Welcome To Research Rockstar!

This marks the official launch of Research RockStar.  My goal is simple: to deliver  How-To’s and Best Practices to busy professionals seeking Market Research excellence.

The content of this site is intended for people who are actual users and buyers of market research (apologies to all of my friends at market research agencies, but you folks have plenty of information and training sources!

).

Market Research is an investment, and a large one for many companies.

  But like any investment, it can be risky. I want the actual buyers and users of market research to have a positive experience with it—so that they can complete research projects, apply the results to real-world needs, and feel, indeed, like Research Rock Stars.

Over the next few months I’ll be greatly expanding the catalog of tutorials, templates and related documents. Some are free, others are fee-based. All of the content is created following these standards:

• Based in experience—not theory
• In a uniquely concise, straight-to-the-point style
• Available as needed (online)
• Without the bias of trying to also sell market research services

Why am I doing this?

Because I love market research.
Because I hate market research.

I love the feeling of completing a research project that delivers truly useful insights into customer attitudes and behaviors.  I especially love it if those insights challenge conventional thinking, because that’s when a true opportunity for competitive advantage is revealed. I love presenting research results and I enjoy a lively debate over how to interpret specific findings.

I hate the feeling of frustration when data collection goes slowly, or when a hard-to-find population turns into an impossible-to-find one.  And I admit it, I’m not too happy in those atypical instances when despite exhaustive data analysis, I end up with results that just don’t tell a compelling story.

Luckily, with over 600 customer market research projects in my career, I have learned a bit. And while I have hundreds of tips, tactics and strategies for market research excellence, most fall into 2 categories:

• Preparing preemptive strikes for the likely challenges (and every project has them)
• Executing all phases of the project with the relentless pursuit of precision.

If you think this type of approach can help you get the most of your market research investments, I hope you’ll join me on this journey. Please subscribe to the Research RockStar RSS feed and join the newsletter list; this way you’ll be sure to know about new items as they become available.

Pssst…do you have requests for topics you would like me to address in this blog?

Just shoot me an email or leave me a message at my blog comments line, 508 691-6004.