Source of insights and Emergent research

We are excited to read about ‘Where to look for insight’ in Harvard Business Review’s November 2014 issue.

http://hbr.org/2014/10/where-to-look-for-insight/ar/1 
Of the 7 insight channels, research currently includes only 2 (Frustrations and Voyages to some extent). However, this article provides a great provocation for research to go beyond these.

We have been operating several projects that have led us to look beyond the category when seeking insights in research (we blogged about this: Creative structuring, Inspiration during the research process, July 2014 and Serendipity in research, October 2013). Since then we developed our thinking and coined and presented the idea of Emergent research at Qual360 conference 2014 in Singapore.

Emergent research is about finding the future in the present. Here briefly is the core idea of Emergent research.

Why Emergent research?

Current times are complex for 3 key reasons:

1. It’s a world like we have never seen before
2. A world of disruption
3. A world of accelerating change

Research today is quite linear where it becomes a filter between client/brand or business objective and the consumer. And all of this operates within the confines of the category. The issue with this linearity is that we can only improve to find better tools and means of getting deeper insights.

However in a complex world, deeper insights is not the real answer. Rather we need to broaden our scope of enquiry for more disruptive thinking.

And that is why foresight is important. Here let us clarify that foresight is not so much about predicting or spotting trends but about developing future possibilities and then putting plans into place to make this future happen. Therefore Emergent research.

What is Emergent research?

It is about possibilities that emerge from change. So rather than focusing on understanding the current it focuses on understanding the changes that will impact the future.

In Emergent research we go beyond consumers and current category confines to look at the relevant change agents. Provocative enquiries with these change agents and immersion into the changing world can lead to questioning current assumptions and therefore opens out the opportunity space for disruptive thinking.

The key characteristics of Emergent research:

So very much like an atom we need to think about the business goal as the starting point but then work out from there. We need to expand our field of enquiry to look at the emerging change that can give us an inkling of how the field force is changing and how a brand can capitalize on it and create a future from that.

Finally, beyond research companies modifying their perspective and approaches, it is important that clients also step away to re think how they are phrasing their research needs, the questions they are asking.

Nature of clutter in Asian homes

Visiting middle class homes in Asia, we are always struck by the clutter we encounter inside the homes in both developed and developing Asian markets. The external chaotic environment is mirrored in the inside of homes. Status is important to Asians but it comes from the brands one carries, less often from the private spaces one lives in.

Here are some thoughts on the nature of this clutter in Asian homes.
[slideshare id=29729899&doc=thenatureofclutterinasianhomes-140106075526-phpapp01&w=600]

Trendwatching.com January 2014 Asia Trend Bulletin: ‘5 Unmissable Asian Consumer Trends for 2014’ talks about ‘Space Strapped’. With the increasing space constraint one can only wonder how the nature of this clutter will change. Certainly the way Asian consumers look at value will change. How they prioritise what to acquire and accumulate will change.

Listeners Beware

Storytelling is all the rage in business today. It has been an important tool of communication in Qualitative studies.  

However reading the book ‘The art of thinking clearly’ (author: Rolf Dobelli), reminded us about the influence of researcher on the story they tell, on how we do content analysis.

Dobelli talks about the Story Bias i.e. we understand the world better by weaving stories/meaning into what can be unconnected details. However this often distorts reality and gives us a false sense of understanding. Eventually it affects our ability to make decisions.

In research as well, when we build stories to communicate insights, we designate importance to certain details. We focus on certain elements while leaving out others. The data left out might in fact be useful in explaining the cause. Therein lies an inherent bias which affects the basic foundation of the story we build.

A researcher can be more aware of their own in built influences that affect the way they look at data. However we need more specific methods and tools to ensure that the story bias does not seep into the analysis. We have managed to do this by developing specific systems. Here are three of them:

• Content analysis by teams rather than individuals for diverse thinking
• Serious consideration of ‘wasted data’
• Building frameworks to validate how data is structured

And so listeners of business stories need to be more conscious about who is telling the stories, data they have chosen to highlight and what have they left out. Gives us some food for thought on how we assess ‘good’ research and researchers.