What is this research thing?
Before anything happens, I'll let you know that my thinking is far from linear, so this read will likely be a journey with stairs, slides, and secret passages.
In any case, I hope you enjoy the adventure that is undertaking a research process. I consider it an adventure because, at least for me, it involves the role of an explorer, a curious personality, and a great capacity for empathy.
The RAE, best known as the Royal Spanish Academy, You won't let me lie when I say that Investigate means to inquire in order to discover something.. And who better than a genuine explorer to carry out such an activity. It has another definition that is a bit less exciting, and at the same time revealing, to investigate means To carry out systematic intellectual and experimental activities for the purpose of increasing knowledge about a particular subject..
What does this probing and discovering involve Gerund?
The journey begins when we have the first meeting with the client. A session where I believe both parties are eager to know who the other person is. We want to get to know them and understand why they are here.
At this moment, what we are looking for is Determine what concerns them, what needs they have And what ideas do you have in mind. To do this, we ask introductory questions that open the door for the person or people in front of us to feel confident enough to tell us what their business is experiencing, so that, based on their comments, we can perform an initial internal diagnosis.
From there, they make a couple of stops on the tour to finally reach the vital stage of understanding. I dare to call it vital because I am convinced that to make a valuable change or start any project, it is truly important to be aware of yourself (business), to know others (competitive environment), and to immerse yourself in the emotions, needs, and barriers that people (users) have, to the point of almost thinking like them.
This is a phase where we basically absorb information, so we approach people inside and outside the business, meaning, those who work there, and with clients or end-users. We conduct questionnaires, informal discussions, or ethnographic interviews that allow us to identify phenomena and behavioral patterns. In the end, we are complex beings, which means that many times we will express one thing and behave differently. We want to understand why, since in those discrepancies, opportunities become apparent that are difficult to identify immediately.
These keys or clues are called insights, and they are drops of gold, as they will provide direction for the strategy.
On the other hand, understanding what the competition is doing takes on significant importance in the research process, as narrowing it down will reveal a free space where we can distinguish ourselves and consequently connect with our users and consumers.
Once this process is concluded, the research can be transformed into a measurement treatment, where we focus on measuring what is happening after this change has been triggered. This signifies a continuous understanding of interaction and impact.
This way, we obtain the necessary information, better known as “the meat,” from which we will unfold the ideas that we, as a team, will weave to contribute tangible and transformative solutions.
