Page 148 - Free the Idea Monkey

FRESH PERSPECTIVE
The opportunity for trying to discover

the key insight from multiple angles is
available to researchers, too.

In 2007, we acquired Markitecture, a
research firm focused on innovation. The
partners at the firm had come from the
nation’s best business schools and been
trained at some of the most respected research firms in the country
before heading off to start their own company. They were masters
at classic quantitative and qualitative research methodologies like
segmentation, conjoint, store intercepts, online surveys, etc. It was
clear that they were a bunch of very skilled, very bright people.

But after working on a project or account for awhile, they eventu-
ally shared many of the same biases as their clients; they knew too
much about an industry to see things objectively. So they naturally
interpreted data the same way their clients did. (See our discussion
on stuck inside the jar in Chapter 4.)

After buying Markitecture, we got together with the partners
and asked, “What are we missing in this research and how do we
see it again?” In other words, we asked how can we gain differ-
ent perspectives in finding key insights for our clients. It is a very
important question.

The answer led us to develop dozens of research methodologies
in which we intentionally infused the perspective of outside experts
to reinterpret the data, and uncover insights that we were missing.
We found, to our initial surprise, that every research method was
enhanced through fresh perspective.

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