Presented by Ray Poynter, Potentiate and NewMR 50% of insight projects are conducted internally by clients. Research is being democratised, a shift enabled by the explosion in the number of platforms. Ray highlights the implications of more research being conducted by people who may have less research knowledge, but who have a greater topic understanding (and with the ability to implement results).

1. The Implications of Democratizing
Insights for Research
10 November 2021
Ray Poynter

2. Sponsors
Communication

3. Agenda
What is ‘Democratizing’
What is happening
Looking at the trends
Implications
Recommendations
Q & A

4. Democratization
More people using
research
More people creating
research

5. What is Happening?
Non-researchers accessing:
• Dashboards
• Knowledge management
systems
• Reports published on the
intranet / shared zones
• Search engines (internal and
external
Non-researchers are:
• Scripting surveys
• Commissioning one-stop
solutions, e.g. ad tests, concept
tests
• Creating online discussions
• Collecting video stories
• Analysing social media
All enabled by the growth in platforms

6. The Key Trends
• Simple to use, simple to interpret
• Fast (from desire to result)
• Cheaper
• Free at the point of use
• Complete solution versus better
raw tools
• Niches remaining niches

7. The Implications?
• Most research will be used by non-researchers
• Most research will be initiated by non-researchers
• Non-researchers are better placed to action the results of research
• The median price per project will fall
• Speed will usually be more important than quality
• There will be errors, but that was always so
• Platforms are the great enabler
• Platforms will get smarter and more integrated

8. Dumbing Down?
Racing car photo from https://unsplash.com/@baudy

9. The Risks?
• Naïve research, naïve
interpretations
• Errors in design,
implementation, or
interpretation
• Overconfidence

10. The Rewards?
More use of evidence-based decision making

11. Recommendations
Insight Teams
Become
leaders,
coaches,
advocates,
enablers
Agencies
Focus on
what self-
serve can’t do
Researchers
Become an
expert, with a
T-shape

12. Q & A
Ray Poynter

13. Sponsors
Communication