Episodes

In this 15-minute episode, the first of season 3, James looks at how successful Insight teams can drive change through communication.In season 2, we looked at how Insight people can influence the senior managers who make key decisions. That’s usually the best way to achieve the most impact. But if your company aspires to be truly customer-centric, then it follows that there will be far more employees who need to understand fundamental aspects of customer relationships, behaviour, and its drivers than you could possibly talk to. Insight teams cannot be present in every discussion that affects corporate decisions. But insights and insight – the actionable knowledge that we develop - can be present, if an Insight team has a clear focus on disseminating its understanding.

Episode 22 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode, James talks to Liz Boffey, Director of Insight at Sainsbury’s.Liz talks about how she now sees herself as an end–to–end Insight leader, having experienced all different aspects of Insight throughout her career. Her roles span from market research, category management, consumer insight, shopper insight, agency-side and leadership roles.

Lots of corporate Insight teams work very closely with marketing departments, but how good are we at marketing our own insights? Or even recognising the need to market them? When Insight leaders think about improving the communication of their knowledge and ideas, they normally focus on team skills and behaviour. These are really important of course, but a focus only on skills leaves us without a top-down plan for what is to be communicated, when and to whom.

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!