Charts & Graphs ≠ Insights

As I write this I am reminded how I felt the first time I took live data and made a chart out of it for a client (a long time ago). I had played in Excel a bit throughout my career, and had a pretty good handle on it, but the idea of taking respondent data and making it into a graphical representation for a client to make decisions with was a rush. And, yes, I was much more naïve then.

It didn’t take long, however, to recognize that just showing data in a table, chart, or graph was not sufficient. Clients come to us for our unbiased viewpoint. They can’t help it – they see things through the lens of their company or past experience in the industry. It’s my job to see things from an outside perspective. That’s why it’s important to understand that charts and graphs are extremely valuable, but without insights provided by an unbiased, outside, professional viewpoint, they cannot be trusted to steer you in the right direction.

It’s Nearly Impossible to Make Yourself “Disinterested”

One of the values that we bring is that of a disinterested party. We are interested in your success, for sure, but we do not live in your world. We don’t care if Feature A turns out to be the best option when you and your colleagues were clearly in the Feature B camp. We are only interested in giving you the factual truth. Unfortunately, there are times when the data says one thing but those who are reading it from their perspective see something else. I remember early in my research career being appalled by the saying “liars study and studies lie.” I get it now – you will see what you want to see (or expect to see) unless someone leads you in a different direction.

You Need an Outside, Disinterested Party to Open Your Eyes

As I mentioned, this is my job. We always start with your hypotheses and help you expand beyond them to test all options, but it is not my job to find a way to agree with your hypothesis. There have been awkward times (not many, thankfully) where the data we reported did not agree with an important person who was receiving the presentation. Although we handled it with tact and professionalism, we did not change the narrative to appease them. Just like you don’t want your doctor changing his diagnosis in order to keep you happy; you probably don’t want anyone who is helping you make business decisions to change the story either. In the end, it wouldn’t be doing you any favors.

Charts and Graphs Require the Interpretation of a Disinterested Party

Back to charts and graphs, there are specific details that the disinterested researcher may need to point out to adequately tell the story.

1. Are the differences statistically significant?
2. Can we directly compare the responses between two or more segments?
3. Do the findings match the overall narrative or are they an anomaly?
4. Are there other trends that we should be aware of? 

These are not the only considerations, but just some of the additional information a professional researcher can give you that you may not have thought of before.

Your Charts and Graphs are Only One Part of a Larger Story

Another important aspect of this is that disparate data from multiple questions are not always helpful on their own. When you build a survey or interview guide, you are taking the respondent down a path that addresses all of the information you want to know. Some of these questions will lead you down a path of discovery on their own. Most of them, however, need to be put into proper context as part of an overall story.

It is this ability to take responses to several questions, integrate them into the whole story, and provide insights that is the real value your market research dollars bring. Anyone can write some survey questions and produce charts and graphs from the data. It takes an unbiased, outside, professional viewpoint from a market researcher to provide insights into the research question, not just pretty graphs and charts.

So, consider this perspective the next time you are preparing to field research:

1. Are you able to provide the kinds of insights your company needs to make good business decisions?
2. Does your research company demonstrate knowledge of the research question such that you know they will be able to look at the big picture and provide useful insights?

If the answer to either question is “no” you might want to consider another partner. You can always call us! 😊

Years of Experience

As I mentioned, I’ve been creating charts and graphs, and providing insights to Actionable Research clients for a long time. The researchers here at Actionable have only been improving our services over time. We specialize in the medical, dental and digital technology markets. Helping household names and Fortune 50, 500 and 2000 companies get the insights they need to make effective business decisions.

To learn more about how we do what we do, contact us today.