Why is it so difficult to pose a useful research question?

For me, the hardest part of any market research project is the very beginning.

The beginning is awkward.

It’s difficult because it’s awkward. I’m getting to know a new client and they’re getting to know me. There’s small talk, which I am bad at. And as we’re getting to know each other, me and my client are in two different, but both uncomfortable, positions.

For me the consultant, the beginning is part of the “selling.” I’m trying to show the client that I understand their business, their personal goals and the org goals all with VERY little information. I might have a timeline, a suggested methodology, but little of the most important stuff—what the client herself wants to get out of the study, who else is invested in the study, what’s going on with the business that this is a priority, whether they did a version of this last quarter (lol, pharma) or never. It’s a weird dance of trying to demonstrate authority while at the same time gathering a lot of info.

But the most interesting thing to me comes from the client’s end—how often they struggle to articulate 1) the one big thing they are hoping to learn; 2) why this matters so much to them; and 3) what big decisions the learning will inform. It’s easy to think this is a problem with the client that “they don’t know what they want.” Probably that’s true on some level. Once a company gets $50k for a study, lots of priorities get smushed in and probably creates confusion and muddied goals. But also I think the not knowing is simply an early, awkward part of trying to learn something new. Being in a position of not yet knowing and having to struggle to express oneself is really uncomfortable! It’s probably frustrating, and may bring up shame + inadequacy.

Learning is awkward and, I believe, almost always social.

It’s uncomfortable but also very normal. We’re built to avoid pain. And in corporate environments where there is a deep aversion to expressing uncertainty or looking like you don’t have the answer, skipping past ‘not knowing’ is the norm. Probably to the detriment of ‘innovation’ and real discovery. So in this research context, both the consultant and client speed past these early discussions to talk about things that feel much more tangible—timeline, methodology, and even $. And we’ve missed the most critical thing—what we are actually doing and why. Too many times this doesn't get revisited until someone brings it up at the readout.

The human behavior aspect of all work, including market research, is what fascinates me most. When a study kicks off you have a lot of human dynamics at play. I believe that the objective and goal setting can’t really happen in a vacuum. It’s inherently relational and something uncovered by discussion where there is at least some amount of psychological safety. People need to feel comfortable to surface questions and skepticism and hypotheses.

Consultants can lead this process by not speeding the discussion along because we feel inadequate or uncomfortable. We can normalize that defining “the objectives” may sound simple but, actually, it’s a process and not easy. (In academia it takes years to develop a valid research question.) For those of us who readily use our intuition, we notice the felt sense that something feels really and pause there to listen.

Learning is a process of struggle and is uncomfortable. But it’s not a thing you can skip if you want to end up somewhere new or different. And I believe some degree of this is normal at the beginning of engagements.

Consultants can notice patterns + proactively help.

Consultants, I believe, can do more to help clients along with understanding their problems by taking a more active approach in noticing the common issues their clients encounter and proactively trying to help! For that reason I’m rolling out market research offerings that are tailor-made for specific issues and hopefully meet clients where they are, so less of this translation is required. Right now, I’m helping associations keep the first-year members they worked so hard to get by running a short research sprint. If you know of anyone who might benefit they can learn more here: https://www.goldentorchinsights.com/first-year-sprint​