Episodes

When the Insight forums first met, the prevailing thinking was that analysis and research projects should be conducted and then written up as if they were scientific experiments. Market research reports in particular would start with a reference to the brief that had been received; then talk about the methodology selected; the research activity carried out; the data collated and tables of findings. And finally, if you were lucky, some observations and conclusions. This was a very logical way of approaching the task, but it’s a very passive way of communicating. If we start with the brief and methodology, rather than business recommendations, it’s also likely to reinforce stakeholders’ perception that an Insight team is a reactive service function.

We all know that stories are powerful, probably the most widely used and effective communication tool in human history. Big businesses have used stories for years, narratives about their formation and evolution, and the role they play in satisfying consumer demand. And more recently, organisations have woken up to the power of stories for internal communication. So it’s only natural that Insight teams have followed the same trend, and for the last 5 years every research conference has included at least one session on storytelling. But many storytelling workshops are far too conceptual to provide Insight teams with practical tools. So in this episode, James is joined by the IMA’s Lisa Dutton to explore the key storytelling principles that can easily be applied to Insight work. Please listen to find out more!

As consumers, we recognise that images are often easier to follow than words. From those IKEA self-assembly instructions, to the colourful infographics in the Sunday newspapers, and the YouTube video guides on how to manage every aspect of our lives. Internal corporate departments have tended to be slower to use visual communications. But, done well, they can be an extremely effective tool for many departments, including our Insight teams. Done badly, they can over-complicate and confuse.

In this, the final episode in season 3, James is joined by Emma Jones and Lisa Dutton to explore some of the hot topics discussed at recent Insight forums. What have IMA members and guests been thinking about? On which best practice territories do corporate Insight teams hope to make progress this year? How might Insight leaders document and develop their ideas in an Insight playbook? And will James be able to remember all the playbook chapters? Please listen to find out more!

Welcome to Season 4 of our podcast and a quick reminder that you can download all 27 episodes from our first 3 seasons free of charge from your favourite podcast platform. I think most of us would agree that demand for insights is rising as senior managers increasingly acknowledge the importance of customer-centricity and see research and analytics as a potential source of competitive advantage. At the same time, the proliferation of digital transactions and data sources has increased the complexity of managing Insight activity. As the potential for Insight to make a difference keeps growing, and as the practicalities of making it make a difference get more complicated, I think there’s a critical need for us to define a strategy for Insight.

In our last episode, I explained why it is so important for Insight leaders to develop a strategy for Insight in their organisations. In today’s episode, we explore the first step that we can all take, and a 6-point process for assessing the lie of the land. I’m joined by Jane Woolley, former Head of Insight at London Underground and now a senior adviser at the IMA.

In the first 2 episodes of this season, I’ve set out why I think it’s so important for Insight leaders and senior Insight managers to think about an Insight strategy for their organisation. And then how to take the first steps. But is that all we need to do before we define our vision for Insight, and maybe set about crafting a mission statement that can act as a reference point for our team this year? I think there’s another step we need to take first.

In every organisation, someone is making a decision about which business issues the Insight team will inform; whether researchers and analysts will work in the same function; what the headcount, structure and budget of the team will look like; and how the team’s performance will be measured. But in many organisations, it doesn’t feel like these decisions are deliberate. Many Insight teams carry on doing what they did the year before by default, with a bit more focus on projects that mean a lot to a new senior stakeholder. And budgets roll on from one year to the next, cut when business is not going well, sometimes increased when the organisation has a burst of enthusiasm for taking evidence-based decisions. But successful Insight teams take decisions about their scope, scale, structure, outputs and budgets in a way that is consistent with their stated vision for Insight. Day to day activity is shaped by strategic decisions about Insight’s purpose and role. In this 21-minute…

In the first four episodes of our podcast this season we’ve explored the key steps involved in developing an Insight strategy. We should start by looking at all the ways in which Insight could make a difference to our organisation’s success and our ambition for taking advantage of those opportunities. We should then think through the logical consequences of our vision for Insight on the key choices we make – often implicitly – about our function’s scope, scale, outputs, structure, budgets and measure of success. However, you can formulate the most brilliant strategy, but if you can’t implement the recommendations, you might as well not have bothered. So in this episode we look at how to execute our strategy, and indeed why the implementation phase has to be seen as integral to the whole strategy. Please listen to find out more!

Episode 33 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this episode, James talks to Nick Rich about his experience Transforming Insight at Carlsberg. Nick gives an overview of his career in Insight roles, from Intercontinental Hotels Group in the UK to Carlsberg in Copenhagen, to his transition returning to the UK and looking for the next chapter in his Insight career.

In this, the final episode in season 4, James is joined by Emma and Lisa to explore some of the hot topics discussed at recent Insight forums. What have IMA members and guests been discussing at the Insight forums? Who’s been making progress working on an Insight strategy for their organisation? Who’s trying to move from being reactive service providers to strategic drivers? How might AI effect Insight teams, beyond its impact on market research surveys? Please listen to find out more!

It’s the first episode of Season 5, and an introduction to this season’s focus on Insight people. As Insight leaders we all want to develop the most effective Insight function we can, and in the Transforming Insight book, and in the first 4 seasons of our podcast, we’ve already covered lots of ways of doing that. We’ve looked at the purpose of Insight teams, the importance of farming customer knowledge, the requirement to influence decision-makers and communicate our knowledge. But a focus on what our departments do and which processes they follow is no substitute for thinking about our people, their skills, and how we deploy them.

Today I’m going to start with a question – and I’d like you to pause and reflect on it whether you work in a client-side Insight team or an agency, and whether you’re the senior Insight professional in your team or a junior manager, analyst or researcher… What does a client-side Insight leader actually do? Discussions at 20 years of Insight forums suggest that the role of the Insight leader is extremely busy and increasingly varied: there are definitely similarities between leadership roles at different organisations, but also key differences. Some of these differences are based on the organisation we work for, or the sector in which our company operates. Some are driven by the precise nature of our responsibilities – for example if we lead a market research-based Insight team, or primarily a group of analysts. But I think many of the largest differences arise from the choices we make, often subconsciously. And it’s those choices about how Insight leaders define their …

An Insight team can’t be successful if it doesn’t include people with great skills and attributes. If we want to position our teams as departments that identify value and drive change, we need to think beyond traditional research and analysis skills, and employ people with a more diverse set of attributes. The IMA often talks about Insight consultants, Insight farmers, Insight authors, journalists, storytellers and designers. And at our Insight forums in November, we’ll be introducing the role of the Insight influencer. In this week’s podcast, James is joined by Lisa Dutton, herself a legendary Insight influencer and the IMA’s Head of Team Development.

If you work in a corporate Insight role, you might think you know quite a lot about the way the world works. You might be an Insight analyst with long experience looking at patterns in customers’ spending; or maybe you’re a market researcher, considered by your colleagues to be an expert on understanding the drivers of consumer behaviour. But how much do we really know about the world around us? About the core stats relating to human life on earth and the trends and changes seen in recent years? Do we have a fact-based worldview, or a set of assumptions backed up by partial insights and incomplete data?

In the previous two episodes of our podcast we’ve looked at some of the key skills and attributes displayed by successful Insight managers, analysts and researchers, and what I called the Insight perspective - that big picture awareness, focus on fundamental truths and critical assessment of new ideas and arguments always seen in the very best Insight people. But if we want to build a successful Insight team, how do we go about finding, developing and retaining talented people with those characteristics?

Episode 40 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this episode, James talks to Hayley Ward about her experience Transforming Insight at Deliveroo. As Hayley approaches her two-year anniversary at Deliveroo, she looks back at what attracted her to join the company and what her initial approach to transforming the Insight culture was. Hayley wanted to bring a more rounded, qualitative understanding of customers and market Insights to the organisation. Hayley discusses how she focused on building her Insight team with the right people to drive change and deliver value. Hayley also touches on the importance on having clear objectives and goals in place. Hayley shares the benefits of using large-scale events designed for primary research, bringing in people from all parts of the company. We also hear about the success of her first “customer lab”. Hayley also explores the opportunities that AI offers Insight teams, from streamlining processes to opening u…

It’s Christmas! And time to look back at the big conversations the IMA has had with senior Insight leaders over the last few weeks. James is joined by Emma Jones, the IMA’s Head of Insight & Content, and Lisa Dutton, Head of Team Development.

Today’s podcast is the first in Season 6, and our first on the critical topic of Insight team positioning. It’s a concept the IMA introduced 9 years ago, and ever since we’ve been slightly obsessed by Insight teams’ need to optimise their position in the hearts, minds and decision-making processes of their organisations. There’s an analogy we often use when we talk about positioning, describing Insight as a lighthouse…

There is no point in producing any research or analysis unless it drives change. So, forward-looking Insight teams think carefully about how they are going to disseminate their insights and ideas. As we’ve heard in earlier seasons of our podcast, the IMA’s most effective corporate members have developed: • Influencing skills and plans to help them to persuade specific decision-makers to follow their recommendations, and • Communication skills and plans to enable them to share customer and market knowledge throughout the organisation To borrow a marketing analogy, this is rather like a company focusing on selling to key clients, and also developing advertising to communicate the benefits of its products across a broad market. Both are established tactics, but they are both much easier if the company has first developed a well-respected brand.

Episode 44 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode, James talks to Renate Brockes, Customer Insight Lead at Transport for London. Renate brings us on her journey from her initial role in market research at the Met Police to leading TFL's Insight team. Renate reflects on her experience of guiding a team through multiple organizational restructures and the complexities of public service. Sharing her aspirations for the team, the importance of collaboration and stable and clear direction is discussed. Taking a look at the challenges the pandemic brought to public transport Insights, Renate shares her pride in her team for their ability to flex when Insight became the most valuable commodity to the business at that time. Renate also shares her experience and advice for being a leader in an Insight team. Please listen to find out more!

I hope you all enjoyed episode 44 and my interview with Renate Brockes from Transport for London? I took a lot from it, including some of Renate’s insights about imposter syndrome which we’ve found a great input to the research that my colleague Emma’s doing ready for our March Insight forums (in Manchester, online and in London on the 6th, 13h and 20th March respectively – please go to this link for more details - https://www.insight-management.org/5-min-insight/next-insight-forums) But today we’re going back to where we left off in episode 43, when I suggested that Insight leaders should think about their departments like companies in a market, and recognise the important role that brand can play in framing perceptions. I suggested that should go beyond visual cues like logos or straplines, and include reflection on team purpose, the promise we are making to other departments, and the positive and negative impacts that our personal brands can have on other people’s percepti…

Episode 46 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode, James talks to Hazel Nicolson, Associate Director of Insights at Coca-Cola EP. Hazel brings us back to her decision to take up her role at Coca Cola EP and why she wanted a “pure Insight role”, rather than to continue working on the application of Insights. Reflecting on the challenges facing the Insight team when she first joined, Hazel reveals how the team was liberated to perform more in-depth analysis tasks, by empowering colleagues in other areas of the business with the tools to self-service their data needs. Hazel shares the Insight team’s three-pronged approach to driving a more Insight-led business, and the challenges and successes she has encountered. Describing her split approach to management and leadership, Hazel highlights the importance of workload management and clear priority setting. Hazel also shares her advice for others in Insight leadership roles.

It’s episode 47, the last of season 6, and our Easter roundtable. And James is joined by Lisa Dutton, the IMA’s Head of Team Development, and Emma Jones, Head of Insight and Content. In this episode we talk about the positive vibe around AI in Insight at the moment, accepting that it’s still very early days. IMA members are exploring ways to save time using AI to draft questionnaires, summarise large documents, and suggest headlines for slides. Some are even cheating on Lisa’s storytelling workshops – which we love, please use it to cheat with pride!