight forums first met, the prevailing thinking was that analysis and research projects should be conducted and then written up as if they were scientific experiments. Market research reports in particular would start with a reference to the brief that had been received; then talk about the methodology selected; the research activity carried out; the data collated and tables of findings. And finally, if you were lucky, some observations and conclusions. This was a very logical...

Lots of corporate Insight teams work very closely with marketing departments, but how good are we at marketing our own insights? Or even recognising the need to market them? When Insight leaders think about improving the communication of their knowledge and ideas, they normally focus on team skills and behaviour. These are really important of course, but a focus only on skills leaves us without a top-down plan for what is to be communicated, when and to whom.

Episode 22 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode, James talks to Liz Boffey, Director of Insight at Sainsbury’s. Liz talks about how she now sees herself as an end–to–end Insight leader, having experienced all different aspects of Insight throughout her career. Her roles span from market research, category management, consumer insight, shopper insight, agency-side and leadership roles.

In this 15-minute episode, the first of season 3, James looks at how successful Insight teams can drive change through communication. In season 2, we looked at how Insight people can influence the senior managers who make key decisions. That’s usually the best way to achieve the most impact. But if your company aspires to be truly customer-centric, then it follows that there will be far more employees who need to understand fundamental aspects of customer relationships, behaviour, and its...

In this 16-minute episode James looks at how successful Insight teams learn from the world of behavioural economics to improve their influencing tactics. In the last 20 years, there’s been an enormous advance in our understanding of the way we make decisions, and an entire field of study – and a whole library of popular books – now focuses on the topic of behavioural economics, or behavioural science. We now all accept that we are not rational decision-makers; instead we know that we...

In this episode James looks at how successful Insight teams learn to harness the power of their introverts. In episode 17 we explored the ways in which Insight managers, researchers and analysts could develop trusted adviser relationships with senior decision-makers. But what if your Insight teams include a large number of introverts who feel very uncomfortable at the idea of reaching out to senior people and networking? Or, in today’s world, simply coming back into the office or switching...

Episode 18 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode, James talks to Liz Lamb, Head of Insight and Data at Card Factory. Liz gives an overview of her rich and varied career in Insight roles, in both corporate insights and agency after she “fell” into the world of Insight after her Psychology degree. Liz has worked in Insight teams for Millwood Brown, Sainsbury’s, Debenhams, Post Office, ASDA, N Brown, to now her current position at Card Factory.

In this episode James looks at how successful Insight teams become trusted advisers. In the last episode, Lisa and I were discussing how we would never influence any group of people before we had taken steps to better understand them. We thought that many of our teams could improve the insight they had regarding the internal audience for their work. But having taken steps to better understand decision-makers in general, and our key stakeholders in particular, we then need to put those...

What question do you get asked most often at work? Is it about what insights we have on our customers? Or about the latest insights on our brand? Or perhaps on the latest consumer trend? Every organisation has its own hot topics, and every Insight team could compile a list of their most frequently asked questions. But how often do we ask ourselves about the insight which we have on the audience for our own work – the senior decision-makers in our organisation? We all tell our...

In this episode James talks about the way that successful Insight teams influence decision-makers. In our podcast so far, we’ve explored the twin requirements for corporate Insight teams to generate new insights and to develop accumulated knowledge - knowledge about their customers, their markets and their own business model. I’ve suggested that if we want to transform our Insight teams, then not only do we have to change our mindset about research and analysis projects, but we have to...

Episode 14 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode James talks to Jan Worsley, Insights Director at Carnival UK. Jan worked in IT before moving to the TNS World Panel and becoming Innocent Drinks’ first Insight manager. He then moved back to the agency side, before leading Insight at Carnival UK, part of the world’s biggest cruise company.

In this episode, James talks about the way that successful Insight teams approach knowledge systems. Over the last 18 years the IMA has talked to hundreds of Insight leaders and discussed the knowledge systems they wish they had, would love to afford, were developing, embedding… or replacing. And the aspect of these conversations that always stands out is that it’s not really about the systems themselves, brilliant though some of them now are. It’s about identifying what role you need...

As we plough through past projects, we may find an immediate payback - golden nuggets that are of great interest to senior decision-makers. But if we want to produce a crop that we can harvest year after year, in other words a knowledge base that underpins all our future research and supports multiple business decisions, then we need to cultivate our insight. This requires more time and effort. Don’t worry if that sounds complicated! We’ll describe a way of tackling it in very basic terms...

In the last episode of season 1, episode 10, we introduced the concept of Insight farming and drew a comparison between Insight farming and Insight hunting. Insight hunting represents the natural tendency of most Insight teams to spend nearly all their time on new primary research or analysis – hunting for new discoveries. Insight farming represents an evolution for Insight teams, shifting the focus to knowledge development, the knowledge that is often drawn from many different sources and...

In this 15-minute episode James looks at how great Insight teams investigate business issues. Insights are contextualised observations about markets, consumers and customers that have the potential to change how an organisation acts and achieves success. Insight could be defined as the accumulated, big picture knowledge which is created by joining up many individual insights. If our Insight teams are responsible for both, we need to transform the way we plan our time, allocate resources...

In this 15-minute episode, James looks at how great Insight teams investigate business issues. In episode 7 of our podcast, we looked at the importance of nailing the real business issue before launching new pieces of analysis or research.

Episode 8 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode James talks to Debra Walmsley, Head of Customer Strategy & Insight at Halfords.

In this 15-minute episode, James looks at how progressive Insight teams respond to requests.

In this 15-minute episode, James asks if our Insight teams should start making up their numbers.

In this episode, James introduces a model that can help Insight teams map from the market to the money. If our organisations are to succeed, they need joined-up insights.

In this extended episode, James Wycherley is joined by Sandra Kampmann, Director of Insight and Analytics at ASOS. They discuss Sandra’s role, her career path and presumptions about Insight, her ambition to transform Insight and the Insight strategy she is developing - not just for her team, but for the whole organisation.

The IMA carries out a lot of benchmarking to help organisations in the UK, North America, Europe and Asia better understand their Insight capability. What are the most common findings? Many Insight leaders recognise that they spend more time producing data, facts and figures than real insights and are so busy peddling on the corporate hamster wheel that they don’t reflect on the underlying purpose of Insight.

Unfortunately, we all have a tendency to define our Insight work according to the data, or the methodology, in which we have the most expertise. If you began your career working in a market research agency, there’s always going to be a danger that you will view requests for help from other departments in your organisation through the lens of market research. Likewise, if your department is called Customer Analysis or Data Analytics, then you will probably think of data first.

There has never been a better time to work in a corporate Insight team; our analysts and researchers have better data, we all have an improved understanding of human decision-making, and many of our organisations have more appetite for customer and market insights than ever before.