Research, Test, Find Our Answer

“Then do it again until we get the right answer!”

It is not unusual for companies to use research to validate their opinions. I have lived through that cycle many times. So many times, testing research tells us one thing really well: What's going on right in this moment. That’s not a bad thing if you are launching a product, a video game, or a streaming show in the next few months. But what about a year or two or three from now? How does research help solve that question of the future? After all, most companies want to be the first out there, ahead of the wave, find that new thing, that big opportunity.

I have seen and experienced many incredibly hot, innovative ideas doused with water because research found the moment, not the future. It's hard enough in a company to gain consensus on which product or service to move forward with, let alone having testing pushback at the same time. The classic creative-versus-marketer tension is often sadly decided by research.

Now, I’m not anti-research. Far from it. When used and developed properly, it can be an important tool in the decision chain. In fact, how you shape the research questions often results in expected answers. And the problem with that, you shouldn’t have the answer in your head before the research. You need to let the research unfold new insights that can shape the product development or open a completely new direction. Now that’s research!

Listening to the consumer, viewer, gamer, etc., is an art in itself. I know there are many ‘listening’ research methodologies out there, but the art lies in developing one that is truly centered on your business needs, not so much on predetermined results. A lot of listening research gives you big buckets of information, and that can be helpful, but are you listening for the right thing?

Consumers often socialize ideas before adopting them and wait to talk about them more publicly once they are more mainstream. Those hidden ideas and attributes are often not recognized in a typical research question response.

So, how do we find those hidden gems, those ideas that are truly unique and breakthrough?

There are several good research companies that can field a test to get to these. One program I helped develop while at Fisher-Price was called StoryVine. We would talk to approximately 20 respondents individually. Then have a conversation about many related topics, but they were generalized beyond what we were looking for. The respondents certainly had no problem talking away, and in their conversations, they revealed potential trends and ideas without even knowing they were doing so! Finally, we would list common words and phrases across all the respondents, and sure enough, similar words, ideas, and attitudes would begin to emerge. It was a lot of work going through the interviews, mining for similarities, but well worth it every time. We were seeing the future through their behaviors and thoughts. A powerful way to look outward rather than at the present.

Staying a few feet ahead of the wave allows companies to be looked at as innovative and progressive. Listening is a sure measure of accomplishing this. So, let’s not test things until we get the results we think we know. Let’s test for what we don’t know.