Client Spotlight Series: Research Manager at a Financial Services Company
Posted on February 7, 2020
Our clients are smart.
Normally, we don’t like to brag, but we feel like its ok to make an exception in this instance–we’ve got smart clients! And we want to share some of their smarts with you, which is why we’ve developed this Client Spotlight Series. Each quarter, we chat with one of our clients about their insight into new market research technology and trends, the future of research, their struggles, successes and more–and then, we share all this valuable information with you!
This quarter, we sat down with Holly, one of our clients who is a Research Manager at a financial services industry and she shared some of her MR wisdom with us–enjoy!
What is your favorite part of your day?
Helping my team think through research problems and being a part of their “ah ha” moments.
From a 10,000-foot view, what are your biggest challenges as a researcher? What keeps you up at night?
Working for a financial institution it has to be: compliance, compliance, compliance. There are so many tools and techniques out of our reach because of the low risk tolerance and compliance requirements, so we often have to get creative. From a research perspective it’s finding the right participants to ensure they’re that perfect mix of interested in the product/service, but not expert, and articulate and open. I cringe when an internal partner says, “That’s not my customer” mid-interview.
What are the three most important attributes of a research partner?
Responsiveness, on time delivery, and client-management – help me understand the implications of my requests so we can work together on the final solution or decision. Our research partners are long-term relationships and require openness and communication from both sides to be successful.
What are things that a research partner does that make your day easier? Harder?
Missed deliverable dates are hardest – we’re all super busy and block time to review/respond to materials; if we don’t get them on time it can throw the entire day off and we aren’t able to give things the attention they deserve. Anticipating a challenge (and bringing me a solution or two) always makes things easier. It’s also great when research partners can bring their breadth of experience and visibility to a project. One of the reasons we use partners is to counter our siloed, insider view – having a partner making connections to other industries or experiences adds a ton of value.
What do you think are the biggest trends in qualitative research right now in your organization?
Doing more with less, faster. We’re constantly challenged to get high quality, useful insights as fast as possible.
What advice would you give to a new client-side research managers?
Communicate what’s working well, and what isn’t; be as close as you can to the research, so you have the knowledge you need to bring the insights in house – at the end of the day it is your research and you need to be able to speak to it as if you’d done all the work yourself.
We hope you found this conversation interesting. Holly brought up some really insightful points, around the topics of compliance, speed and agility and communicating your research findings.
Are you facing some of the same challenges as Holly? Are you faced with different hurdles? If so, contact us today to find out how Marketry can help.