Big data, small data. Quant, qual. Structured, unstructured. Self-reported, observed. And on and on. Data is collected and analyzed in many ways these days. It’s exciting, but how can one person be an expert in all of it? The short answer: you can’t. There are too many potential areas of specialization. But you can make some informed choices about how to plan your career in an increasingly data-fluent world. In this session, Kathryn will present research on job title and skill trends, and offer her recommendations for what they mean for specific market research and customer insights career opportunities. Is it time to refresh your career path vision?

1. A Rising Data Tide Li/s All Research Boats
Kathryn Korostoff, Research Rockstar LLC
Opportunities &
Challenges in MR
A Rising Data Tide Li/s All
Research Boats:
New Career Path Op=ons for Market Research
& Customer Insights Professionals
Kathryn Korostoff
Research Rockstar LLC

2. A Rising Data Tide Li/s All Research Boats
Kathryn Korostoff, Research Rockstar LLC
Opportunities &
Challenges in MR
The Rising Data Tide
• $203 billion: IDC’s predic=on for 2020 Big Data &
Analy=cs spending
• 21,000: Number of job pos=ngs on Indeed as of
February 2017 that require “big data” skills
(compare to 2,000 for “marke=ng research” and
3,900 “SPSS”)
• 90: Percent of large organiza=ons Gartner says
will have a Chief Data Officer by 2019

3. A Rising Data Tide Li/s All Research Boats
Kathryn Korostoff, Research Rockstar LLC
Opportunities &
Challenges in MR
The Advisor Opportunity
• Being the data agnos<c advisor (generalist)
• Leveraging many skills you already have
– For example, your exis<ng project management, data analysis and
synthesis skills
• Perhaps adding a few new ones
– It’s hard to claim the generalist role if 95% of your work has been with
survey research (for example)
• The generalist is a poten<ally exci<ng opportunity—true client
partnership poten<al. If your passion is for working with clients
long-term, being their unbiased data advisor is an op<on

4. A Rising Data Tide Li/s All Research Boats
Kathryn Korostoff, Research Rockstar LLC
Opportunities &
Challenges in MR
How many market research and
insights-related job =tles can
you think of?

5. A Rising Data Tide Li/s All Research Boats
Kathryn Korostoff, Research Rockstar LLC
Opportunities &
Challenges in MR
The Specialist Opportunity
• Being the power specialist
• Lots of opportuni<es for specialists (perhaps even more so
than for generalists)
• Skill/knowledge requirement: embrace a specialty!
CX specialist Ethnographer B2B Researcher
Customer
needs specialist
Marke<ng
scien<st Power R User
Shopper
insights analyst UX specialist
Survey
researcher
Pricing
research
specialist
Online
community
specialist
Any many
more!

6. A Rising Data Tide Li/s All Research Boats
Kathryn Korostoff, Research Rockstar LLC
Opportunities &
Challenges in MR
Considering Data Op=ons
• Know your op<ons
• Be data-agnos=c
– Versus defaul<ng to a (sub-
op<mal) solu<on
– Most business and
marke<ng outcome-centric
goals can be well-served by
various op<ons.
Meet Albert. Albert does a lot of
projects related to product concept
tes<ng. Every new project that
comes his way, looks like a focus
group project to him. His narrow
view is star<ng to disappoint his
clients, who are hearing about
other product concept tes<ng
op<ons from other advisors.

7. A Rising Data Tide Li/s All Research Boats
Kathryn Korostoff, Research Rockstar LLC
Opportunities &
Challenges in MR
Would you rather be the Data
Agnos=c Advisor or the Specialist?

8. A Rising Data Tide Li/s All Research Boats
Kathryn Korostoff, Research Rockstar LLC
Opportunities &
Challenges in MR
Thank You!

9. A Rising Data Tide Li/s All Research Boats
Kathryn Korostoff, Research Rockstar LLC
Opportunities &
Challenges in MR
Q & A
Ray Poynter
The Future Place
Kathryn Korostoff
Research Rockstar LLC