How is the pandemic impacting research & insight teams?

Scott Litman, co-founder and managing partner of Lucy, was asked to share his thoughts on how the pandemic is impacting the work of research & insights teams with Research Business Daily Report. From his perspective of helping companies leverage their insights and research, he pointed to a few key areas he felt had the most impact on the research and insights teams we work with. 

One of the biggest impacts is that most individuals on these teams are now working remotely. This has a profound impact on how people work together and collaborate. There isn’t the organic experience of running into someone the hallway, or while pouring coffee and then find yourself chatting about ideas. You can’t turn to the coworker next to you and ask what they know, or who they think you should reach out to, about a past project. This is exacerbating the problem businesses already had about losing legacy knowledge.

Working remotely, also puts an increased challenge on accessing the company’s data assets. Searching through SharePoint, or similar systems, already had its frustrations. Now it is even harder to keep up with where past research was stored, what has been added or what document had a particular chart that is just what is needed for a current project. As demands on insights and research teams are greater than ever—they certainly don’t have the time to waste searching for answers that already exist to be able to do their work.

This increased demand on their time that has surfaced relates to recency of data. There is a constant flood of data for the research and insight professional related to the impact of the pandemic as sales, marketing, distribution channels, consumer habits, audiences and brand affinity continue to evolve. The information of the past isn’t reliable. Or take for example, holiday shopping—the pre-pandemic data has become obsolete.

All of this creates whole new demands on research and insight professionals. This is driving organizations across industries to look for technology to support their teams in leveraging all this data. They are looking for ideas on unifying syndicated sources, premium research tools, commissioned data, and internal file systems to make the data usable and actionable. They are asking—how do we best support remote teams to efficiently find the data they need?

Businesses are understanding more than ever how imperative it is to leverage all of the available consumer insights and research to not just survive, but thrive, as the world adapts to a new norm. Post-pandemic will be very different than pre-pandemic and businesses need to react quickly to stay competitive.

Watch Scott Litman’s Interview with Research Business Daily Report.

 

 

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