Research Rebooted: Why Market Research is Broken, How Lean Can Help Fix It

From Lean Day West, September 17, 2013 in Portland, OR

Transcript

1. Research Rebooted Why Most Market Research Is Broken, And How Lean Can Help Fix It
2. what’s wrong with research?
3. the value is broken.
4. $30,000,000,000+
5. time. it’s in a box. and it slips.
6. information request research RFP study design recruitment fielding Analysis Brand/product team research & insights research company recruiter/panel moderators research company
7. The CEO’s Kids “I keep a lot of kids around me and ask them questions and peek around the corner when they think I'm not listening. My master plan was I had a lot of kids. I have six kids. Three girls that are six, a 15-year-old, 18-year- old and 22-year-old. I have the perfect research team in my house." http://acupofteawithphd.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/live-from-cannes-cannes-lions-2013-so-farpart-4-its-diddy/
8. the design is broken.
9. The fear of small numbers Managers worry about the signal-to-noise ratio. The smaller the sample, the more we worry about noise (wrong people, inaccuracies or untruths, groupthink, etc.) So they compensate with bigger sample sizes. But more numbers make more noise.
10. over targeting leads us astray “[M]ost companies with a practiced discipline of listening to their best customers and identifying new products that promise greater profitability and growth are rarely able to build a case for investing in disruptive technologies until it is too late.” - Clay Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma
11. research is often designed to confirm biases. when it doesn’t, it’s painful.
12. our customer or our design target?
13. research ignores switchers, rejectors, fringe & new users “Generally, disruptive technologies underperform established products in mainstream markets. But they have other features that a few fringe (and generally new) customers value.” - Clay Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma
14. the process is broken.
15. garbage in, garbage out “The research manager’s job is to manage the hell out of the research.” - Michelle Crawford
16. quant über alles
17. packing 10 lbs into a 5 lb bag 30 minute surveys 2 hour focus groups 10 page discussion guides Too many questions, too much data, not enough understanding
18. stockpiling data
19. trapping insight in powerpoint decks
20. It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them. - Steve Jobs
22. you ≠ steve jobs.
23. research ≠ design Research is the process by which we understand problems. Design is the process by which we solve problems.
24. how lean can help fix research.
25. what is a lean company for? 1. To specify customer value. 2. To identify & implement the actions that create that value. 3. To remove anything that doesn’t create value. 4. To analyze the results (and repeat).
26. why does feedback & customer pull matter? Feedback and testing (a.k.a., research) help teams settle questions and make decisions based on evidence not preferences. Continuous feedback helps teams see progress.
27. Go and see. This is the new intimacy.
28. how do we do lean research?
29. the owner has to change
30. empower the research manager We have to transform the research manager from a project manager into a Scrum master. Their role is to remove obstacles to progress, and to facilitate communication. Their responsibility to the team is to facilitate hypothesis testing, and to create opportunities to challenge assumptions.
31. validation
32. the tools have to change
33. use right-sized tools
34. Use the tools closest to hand
36. Talk to people where it’s relevant or convenient i.e., NOT HERE
37. talk to them here.
38. the whole team can do this. http://giffconstable.com/2010/07/12-tips-for-early-customer-development-interviews/
39. the flow has to change
40. Do less, more often Lean research is about continuous customer, partner & team feedback.
41. set people up for success
42. the output has to change.
43. data doesn’t “tell” you what to do.
45. nothing beats a conversation. To make research meaningful to the whole team, the whole team needs: Investment Access Accountability
46. forget the horse’s mouth Don’t count on users to make your decisions for you - that’s not their job. Don’t let the report be the end of your learning process - it’s just a way to memorialize what you’ve learned and provide a reference when you encounter similar issues again.
47. information should be reusable, not disposable.
48. watch this space. and thanks, this was fun.