1.
The Implications of Democratizing
Insights for Research
10 November 2021
Ray Poynter

2.
Sponsors
Communication

3.
Agenda
What is ‘Democratizing’
What is happening
Looking at the trends
Implications
Recommendations
Q & A

4.
Democratization
More people using
research
More people creating
research

5.
What is Happening?
Non-researchers accessing:
• Dashboards
• Knowledge management
systems
• Reports published on the
intranet / shared zones
• Search engines (internal and
external
Non-researchers are:
• Scripting surveys
• Commissioning one-stop
solutions, e.g. ad tests, concept
tests
• Creating online discussions
• Collecting video stories
• Analysing social media
All enabled by the growth in platforms

6.
The Key Trends
• Simple to use, simple to interpret
• Fast (from desire to result)
• Cheaper
• Free at the point of use
• Complete solution versus better
raw tools
• Niches remaining niches

7.
The Implications?
• Most research will be used by non-researchers
• Most research will be initiated by non-researchers
• Non-researchers are better placed to action the results of research
• The median price per project will fall
• Speed will usually be more important than quality
• There will be errors, but that was always so
• Platforms are the great enabler
• Platforms will get smarter and more integrated

8.
Dumbing Down?
Racing car photo from https://unsplash.com/@baudy

9.
The Risks?
• Naïve research, naïve
interpretations
• Errors in design,
implementation, or
interpretation
• Overconfidence

10.
The Rewards?
More use of evidence-based decision making

11.
Recommendations
Insight Teams
Become
leaders,
coaches,
advocates,
enablers
Agencies
Focus on
what self-
serve can’t do
Researchers
Become an
expert, with a
T-shape

12.
Q & A
Ray Poynter

13.
Sponsors
Communication