These projects are the most notable because they are our outliers, our extreme cases, making them the most interesting to talk about and learn from. However, even tracking studies, what many may consider to be our most mundane of studies, often take us down amazing paths through new approaches of data exploration and investigation. One such client has been to the top of the mountain in just the past few years and is now fighting to remain relevant after a couple of missteps and some misfortune that was out of this company’s control. This client is relying on us to help them navigate these turbulent times and point the way back up the mountain. You might say that we are living, right now, in the middle of a case study. In due time, this case will undoubtedly be presented in business courses and while Market Perceptions will not be part of those discussions, we will certainly have impacted some of the story. And this is how we feel with all of our clients, as we help with their narratives, a bit like a ghost writer who works on an autobiography. Whether looking at the horizon from the top of the mountain above the clouds or caught in a storm along the ridge, we help to guide them. Likely, someday our children will tell us about a case study they are reading and we will be able to say we were a small part of it.

Perhaps to solve this debate, we need a new set of experts who can retrospectively analyze the work of other experts to understand what went wrong when they missed the mark. Not too surprising, these types of experts are emerging and for at least the time being, they seem to be arriving at a common conclusion: differences in expert opinion typically stem from how much information outside of their field of expertise they were able to bring into their analysis. Because most experts’ knowledge is so specific to their field, it may make it even more difficult for experts to be able to see a broader perspective outside of that expertise.

While experts can’t know everything, they may feel they are supposed to … they are “experts,” after all. And we, as users who rely upon expert advice, may often want to believe that their recommendations are infallible, as otherwise we would need to find another expert or try to become our own expert. Who has time for that? So while decisions need to be made faster, information has become overly abundant, and expert opinion is springing up from every corner, it is good to be reminded of what Lau Tsu said in the Tao Te Ching in the sixth century BC: “The more you know, the less you understand.” These words could not better describe the challenges experts face today.

Expertise should breed humility, not hubris. But as the complexity of analyzing information increases, one can easily become convinced that they do in fact know it all. They’ve run the models, tested the analytics, applied their thinking to past situations and correctly predicted those futures. What more could there be, as our statistical probability tells us we are far beyond random chance in our forecasts and predictions? Nassim Nicholas Taleb answered this question for us in his book, “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.” It is the unexpected that always catches us off guard, but in hindsight, always seems so obvious.
So what do we do to be better experts, and to be better judges of expert data? As researchers and consultants who take on the role of expert every day, how do we recognize our limitations and see past the statistical expectations to the outlier that resets the entire curve?

In health care, where decision-making is highly complex, costs are out of control, and experts are found in every hospital and government agency, we are beginning to see a road to a better solution – that of collaboration. By having many experts working together, attacking the same problem from widely different perspectives and areas of expertise, the improbable event that one expert never sees is front-and-center to another. It is only going to be by bringing experts together in a truly collaborative fashion that we will be able to solve today’s complex problems.

As researchers, it is critical for us to also work with other experts. This doesn’t mean we need to bring in physicists and econometricians to every project we do, but rather, we need to seek out experts throughout the process and incorporate their insights wherever possible. Those experts can be our research subjects/participants, our clients and our partner organizations. But we must also seek out those who have an expertise in the subject matter we are studying and those who have an expertise tangentially to that subject matter. It is always wise to begin a research project by conducting at least a few “expert interviews.” Learning from those who are preeminent in the field provides a solid grounding for the work to come. Then, once we think we have all the answers, it always behooves us to finish our efforts by sharing them with experts outside of the field to look for the Black Swan. Marketing research is about gathering and understanding the insights we learned by talking to different types of people. Everyone has a unique perspective and understanding of the puzzle we are trying to solve, and the collective knowledge gathered from many different players will allow us to continue to provide the best possible answers to today’s complex problems. The better we, as experts, can keep our limitations in check and our minds open to the possibilities of what others can see, the greater our opportunity to truly understand the solutions which are in front us.

A collaborative commentary by Jonathon Reed, James Heichelbech and Karl Weiss

As marketing researchers, we are constantly in between; we occupy the space in between our partners and their customers, helping them understand why they think differently from their customers about their products and services. We help to bridge these gaps, linking guessing and knowing what customers want.  More specifically, we are in between the chaotic time of guessing what customers think and the just slightly less chaotic time of knowing exactly what will make them smile.

Our feeling that we’re the in-between link seems stronger than ever as we introduce our new websites and move toward using amazing new reporting technologies, offering ways for our partners to become even more informed by exploring their data on their own.  At Market Perceptions, we have always been in between new technology and the tried-and-true standards of marketing research, constantly searching for and capitalizing on the next best way to present people’s stories. Now this feels more prevalent and powerful than ever before.

Our bridging function is being intensified by national and global changes.  We not only are seeing history unfold in the Middle East, as the old regimes fall to the uncertainty of new, people-driven, societies, but we are amidst one of the largest health care shifts in American history.  Much of our work revolves around health care; we are right now in a unique period in between the past and future, where new levels of transparency and care will lead us down a new path, even as dangers such as provider shortages and higher costs threaten success.

We are in a fascinating time, a time where we honestly love to be.  Simply put, this is a time where we can help push “what was” to “what can be.”

Most exciting of these developments is the new reporting behind the scenes in the client section.  The speed at which decisions need to be made is ever increasing, as are the number of people who need access to information.  We’ve been developing our online reporting tools for the last several years and are excited about the transition to Microsoft’s newest and most substantial data sharing platform, SharePoint 2010.   Look for posts from Karen and Mandi in the coming months about new features we are unveiling and new ways to use the system.

We couldn’t be a marketing research firm without asking for your opinions, but we’ll spare putting a survey out there (for now) and instead ask for your comments and suggestions.