How Insights Managers Can Secure Their Roles
Marat Sustavov
Marketing Director
As we step into an era where automation and artificial intelligence are rapidly transforming the landscape of data and research, the role of insights managers faces an evolution. Gone are the days when their primary responsibility was conducting research.
Now, the survival and relevance of insights managers lie in their ability to adapt and provide value-added services to their organisations. In this article, we'll explore how insights managers can secure their positions and become indispensable team members in this changing reality.
It requires improving research processes and aligning them with business reality, empowering your teams with cutting-edge tools, managing insights, educating colleagues, and promoting your research department.
Build Processes
One of the critical strategies for staying relevant as an insights manager is to shift From being solely a researcher to a business result-oriented professional. A big part of this transition is building processes. Start by documenting all the tasks you receive from internal clients and categorising them into concept, product, and marketing development.
Creating optimal processes for each category is essential to manage your innovation process effectively. Here are some tips to help you get started:
1. Develop a mental map: Create a navigational tool to visualise the innovation process for you and your team. This will help you identify areas where research can be used more often.
2. Choose research suppliers and platforms: Select suppliers best suited for each task. Create shortcuts to save time for you and your team.
3. Design brief templates: Create templates that include business background, timing, and action standards. This will help you act swiftly and precisely when your internal clients provide complete information.
4. Define reporting framework: Make sure your team knows what to expect in reporting so they won't be disappointed at the end of the research.
Example of how such a mental map could look like
The goal is to streamline the process, making it more efficient and ensuring all team members are well-informed about the information needed and the expected outcomes.
Provide your Teams with the Research Tools
Empower your product and marketing teams with cutting-edge research automation tools, enabling them to actively participate in the data-collection process. By simplifying the collection of consumer feedback through these tools, you encourage greater engagement, making it effortless for teams to extract value and integrate consumer insights into their decision-making processes.
Criteria of a professional tool:
- User-friendly interface
- Reliable data sources
- Optimal timing
- Robust methodologies
- Live support from experts
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Manage Insights
Managing data and insights effectively is crucial. Use specialised platforms, databases, and benchmarks to organise and store valuable information (find them in the platforms directory). Explore open-source data resources that can supplement your research efforts and stay updated on emerging technologies and tools that can further optimise data management.
Educate Teams and Spread The Knowledge
Insights managers can add significant value by becoming educators within their organisations. Leverage best practices from leading industrial organisations such as ESOMAR, Insight Platforms, and the Green Book. Stay connected with industry trends and research methodologies, and actively share your findings with your teams.
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Create webinars, workshops, or training sessions for your colleagues to demystify the research process and showcase how it has positively impacted various departments. By spreading research knowledge, you enhance your team's capabilities and reinforce your position as a vital resource for making educated business decisions.
Conclusion
In a rapidly changing world where automation and AI technologies are automating routine tasks, insights managers can thrive by transforming into strategic partners who design efficient processes, provide actionable insights, manage data effectively, and educate their teams.
By embracing these changes and consistently adding value to their organisations, insights managers can ensure that they won't be replaced but rather become indispensable assets in the quest for consumer insights and strategic decision-making.
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