The Need for Agile Market Research and Why it is Important for Organisations to Embrace

What is Agile Market Research?

“Agile management is an iterative and adaptive process where small, highly-collaborative teams work in a series of short cycles, incorporating rapid feedback, to deliver emergent solutions, emphasizing transparency among all stakeholders.”

Organisations need to be agile because there is an increase of ever-shifting touch-points and channels to connect with consumers, coupled with:

• An explosion of content and content marketing in the digital world
• A proliferation of devices and an uncertainty of how they will be used in tandem when the Internet of Things goes mainstream
• And a continually accelerating amount of data collection.

The impact of this is heightened by the consumer response.

• They are now in control of the purchase pathway, the perfectly crafted marketing campaign no longer works
• They relate to third parties by seeking them out on their own, or they become the influencers, advocates, or detractors themselves.
• They question what products, services and brands say and demand answers quickly, all while heartlessly comparing them to competitors and judge, praise, chide, or give advice out in the public sphere.
• Also, did we mention it is 24/7 and cannot be turned off?

This has huge implications for a consumer facing organisation, trying to remain at the cutting edge of service and product delivery. Your innovation and improvement cycle NEEDS to be agile, and agile research can really help.

So, how exactly can agile market research help?

The one point of view we always hear…

“quicker, faster, cheaper”

…but that is not enough and can be damaging to your brand.

It is critical to maintain the value equation when conducting agile market research. Money needs to be well spent, so faster and cheaper is not necessarily better in the longer term. Fast and cheap does not always provide enough for strategic decision making when a slightly longer time frame and budget could have made a significant difference.

Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all approach or magic tool that can achieve the same level of results as a dynamic, customised approach. Collaboration and flexibility are key to every agile research engagement and this drives better outcomes, better spend and more strategic decision-making capability.

What you need to keep in mind is speed is not the most important factor –

1.  Collaboration is key: Work with third parties to ensure they understand the holistic picture.
2. The right way to iterate: Quick, but not too quick. Avoid making significant changes off the back of fragmented information.
3. Stakeholders working together – same place, same time: We need to get all the players in the same place.

 

Ultimately Agile Market Research is NOT a research event…
…it’s a DECISION event!!

Getting the most from Agile Market Research

Agile research is at its best when there is a laser focus on key issues and key pieces of the puzzle. In its essence, true agile research:

• …requires cross-functional team members – people who may have deep specialization or talent in key areas but are also willing to pitch in on a wide variety of other tasks. The whole team either succeeds together or fails together. Agile is a continuous loop of plan, build, inspect, adapt, repeat.
• …follows a process, a process designed to increase alignment with the business aims of the client; to improve communication, both within and outside the market research team, and to increase the speed and responsiveness of research.
• …is interactive, allowing for short studies and experiments, frequent feedback, and the ability to react to changing conditions.

To change the research process we need to think about how we think about change, so when the next new thing explodes we are better positioned on how to capitalise on it.

But it is also important to understand how those pieces fit together. Agile research will tell you the shirt looks good. It’ll tell you if the pants are working; maybe the shoes could use some improvement. However, occasionally you need to step back, conduct fuller research and understand if the whole outfit looks good together.

 

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