About

I have spent more than 20 years working across customer insight, market research, trend forecasting, competitive intelligence and data analysis.

 

During that time, I have worked on questions where the answer was not obvious at the outset and where the work involved more than gathering information.

 

The difficult part was often working out what actually needed to be understood.

 

A client might begin with a question about their customers, market or an opportunity they wanted to pursue. But underneath that question could be a number of assumptions: about who the customer is, what problem matters to them, where the opportunity lies or what would happen if the business took a particular direction.

 

That is the part of the work I find most interesting.

 

I do not see my role as taking over the client's thinking

The client knows their business in ways that I do not.

 

They understand its history, ambitions, constraints and the context in which they are making the decision.

 

My role is different.
 

I bring an independent perspective to their thinking. I take their starting point seriously enough to examine it instead of simply accepting or dismissing it.

 

That can mean challenging an assumption. It can mean identifying a blind spot. It can mean finding that the original hypothesis stands up better than the alternatives.

 

It can also mean being clear that the information available cannot answer the question with the level of certainty the client had hoped for.

 

I think that honesty matters.

 

Sometimes the strongest outcome is a clear answer. Sometimes it is a clearer understanding of what can and cannot be known before deciding what to do.
 

My approach

I start with the decision instead of assuming the client needs a particular research methodology.

 

From there, I work through what is already known, what is assumed, what needs to be established and how that can realistically be investigated.

 

I then bring together the available information and interpret what it means for the decision in front of the client.

 

The approach can have structure without producing generic answers. The analysis, interpretation and recommendations depend on the specific situation.

 

The client remains the owner of the decision.

 

My job is to help ensure they are not making it entirely from inside their own assumptions.
 

About Rachel

Rachel is a customer insight and market intelligence professional with more than 20 years of experience across market research, customer insight, trend forecasting, competitive intelligence and data analysis.
Her experience spans B2B and B2C markets and complex international environments.