On 24th August 2020 Insight Platforms published an article written by our Research Director, Maria Twigge, exploring the ways to Empower Stakeholders by Democratising Access to Insight.
Engaging and empowering stakeholders with relevant and high-quality insights is the goal of all insight professionals spanning industries, and countless hours have been spent searching for a way to do this effectively. From engagement tactics like storytelling and psychological hooks, there is a simpler way to share results and boost insight empowerment: democratising access to insights.
Democratising Access to Insights
Democratising access to insights can be done on a few levels that stretch from allowing unlimited and immediate access to all insights generated from market research, to allowing access to research throughout the research process thus engaging stakeholders right from the very beginning. But there is one thing that success hinges on, and that is communication - transforming out relationships with decision makers into one that is less transactional and instead based on a shared understanding.
Open communication allows us to empower stakeholders to a higher degree through three areas:
1. Ownership
As passionate research and insight professionals we tend to take ownership of what the insight means and how to apply it as a means of driving return on investment. However, if we are bold and brave enough to let go of this ownership then amazing things can happen.
What we all enjoy is getting involved and adding our perspective, so actively involving stakeholders in insight development and activation whilst also demonstrating leadership and expertise allows stakeholders to invest more time/effort into the project as well as its results.
2. Collaboration
Facilitating more cooperative and collaborative conversations around what the insights are and where across the business they have impact empowers your teams to use the customer understanding as an asset that improves the value of the products and services that they deliver.
This active involvement by stakeholders also lends itself to aiding the research project and shine a light on the value of the insights produced.
3. Accessibility
Whilst, as a discipline, research tends to be known for being thorough and meticulous, one area we can often struggle with is making the insights accessible. There are many strategies a researcher can deploy to break down these barriers to engagement, from involving stakeholders earlier to creating a range of output reports that are tailored to key audiences.
Technology, storytelling skills and knowledge of stakeholder audiences all have an important part to play in making insight more accessible for all.
Interested in learning more? Read the article in full here.
About Insight Platforms
Insight Platforms is the leading online resource for learning about digital research tools. The company has their own directory of over 700 market research suppliers in over 30 categories from A/B Testing to Visual Analytics; and also boasts a myriad of blogs, guides, independent reviews from experts in product research, consumer insights, social intelligence, customer experience and digital analytics.
