2. Breaking
Rules
Enhancing your decision making...in just
5 minutes
A Futures Coaching initiative
www.futurescoaching.com
3. #1 Favour in-depths
For real depth of understanding always
go for one-on-ones over focus groups
Could a focus group ever tell you that
some nature-lovers use binoculars to
approach God?
4. #2 Pick experience
Too many tasks have been wrongly
downgraded and given to juniors
Did you really want a chaotic 75 page
desk research report or 3 pages giving
you precise & meaningful insights?
Reevaluate the experience needed to
complete research tasks
5. #3 Look for the essence
Avoid transcripts and videos: no one
(should) have the time to review these
What counts is: the essential, the
break-through insight, the 'aha!'
moment
A BIG outcome from a focus group
could be a one liner: not a
presentation deck
6. #4 Use innovative methods
A big agency billed a training session I
attended 'New research techniques for
the new decade', then presented
semiotics, lexical analysis & tracking!
Their justification: a new wave of
researchers find this stuff new
There is little innovation in research so
insist on new ways; new approaches
7. #5 Reject research as a job
A major FMCG firm has an overflow of
customer, shopper & channel data
Its insights team see running research
studies as their job
Avoid this: delivering business goals is
the real objective, a task which is
(sometimes) supported by research
8. #6 Become your consumer
What do consumers say? Become the
consumer of your products and you'll
already have the first insights
When I worked for Habitat, I had to
spend days in store; working for Olam
(a commodities company) requires
time spent living & working in the
countryside
9. #7 Probe people
How many times have I seen user-
based segmentations? But we are
consumers for a fraction of our lives
People are more than consumers: they
have jobs, friends, hobbies - & all this
colours attitudes & behaviours
Research real people in their everyday
lives first before drilling down to
purchase & usage
10. #8 Know your culture
Working with Ford, they wanted
databooks; Virgin Atlantic wanted
interpretation
Know that company cultures dictate
the type of research that is 'required'
Know too, that there are times when
the real research need is at odds with
what the culture normally dicates
11. #9 Focus on the last 5 items
Huge U&A surveys are overloaded
with detailed questions
But questions near the end can often
be the key to decode the results
I particularly like value statements
tacked on the back so I know, the
'who?' and not just the 'how
much/how often/why'
12. #10 Cut down your budget
Even with complex targeting,
incremental focus groups deliver
diminishing returns
I've seen 8 even 16 groups
commissioned when 4 would have
given 95%+ of insights
In-depths are the same. Did 72 make
the study more robust or were the last
42 interviews giving the same thing?
14. What is Futures Coaching up to
during May 2012?
Helping reinvent an entire supermarket department
Preparing an international innovations project for a
winning global brand
Building a Key Note for NGO Fundraisers in Geneva in
June
Pitching to build an international development strategy
for a major European agency
Planning a business trip to Jakarta and Singapore
Pitching some new book ideas to Pearson
15. LONDON • PARIS
Website: www.futurescoaching.com
Blog: http://futurescoaching.typepad.com
Email: chris@futurescoaching.com