About those three things that his role requires: first, an understanding of the problem his product is trying to solve. In other words, you need to make sure that the data you gather answers the right kinds of questions. He also mentions that it’s important to know what tools you have at your disposal to achieve that desired level of understanding. Having a good grasp of the available methodologies, their capabilities, and what they measure best can be an integral part of drawing conclusions about your consumer. Thirdly, and Nevski says most importantly, you have to understand how you’re going to take all of the information you have and put it together to create a complete picture of your consumers – Nevski calls this a “360 view”. Having a powerful customer profile is what makes your insights actionable.
In recent years, insights have assisted with providing brand direction by taking one or two, often specialized, approaches, but there are shortcomings that come with just having one or two research environments. He gives the example of taking surveys, and how, if one isn’t careful to maintain consistency within a sample group, you can end up inhaving similar group demographics between groups which make them “look alikes.” However, two groups can have completely different motivations, and it really relies on those who are gathering and aggregating the data to be thorough. He also discusses the role of technology – in the past, where plenty of research could be done through cookies and other forms of data collection, technology is advancing to the point where getting more complete data means finding other ways of reaching out to different communities. Finding new opportunities to interact with various consumers continues to drive innovation, and we will continue to see changes in how insights are developed. AI is on the rise, and will almost certainly change the game when it comes to gathering information.
Nevski’s expertise allows him to take us step-by-step through all of the many factors he might take when assessing a customer-base. He takes a multifaceted approach, which allows him to avoid the many pitfalls of not having diverse enough data.
