As researchers we recognize that one of our primary goals (aside from delighting our clients) is that of motivating action. To do so we must make an impact. Ever since we learned the tenets of marketing and understood the effect that a well-designed market research study (and its outcomes) exert on organizational decision-making, we have known the thrilling tension of writing a report (including conclusions and recommendations) that not only informs but communicates. And not only communicates but will be utilized and leveraged successfully in planned campaigns that the client-organization plans to undertake.
We know the feeling. Fielding takes longer than expected. Report is due next week. Tables in hand, we put pen to paper. We fire up PowerPoint or whatever graphics package is de rigueur, and, like the virtuoso pianist poised to launch his or her Mozart Sonata – as part of what has been billed the concert of the year, the event that will make or break the artist’s career – we lift our fingers to type, eager to place that first sentence onto the page and, ultimately, wow the client.
How do we do that you ask? Telling a story – and doing it well – is not easy. It is not just a recitation of facts, charts, percentages, and decimal points. The report must be creative, starting with the big picture and, then, drilling down to discuss individual sub-groups. The entire piece is a combination of art and science, rooted in data with clear, simple points. The writer should take the audience through the research as if on a journey, telling a story with one plot, ensuring that the story does not take twists and turns but remains on the same path throughout. We should ensure that we write about our data with our audience in mind and that this audience will buy into the results. To accomplish this the design of the study must be suitably linked to company goals.
A stellar report should not have more than twenty slides with simple bullet points – thus, allowing the researcher the floor during the actual presentation. A presentation is about the researcher’s standing in front of a group speaking…facetiously, the slides do not speak, and we should not rely on them to do so. And we should not feel compelled to speak about every question in the questionnaire. What are the main issues the client is facing? Which questions address those issues? How does our report as a whole illustrate our recommendations to face these same issues – and help the client realize the intended goals for the research? For the business?
We should incorporate a chronology, theme and structure in our report. After the main data are housed in their charts, the rest of this is the art – crafting something elegant and memorable from words. And, finally, if we have done our jobs, the report will do our jobs for us: elicit a call to action at the end.
A final piece of advice, to be closer to the action – if budget allows and client teams agree – is to place a researcher onsite at the client premises. Only then can the researcher truly understand how to connect research and company goals and, thus, provide requisite insights in the little time we have to spare and deliver.
1 comment
wise! -esp: don’t address every survey question (often we invest hours determining if there is a relationship based on ’X’ then find it has no significance in any way), look for the story thread, do present on client site to (a) show an agency-client win-win mindset and (b) to get maximum attendance, not just from Study Sponsor Dept ( usually Marketing/Brand) but also flCRM, Sales, etc. Nonetheless, imo terrific Findings slides can do a lot of ‘talking’ (we are their Narrator) and the 20-slide max is a guideline chiefly for the Big Boardroom Reveal type of presentation (I’ve walked many Category Managers thru 40 slides for 1 hour+ Usage/ Attitude recaps in sit-down sessions; each wanted it to keep going & going).