With the end of the year upon us, a task for many market research and insights team leaders is to finalize their training plan for the upcoming year. Let’s face it, making time for training is hard! Not everyone may particularly enjoy this often overwhelming task, so it tends to be one of the areas we put off for another time. If this is true for you, you are not alone! I have spoken with many market research team leaders who have admitted that they find themselves scrambling to get a plan in place. Let’s make this easy by starting with some recommended training sequences, specified by a goal. Are you looking to onboard new researchers? Help a team develop professional-level survey research skills? Or qualitative research ones? How about a training plan that would advance your use of research methods? Or advance consultative skills? Deciding which goals are the most relevant to your team is the first place to start. Here are some tips to keeping this simple! Start by:
- Prioritizing the content. Even if you know you are not going to do a formal training plan, simply taking a few minutes to prioritize the content that you or your team needs in terms of skills will go a long way. Sure, having a needs assessment and Gap analysis would be nice, but if it’s not practical right now, make your process one that is realistic and attainable.
- Plan a realistic timeline. How quickly are people going to participate in training? How often will they participate in training? Your team is likely busy and perhaps they are not able to comfortably complete 20 hours of training per month, and that’s okay! Choose a realistic amount of training so it will work and be a positive experience.
- Avoid “drive by” training! There is a lot of research on adult learning, and people will retain more if the learning is spaced out over a good amount of time. This learning concept is called “spacing.” We want people to be exposed to some new knowledge, then give it a little time and then give them a chance to practice and use their newly learned content. What training is chosen should be spaced out and this will make a more realistic plan for success.
Let’s imagine you are putting together a training plan to onboarding new researchers. What are your goals in this case?
Establish learning goals:
- Can discuss various methodologies with confidence. Do they know the difference between qualitative and quantitative research? Primary and secondary research? This is particularly important when bringing in members of the team that are more junior level.
- Can specify appropriate project parameters. Do they understand sample size? Are they able to define parameters for data collection? These considerations are fundamental and very important.
- Can understand and use processes to ensure client satisfaction. Whether it be internal or external clients, market researchers are delivering research to someone else and we want them to be satisfied with the work. Training on client satisfaction is key!
If you like these three learning goals, great! These are three concise and reasonable goals that are attainable. Research Rockstar offers a variety of training courses that would complement these goals and they can be spaced out over 6 months or whatever timeframe is appropriate. This makes it possible to keep up with client work and deadlines while adding a lot of value.
The sequences below may be helpful as you plan for 2020 training. In each group, I specify the courses in their ideal sequence (and note the total number of hours and skill level). However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to training, so be sure to modify based on your team’s unique needs.
Here are some recommended courses that pair well with the above example of onboarding new team members:
- Market Research 101 6 hours, Level 1
- Focus Group Project Management 6 hours, Level 1
- Questionnaire Design Success: A 10-Point Checklist 2 hours, Level 1
- Client Management Skills for Market Researchers 4 hours, All levels
Advancing Research Methods
Possible learning goals:
- Can advise on when to use (and not to use) a wide variety of data sources and research methodologies with confidence.
- Can work collaboratively to ensure methodology plans are aligned with needs.
- These are the courses that would go hand in hand with the goal of advancing research methods.
Recommended courses:
- Mobile & Online Qualitative Research Methods 6 hours, Level 2
- Conjoint, Discrete Choice, MaxDiff 2 hours, Level 2*
- Behavioral Economics for Market Researchers 6 hours, All levels
- Data Fluency for Methodology Planning, 4.5 hours, All levels
Here are some other goals you may have with a group of recommended training courses that will enhance these goals.
Developing qualitative research skills:
- Focus Group Project Management 6 hours, Level 1
- Mobile Ethnography: Text and Video Methods 6 hours, Level 2
- Mobile & Online Qualitative Research Methods 6 hours, Level 2
- Writing Qualitative Research Reports 6 hours, Level 2
Developing survey research skills:
- Questionnaire Design Success: A 10-Point Checklist 2 hours, Level 1
- Questionnaire Design 201: Scale Selection 6 hours, Level 2
- Open-ended Questions: Construction, Analysis & Reporting 4.5 hours, Level 1
- Quantitative Data Analysis for Survey Research 6 hours, Level 1
Developing consultative skills:
- Data Fluency for Methodology Planning 4.5 hours, All levels
- Become an Insights Consultant Black Belt 6 hours, Level 3
- Writing Research Reports:
- Writing Quantitative Research Reports 6 hours, Level 2
- Writing Qualitative Research Reports 6 hours, Level 2
Level 1: No previous experience needed.
Level 2: Best for professionals with at least 1 to 5 years of market research & insights work experience.
Level 3: Best for professionals with at least 5 years of market research & insights work experience.
Want assistance creating an optimized sequence? I’m happy to offer advice and share what I have learned from working with both individual researchers and teams seeking to advance their work. Feel free to reach out [email protected].
