DECEMBER 2018
Agile working with all its pros and cons Disrupting Failure with Jesvier Kaur Update from Wellington
Plus
What’s up with Diwali?
2
InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
WORD FROM THE BOARD
Different ways of working This edition is dedicated to different ways of working. The timing is perfect to be thinking about this. It’s not quite the end of the world as we know it, but there is certainly a lot of change happening around us right now. In recent weeks we’ve witnessed the emergence of ‘pay as you go’ e-scooters on the streets of Auckland and Christchurch, as just one example of how change can come upon us very quickly, whether we’re ready for it or not. It is proposed that up to 25% of ‘public transport’ will be met by ‘micro-transport’ – of which e-scooters are one type – over the next decade. The move towards more agile workplaces is also another change that seems to have come on with quite a rush since Spark implemented its trial a year or so ago. Furthermore the rate of change in our industry for both professional providers and users of data, research and other knowledge sources, is increasing steadily. For the last 12 months or so, a lot of time has gone into considering the future of our industry, the needs of customers, the capabilities of providers and what is going to be the ideal or ‘fit for purpose’ industry body for that exciting future. What we have gleaned from members and other sources is that there will still be a need for an industry body; defining that industry and ensuring it delivers what members need from it is confronting us all right now. We already serve a very broad range of members, and feedback from the membership is that it needs to be broader still, encompassing members doing different ‘stuff’, using different methodologies, asking different questions, using different data sources and expecting different outcomes from what was traditionally asked of ‘research’.
“How do we provide leadership in an appropriate fashion? ”
Leadership is another theme that is regularly voiced. And in this fast-changing world of work, one of the questions asked is about the industry body’s ability to lead. Is that an appropriate expectation of a group of voluntary industry representatives? If so, how do we provide leadership in an appropriate fashion? More and more we are swinging towards a model where the association not only represents the industry when it’s needed, and acts as custodian of our code of conduct, but also networks and connects members and non-members. This enables learning, development and sharing of ideas and opportunities, and allows each member to give where they can and take where they choose. One industry expert we spoke with talked about replacing the ‘umbrella’ model with what he called a “plumbing” model which facilitates a much more organic approach to supporting the industry to identify and meet its own needs. One thing is for certain, Yogi Berra sure was right when he said, “The future isn’t what it used to be.”
Good reading!
Publisher: Research Association The dedicated team which produced this publication includes: Emily Bing Sue Cardwell Ishita Mendonsa Rachel Prendergast Layout and design by: Charmaine Fuhrmann Images are copyright to their owners and should not be copied without permission Copyright (c) Stock.XCHNG Photos, 123RF Stock Photos, RA. InterVIEW is published four times a year by an enthusiastic sub-committee of the Research Association committee. The views expressed are not those of the Research Association. We welcome your input and your requests for advertising space.
Rob Bree General Manager
Visit us: www.researchassociation.org.nz
As RANZ CEO for the past 4 years, and AMRO prior to that, Rob has seen the association through many twists and turns since 2010. As a strategic marketer, he is a passionate advocate for our industry and the client community, with a vision to see the association serve the industry far into the future. Rob’s other business interests include consulting and Heavensent Gourmet, a local manufacturer of premium condiments and confectionery. << BACK
3
Contents
InterVIEW December 2018
SHIFTING TO BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOFTWARES
10 20
From here to there
A remote working success story By Jonathan Dodd FRANZ, Ipsos
DISRUPTING FAILURE
Wishing all our readers HAPPY HOLIDAYS and he very best for 2019! 4
InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
Xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx
00
23
NeedScopes
18
Transformation
in an agile world with Maria Tyrrell
Update from Wellington WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S UP WITH DIWALI?
24
08 02 06 26
14
INSIGHTS INTO AGILE WORKING
A Professional Development event FIRST PLACE, GLOBALLY
By Horst Feldhaeuser
WORD FROM THE BOARD: Different ways of working By Rob Bree
5 TRENDS By Sue Cardwell
60 SECONDS With Lucia Henare
16 5
5
Trends
of market
research
Sue Cardwell is Brand & Customer Experience Manager at Public Trust. She is a keen trendspotter, believing what makes great market researchers is our ability to stay on the pulse and curious.
with Sue Cardwell
“5 trends” is Sue’s regular contribution to InterVIEW magazine. Sue helped re-launch the magazine in 2011 and she continues to stay involved in RANZ communications. Get in touch! Sue loves to hear what you think - and your ideas for trends which should be covered here. Let her know your thoughts with a tweet or LinkedIn shoutout. 6
InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
Written by Sue Cardwell @tuesdaysue
1. LIVE We’ve known for a long time that video content can be worth a hundred still images and many text-only articles. But the latest challenge for brands is live video. Most brands doing live video are doing it on Facebook Live. Not least is our own Prime Minister. The stats suggest that live streaming compels views in a way that pre-produced video doesn’t, with many times the views and comments. Well worth the effort for brands brave enough to make it work. Share this trend!
Share this on Facebook!
5. ACCESSIBLE OR BROKE Almost one-in-four New Zealanders have a disability. If you aren’t designing for people with disabilities, then you’re probably underestimating this number.
3. POST #FAKENEWS, PURPOSE
2. AUGMENTED ANALYTICS Gartner called it “the future of data and analytics”, but what is augmented analytics? Essentially, it uses natural language processing to do the tedious parts of data discovery - such as cleaning up and analysing the data, so that business users can use them right away, with less need for a data scientist. Currently, there’s a scarcity of data scientist talents, and many organisations miss out of these skills. When augmented analytics reaches maturity, it will mean any business can access those capabilities.
With Trump-era fake news pronouncements helping people realise that many things on the internet can’t be trusted, trust in brands is at a low. What can brands do to regain trust? What does trustworthiness look like? Once, the answer would have been corporate social responsibility. But today the answer is purpose. Brands with purpose speak up before they have to, they appear to know why they do what they do, and they stay true to that year after year - even when it’s unpopular. And it’s not only millenials who are looking for brands with purpose.
Can you use it today? Not quite, but it’s predicted to grow fast.
The communications coming from purposeful brands can look, well, a bit odd. They raise issues, sometimes they get political, and their transparent approach can mean they show off gritty reality, warts and all. What brands have you seen sharing their purpose in New Zealand?
Share this trend!
Share this trend!
The impetus to be accessible is no passing trend. The EU has now made accessibility in the digital realm an official standard.
4. USER-FRIENDLY POLITICS User experience and design thinking are disciplines normally associated with commercial brands. What if we applied them to politics? We already use websites, polls and email marketing to engage people with movements.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recently issued WCAG 2.1 - the guidelines that many of our organisations must adhere to (and all of us should adhere to). The big change I noticed with this release is that accessibility now covers apps and electronic documents as well as websites.
Here’s an example from the States. What trends have you noticed here in New Zealand?
It’s great that people are now noticing the need for accessibility in apps. But it’s still hard for the standards to keep up with evolving technology. Chatbots are one of the fastest-growing additions to business’ technology suites. But most aren’t yet usable by visually impaired people. It’s an exciting challenge for developers and content creators.
Share this trend!
Share this trend!
Imagine those tools evolving into something a lot more sophisticated, allowing real twoway communication between citizens and policymakers.
<< BACK
7
DISRUPTING FAILURE Poor Design Allison Arieff visited NZ recently and spoke at the Festival of Architecture. She writes on architecture, design and urban planning for The Urbanist and The New York Times. She reminded us that many tech products we buy are designed with planned obsolescence in mind. “They are built specifically to fail after a relatively short period — one year, two, maybe five. If you doubt that, think about how often you have to replace your smartphone.” Products and services promise to make our lives easier and our experiences better. Some actually do that. A valet service offered when we park our car. Groceries delivered right to our door. A sensor in the child’s cot to alert us when the nappy’s leaked. Yet, some make our lives harder. A robotic smart home manager by LG that refuses to respond to questions. An internet-connected toilet by Kohler that seems to track every bowel movement. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 that burst into flames while charging.
New products and services promise us a better life. Yet, they often fall short, as they focus on disrupting markets and competitors rather than solving people’s pressing problems. How about fixing annoying problems like plastic wrap pack-
aging that’s really difficult to open? Or having to recharge smartphones every day? Or selfservice checkouts that repeatedly tell us to “please take your items” as we fumble around with our stuff? Do the tech products and services being designed actually benefit people and our planet? Coming back to the issue of how often we have to replace our smartphones – if sustainability was built into tech, it could reduce smartphones’ huge footprint. If better security was built into tech, it could address our data and privacy being compromised. Arieff is right. Smartphones are poorly designed and poorly engineered. It’s a call for companies to get better at building stuff that solves people’s problems and makes life easier.
Customer Centred Putting the customer at the centre of the design and engineering of product and services is increasingly recognised HCD is as critical to creating better solutions. central to work This has become the domain of deof Steelcase sign research – taking a human-cenmanufacturers tred (HCD) or user-experience (UX) of furniture in USA design approach. Design research practitioners say they focus on would “What if we could design a chair that what people actually do when usthe body encourage motion rather than forcing ing a product or service, whereas lcase to hold a pose?” Ken Tameling at Stee market researchers focus on what people say. The reality is the lines blur and overlap. In both design research and (qualitative) ethnography, researchers spend time observing and dialoguing with people as they actually use products and services. In design research and qualitative co-creation may actively work with people to prototype a new product or service working through various iterations. 8
InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
There’s much for market research to learn from design research. Human-centred design (HCD) has key strengths to help companies create better products and services for people, and companies are increasingly integrating HCD across their entire business: Sams u Note ng Galaxy 7 on a after t it cau able ght fi re.
• HCD is better at pulling across cross-functional teams to collaborate to create and deliver solutions that customers want to use. Market research has been slow in pulling together cross-functional client teams and often neglects to stay engaged through implementation work • HCD has done a good job of reframing the way it interacts with customers by focusing on building empathy and understanding context. It may sound like re-labelling – it’s actually more than that. The aim is a holistic understanding of people in their own environment. Market research still tends to maintain a distance by observing rather than getting involved in the messy and complicated experience of product or service use • HCD is good at widening the scope of conversations by talking either to customers ignored by a product or service, or customers with divergent viewpoints. Due to the pressures of diminishing budgets, market research tends to do the opposite – narrowing the scope of conversations • The distinctions between HCD and UX are merging, with both widening conversations to explore people’s experience of daily life. This gives design research a solution orientation and an experimental mindset with the ability to feed back and adapt quickly. It means design research often moves at a faster pace than market research While market research and HCD or UX are often addressing different issues, these disciplines are increasingly likely to merge as they’re integrated across companies’ cross-functional teams. This highlights an opportunity for market research to step up and step out further, to develop a more expansive customer-centred offering. Jesvier Kaur QZONE E: jesvier@qzone.co.nz
Jesvier Kaur runs QZONE, a marketing and research insights consultancy. She’s a Fellow of RANZ and is on the steering committee providing input into its future direction. She works across a wide range of clients. Digging deeply is her specialty and she applies qualitative, ethnographic and design-thinking approaches. << BACK
9
10 InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
By Duncan Stuart Duncan Stuart is Life Member of RANZ and runs a small research consultancy Kudos Organisational Dynamics
SHIFTING TO BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOFTWARES What’s the direction for software in the research and business intelligence community? With the roles of market researchers and client-side data analysts blurring – and, in turn, with our snuggling up to Big Data and Machine Learning – our software horizons are changing. • There’s a growing need to blend and incorporate data from diverse sources • There’s a growing volume of data • In response there’s a need to quickly package it into meaningful outputs •
The users of the data go beyond the marketing department. The Finance team want a look, the CEO wants to make decisions
•
Users want the data wherever they are. They want access. Flexibility.
<< BACK 11
These conditions take us well beyond the flat spreadsheet analytics offered by SPSS, SAS or Q, where the focus tends to be on answering the “Why?” question. They continue to provide a strong investigative environment in which one can interrogate the data and look for the things that matter. But each of these platforms are clunky when it comes to merging data and dealing with massive volumes (a 10,000-line spreadsheet is enough to cause a fast PC to begin sagging under the weight), and they deliver reporting in the one basic medium flexible enough to take words, pictures and charts: PowerPoint. This leads us to business intelligence software, which is a generic term for softwares that report, across different media, results (usually updated automatically) based on data from multiple sources. It is a huge growth area for the major players, and it is no surprise that Google, IBM and Microsoft are all vying for business and to become the de-facto standard in tomorrow’s business world. There are at least 15 competitors in this field. Two have emerged as leaders: Tableau and Power BI. EASE OF USE. Tableau, by just about every account, is ultimately simpler to use – and it takes only a few clicks to build a visualisation for your data. There is more flexibility of control. Tableau offers deeper analytics and, judging by online review sites, is more widely used, especially in the finance sector, in comparison to Power BI.
SELECT WAYS TO VISUALISE THE DATA. Your selection visuals are then assembled onto a dashboard (or several pages of dashboards to form an interactive report), and this can be very quickly formatted to deliver either to laptops and PCs or to the more vertical format required by smartphones. PUBLISH. To publish, you simply send the report securely into the cloud and send a link to the client. They can interact with the data – for example, by going to the gender chart and selecting just females, the other charts consequently adjust, with great fluidity, to show just the female data. A changeover to Tableau or Power BI comes with a commitment to deliver a different style of information. But this software is worth investigating. A big advantage is that clients can put their own hands on the data – there isn’t the time lag of asking the supplier to “run some more tables”. Of course, regular inflows of data are easily processed without a huge production. A good review of both systems was carried out in April this year by Max Giegrich of the Denverbased data company Interworks (http://interworks.com/blog/mgiegerich/2018/04/04/dashboarddesign-comparison-tableau-desktop-vs-microsoft-power-bi/). He’s an admitted Tableau fan, but on set exercises, although he found Tableau more intuitive to use than Power BI, the gap was a lot smaller than he expected – so, as a rule of thumb, if you’re on a tighter budget, you’ll be pretty well served by Power BI.
12
InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
THE PRICE IS RIGHT. A compelling difference resides in the pricing structure for each of these two offers. Tableau Desktop delivers a great product, one that allows for rapid slicing and dicing of data, and with great visuals – but they charge per user, which, at around $1,200 (NZD) per annum, is going to probably cause your CFO to spill their coffee. Do check it out, however. Microsoft’s Power BI comes in at two price levels. For smaller businesses the free version is perfectly suited. No choking on the coffee here. It has full functionality, while for users who send more than 1 gig of data to the cloud, the Professional edition comes in at just $10 (USD) per month. Professional also enables work with collaborators, so if a client uses MailChimp for communication or sales, the Chimp data can be integrated into the Power BI platform. IMPORT YOUR DATA. Both platforms enable you to import and work with spreadsheet data – for example, from a CSV file, though they don’t talk to SPSS or Q unless those files are saved as CSV files. You’re then probably up for a re-labelling job. The two worlds of Deep Dive statistics and BI don’t really collide. JOIN DIFFERENT DATA SOURCES. However, with BI platforms you can import and join other related data files, so you may have several sets of related data which you can place on one analytical platform. Everything then becomes “drag and drop”, and the choice of chart types goes well beyond the range of pies, bars and radar charts offered in Excel. Business intelligence softwares are driven forward by active user groups. The result: a broad and expanding range of fresh visualisation tools is readily available. There are new ways to tell your stories.
<< BACK 13
What’s up Many of us know friends and colleagues in the research industry who celebrate Diwali, or we might celebrate it ourselves. But for those of us who have been wondering what this celebration is about, I will attempt to breakdown the best ways to get into the Diwali spirit! Rooted in the Indian mythological epic, The Ramayana, Diwali celebrates the triumph of good over evil – aka the victory of Rama (pronounced as Ra-am; the a is silent) over the evil king Ravana (pronounced as Raa-vun). Why were they fighting? Ravana abducted Prince Rama’s wife Sita and of course, all hell broke loose between their respective kingdoms. That’s a quick and dirty version, the rest of which is best Googled!
For the average Indian though, Diwali is much more than the celebration of Rama’s victory over Ravana. Here are some of the key aspects of Diwali for us: • Diyas (Dee-yahs) These little earthen lights adorn every room in the house during the 3 day Diwali celebration period. Sometimes families get into the arts and crafts spirit and decorate these themselves. Most other times, we buy a whole bunch of these tear shaped lamps from the store, fill them with ghee or oil and insert a cotton wick which is then lit up. The important bit here is that these little lights symbolise the ‘inner light’ of our soul. Okay, I will admit, this year I have been terrible about sourcing diyas so for the lazy souls like me, tea lights will have to do. • Sweets (and lots of it) Diwali is incomplete without the distribution of sweets and dry fruits to friends and family. Okay, so I don’t do the dry fruits thing anymore (yes, we have established my previously confessed laziness); BUT Indian sweets shall abound, aplenty.
• Rangoli! Every year during Diwali houses are decorated with colourful patterns made on the floor with coloured dry flour, coloured sand, coloured rice, chalk and/or flower petals. Why you ask? It serves both as decoration, and as a tool to bring people together, working in harmony to express beauty and the auspiciousness of the occasion. • Family Above all else, Diwali in India is a time where the family hangs out, aided with the help of generous public holidays. All the aunties and uncles and cousins and grandparents get together and do what one might expect at a Christmas lunch. There is food, sometimes a bit of drama and loads of merriment! To mitigate my aforementioned laziness, I will be ordering food in instead of cooking – hey, as long as my family is together amirite? So there you have it – a crash course in all things Diwali! Happy Diwali to you all – wishing you all heaps of goodness, light and love in your lives! - Ishita
Ishita Mendonsa is part of NeedScope International’s research team (Kantar), and works in the areas of Consumer Behavioural Insights and Brand Communications. Ishita is passionate about inquiring into the human condition, particularly as they relate to culture and gender. This year Ishita was a runner up for the Young Researcher of the Year. Please feel free to email her with feedback, comments or questions. 14
InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
with that?
<< BACK 15
Horst is Group Services Director at Infotools and a Fellow of the Research Association of New Zealand. 16
InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
DEVELOPING INSIGHTS IN AN AGILE WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Review of RANZ’s latest Professional Development event, 30 October at The Flagship - By Horst Feldhaeuser MY REVIEW IN SHORT – I LOVED IT! Ok, so I guess if you haven’t been there, you want to hear a bit more about this event and why I loved it. One of the challenges that RANZ faces is to put on relevant professional development events that engage our members and help them be more successful in their business. This latest event ticked all the boxes. But before I go into more detail about the event, let’s talk about the venue. Trying out a new venue instead of the tried and trusted is always a bold move. But this one paid off. The Flagship Education Centre in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter is a fully sustainable events venue, unique in its design and beauty. While not ideal when it’s raining (noise), it’s an inspiring place to open yourself to learning and new thinking. And it’s centrally located with lots of parking available. So, once we got settled with our various healthy breakfast options, the discussions around agile thinking and processing kicked off moderated by three moderators – Steph Cooper (Lean\Agile Coach), Coralee Fitzgibbon (Intervention Design Lead, Lean Analytics at BNZ) and Sebastian Watson (Senior Strategy Director at Big Picture). A great mix of agile experts that operate both inside and outside our insights ecosystem. “Agile” is one of those buzzwords that many businesses and their leaders are focused on right now. So, it was no surprise that most of the 44 attendees had at least some understanding of what it means and what it doesn’t. Steph talked us through the general agile process, while Coralee explained how agile works in her day-to-day job and Seb confirmed that as market researchers and insights specialists we often work in an agile environment already, whether we are aware of it or not. It was great to see how engaged everyone was in the discussions about how this influences both our fast-turnaround insights projects and the more impactful deep research studies (cue short, agile project steps), and how we as an industry need to embrace this thinking to become / remain the neutral partner to test and re-test assumptions and processes. And just to be clear, this is not just about surveys and primary market research projects. This is about integrated insights partnerships, working together with multiple partners and stakeholders, connecting information of numerous sources and connecting these to outcome-focused actions – lots of opportunities. For some of us, this might just be a continuation of our current ways of working, as we already see these agile processes in place across a number of insights providers and partners. For others, this may still sound alien and unclear – you might want to review your current processes to make them more transparent, visible, timely and outcome-focused.
Either way, there’s no denying that our industry is constantly changing and that we need to embrace this change to remain relevant. RANZ events like this one encourage exchange of ideas, showcase practical implementation and stimulate continuous learning and development. If you’ve missed this particular event, you should definitely come and join us for the next one. << BACK 17
S ’ E P O C S D E N O I NE T A M R O F S N TRA GILE WORLD A N A IN In
our attempt to explore different ways of working in this issue, we talked to Maria Tyrrell, Managing Director of NeedScope International (now part of Kantar) to understand more about NeedScope’s transformation as an organisation and its role within Kantar Global Insights.
“ADAPT OR DIE” To understand how NeedScope has changed, we need to look at their history. NeedScope International (known as Focus Research in New Zealand for many years), began as a strategic and diagnostic market research company in 1994, with the proprietary NeedScope motivation system created here in New Zealand and exported worldwide. Kantar fully acquired NeedScope International in 2016.
taining the Kiwi reputation for innovation!”
HAVING A POINT OF VIEW What’s it like being a small and remote part of a huge organisation like Kantar? “You have to ensure your voice is always heard. NeedScope is Kantar Insights’ best practice brand strategy tool. We now report into London and are involved with all the global decision making around how Kantar Insights can grow the brand strategy business.
We are also now co-located with the other Kantar businesses in New Zealand in Sale Street (TNS and Colmar Brunton) – somewhat strange at first given we’d been in Maria explains her drive, saying “Kantar globally has a more competitive situation in been transforming with many new ways of working. We the past but now we know each are always ahead of everyone else in adapting to the new other pretty well and the quarprocesses. Global teams come to us for advice on how to terly drinks get better and betadapt to the new technologies. ter! We do have local clients we work with using NeedScope, it’s “Our philosophy is very much to dive in, boots and all. We’re so important to have that direct adopting agile processes where we can, for example Myles connection with the marketing George, one of our Directors, contributed to an Agile Sprint world as mostly we are dealing in London to drive the development of Kantar’s brand stratwith Kantar researchers interegy platform. We adapt to whatever a big global organisanationally rather than end clition throws at us! NeedScope International is an adaptable ents. business which can turn on the head of a pin - we’re main-
As Managing Director, Maria Tyrrell has led NeedScope through these changes with a tireless appetite for adaptation and flying the Kiwi flag.
18
InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
pace, we also have an AI offer now – So these are just some of the exciting developments in our evolution.”
A UNITED TEAM How do you guide an organisation through this level of change, and build a culture of adaptability? Is it possible to do so and keep the bottom line looking healthy?
About the NeedScope product NeedScope is a qualitative and quantitative research approach to help clients build irresistible brands. NeedScope understands the unique needs driving brand choice in a client’s category, sizes growth opportunities and develops a strategy to optimise brand positioning.
For Maria, the secret is in the leadership team. “Leadership is driven from the top. A company’s leaders have to be the ones to lead transformation and we are lucky at NeedScope to have a very strong and stable management team. I don’t underestimate the importance of that, we’re united and incredibly supportive. “Better still, NeedScope sales globally have continued to rise, not as fast as we would like, but going in the right direction.” Maria is rueful about brands making shortterm decisions, and getting carried away with the latest marketing tactics. However, she sees a shift of late, with an increased focus on brand strategy.
Maria explains that as well as the changes to ways of working which have come with the Kantar integration, NeedScope itself has been changing too: “Clients who perhaps turned to a more tacti“The NeedScope product has also cal focus around digital in particular, have been transforming – and fast. We had recognised without an irresistible brand to adapt to a market demanding evestrategy, they are vulnerable and open to atrything smarter and faster, and where tack.” 80% is good enough. Yes, you can do a full NeedScope segmentation and positioning study in a 15 minute quesMaria Tyrrell is the MD of NeedScope tionnaire! International, and has been a part of growing and shaping the NZ “Simulation tools in the software market research industry for 30 mean clients don’t always have to years. She is also an ex Chair turn to primary research, making and Fellow of The Research things faster still. Association of New Zealand “Platform developments happen at
<< BACK 19
Jonathan snaps a selfie around 6pm recently, 30 minutes or so after finishing work.
Here
20
InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
A remote working success story by Jonathan Dodd FRANZ, Ipsos
TO
10 years ago I told my boss at the time, “I’m going to start working from home – and by the way, home will soon be Rotorua, not Auckland.”
a big ask; two, even harder. However, a drop in pay through a job-switch is often bearable given the drop in housing costs you’ll typically enjoy.
His first words were, “You’re going to go mountainbiking every day, aren’t you?”
2.
Also consider your working style. If you struggle for motivation and need collegial buzz, you may find working from home challenging. Many provincial towns now operate shared working spaces which could suit you, or you may be like me and enjoy the company of the cat and the ability to stream Spotify all day without headphones. Bear in mind that while working from home allows for more flexible hours, your colleagues and clients inevitably need you to be available during normal working hours. Smartphone emails are a god-send.
3.
Next, consider your role in your company and how much you need to be in the office. If you’re in the first few years of your career, arguing the case to work remotely could be difficult – learning and supervision still need regular face to-face time, and the benefits of sharing space in a close-knit team are significant. Likewise, if you’re a qualitative researcher and spend half your life in focus group facilities, living further afield could be hard. That said, my location has certainly made it easier to conduct qual in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty.
So, if you’ve been considering taking your market research career to the provinces, what do you need to consider? 1. The key issue is, of course, income – do you intend to keep your role with your current employer or plan to set up on your own? Personally, I love working with good colleagues and enjoy the benefits that come from working in a larger company, but if you’re looking to go solo, bear in mind that research budgets in the provinces are generally much lower (as are living costs, admittedly). Additionally, most cities outside Auckland or Wellington will also have one or two small marketing consultancies operating, and these will often have the research needs of their clients covered. When I moved to Rotorua I did some projects for local businesses, but quickly realised the best use of my time remained with the Auckland and Wellington markets. If you have a working partner, her or his career also has to be considered, of course. Being able to move one job out of the big smoke can be
THERE
“
4. The next issue to consider is your client accessibility. I’m only a few hours’ drive from Auckland and a quick flight to Wellington, so I find a weekly/fortnightly trip to Auckland easy to do and relatively convenient to clients.
“
He wasn’t far off the truth, but it turned out that the truth was much better than that.
People watching is more efficient if you stop doing it one person at a time.
<< BACK 21
In fact, I tend to find that clients and prospects are very accommodating when I tell them where I live, because “getting out of the rat race” is so often dreamed of, yet seldom done – people who go ahead and “opt out” are generally lauded for thinking differently. That said, if a client wanted me to visit them a few times every week, it would be a different matter. Additionally, Rotorua (and Whangarei, where another Ipsos colleague works) are easy drives and a great excuse to listen to podcasts. Conversely, some years ago a colleague of mine suddenly found her Oamaru location extra challenging when Air New Zealand stopped flights to her local airport.
•
People are so much friendlier in smaller cities. It’s a cliché, but it’s true. It can be very easy to build up a tight community of friends to do things with, and before you know it, you’re no longer binging on Netflix because you’re seeing your friends much more frequently. There’s no need to book a Saturday night with friends a month in advance or de-stress from your commute with TV escapism; everyone’s five minutes away. So when your colleagues or clients start talking about the latest Netflix series and you’ve spent the previous evening shredding trails with some riding mates, walking through the woods, trail running or fishing, the screen life seems a bit artificial and removed.
5.
Finally, you’re not just a market researcher, you have other aspects of your life that have to be catered for. If you’re a big-city person, you may struggle; but if, like me, you love the outdoors and having everything within a 10-minute drive, then cities like Rotorua are fantastic (or in Prince Harry’s words, “heaven”). Warning: however, our inner-city parking costs recently rose to a staggering 50c an hour. When I swapped notes with some other city escapees some years back, we all agreed that our lives are actually busier now than when we lived in Auckland, because while there may be less “entertainment”, activities are easier to get to without the Auckland traffic nightmare, and cheaper (everything is cheaper). Even things like attending school sports days and taking your children places (or letting them just ride their bikes) become so much easier.
•
Just because you holiday in a place doesn’t mean it’s a great place to live in permanently. Consider what your beach paradise would be like in the depths of winter, and the proximity of services like hospitals, council staff, schools, etc. Broadband connectivity is a must, of course.
So if you’ve read this far and have started checking the real estate section of that nice town or city a few hours’ drive away, all credit to you. But there have been some interesting and unexpected discoveries of living further afield, and the following are all agreed to by the other escapees I’ve spoken to:
22 InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
• New Zealand media and advertising are extremely urban and Auckland-oriented. Like a fish in the water, the self-absorption becomes apparent only when you step out and look from a different perspective. The scripted ad libs and banter of our TV hosts are a little slice of Grey Lynn – fun, stylish and completely irrelevant to most New Zealanders. •
When it’s so much easier to get into the ou doors and make the most of your extra free time (that hour’s commute is equivalent to 490 hours a year you’ve lost), passive activities like TV end up taking a back seat. You can DO MORE STUFF. And there’s the rub. All that money you thought you’d save on cheaper rent, petrol and mortgage? It’s gonna go on big boys’ toys, overseas trips, hobbies and fun. You have been warned.
UPDATE FROM
WELLINGTON
Stats NZ is developing Indicators Aotearoa New Zealand (IANZ) – Ngā Tūtohu Aotearoa to track New Zealand’s progress. The set of indicators will go beyond economic measures, such as gross domestic product, to include wellbeing and sustainable development. The indicators will build on international best practice and will be tailored to New Zealand by including cultural and te ao Māori perspectives. They will enable the government, councils, businesses, communities and individuals to make choices around wellbeing and sustainability. Stats NZ have been talking with New Zealanders since July about what wellbeing means to them, and people across Aotearoa have made over 3,000 submissions in our public consultation process. Stats NZ have also engaged with
over 1,000 people in targeted community engagement sessions across Aotearoa.
It’s now coming to the end of their technical workshop series, in which subject matter and data experts have developed lists of
INDICATORS AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND Ngā Tūtohu Aotearoa
possible indicators for each topic, keeping in mind what the public have told us about wellbeing. They are also continuing to engage with Treaty partners to understand how wellbeing is viewed within te ao Māori, from the perspectives of whānau, hapū and iwi.
The selection process will culminate in an indicator selection event on 6 December, where all workshop participants will regroup, along with other interested parties, to refine the list of indicators selected during the workshops and gain consensus on the final set. Early next year, the proposed indicator set will be subject to international peer review and will be endorsed by a government statistician. The indicators will be launched via a web tool in June 2019 and will be regularly tested to ensure they remain relevant and robust. To find out more please visit the Stats NZ webpage: here > or you can email
indicators@stats.govt.nz or call 0508 525 525 for more information. << BACK 23
24
InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
First place, globally
Shaun
Fitzgibbon
A Kiwi company and its local agency have won first place in the global ESOMAR Research Effectiveness Awards
Paymark’s “The Merchant DNA” segmentation was awarded Gold at ESOMAR’s Research Effectiveness Awards on 25 September 2018. InterVIEW chatted to Shaun Fitzgibbon, Partner at TRA about how they did it. A segmentation can be one of the most powerful insight tools a business can invest in; however, the challenge with any segmentation is making it believable, real, measurable and impactful. Working with “real” behavioural data (as opposed to reported behaviour) helps get closer to these ultimate objectives. Behavioural data is real and measurable of course, and in the case of Paymark, it was being generated at an extraordinary rate. However, what uncovers true insight and brings us closer to the point of being actually believable and impactful is the process of enriching data sources. For “The Merchant DNA”, it was blending data sources, using advanced analytics to model and predict behaviours and, most importantly, it was having a fundamental belief that behavioural data could tell us an emotional story. But we can’t forget at the end of the day, segmentation is a tool. Without instructions or help on how to use it (no matter how advanced), it will remain just a “tool” on the shelf at the back of the shed, collecting dust. This is why when you integrate a segmentation tool within a business you start to see genuine organisational impact. I guess this aspect was key for the ESOMAR effectiveness win. We are truly honoured to be recognised with this prestigious award on the world stage. Shaun is a partner at TRA, passionate about using data to enable business growth. Shaun comes from a background in marketing, strategy, data and insights.
<< BACK 25
60 Xxxx
26
InterVIEW DECEMBER 2018
Lucia has been working in the market research industry for over 12 years and has a passion for advanced analytics. She is currently a consultant at Fiftyfive5. In May 2018 Lucia returned to New Zealand after a two-year stint in Canada, where she worked as a consultant with NRG Research Group, an agency specialising in public opinion research. Lucia lives in Auckland with her husband and their ginger tabby. Her husband shares her love of craft beer but would prefer a puppy over the acquisition of more cats.
1. FRIDAY NIGHT DRINKS? MEET ME AT: Vultures Lane, The Lumsden or any where serving a decent selection of IPAs. 2.
CHILLED OUT WEEKEND BRUNCH? MEET ME AT: Humbug. A favourite West Auckland local where the coffee never disappoints.
3.
SPECIAL NIGHT OUT? WE’RE GOING TO: Hard to narrow the selection to one! My top picks would be The Grove, Woodpecker Hill, Cassia or Masu.
4. TO RELAX, I: Hit the gym, go hiking or indulge in a good novel. 5.
THE MUSIC I’M LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW: I keep being drawn back to numerous Canadian alt-rock artists I came to love during our time in Calgary. I love how music has a way of keeping special memories alive.
6.
LAST GOOD BOOK / ARTICLE / PODCAST: I’m a long-time Stephen King fan, but in the last few months podcasts have captured my attention. Although my repertoire keeps expanding, my current favourites include “No Such Thing as a Fish”, “The Ongoing History of New Music” and “Science Vs”.
7.
AN IDEAL WEEKEND: A good mixture of quality time spent with friends, trying out a new café/restaurant and exploring Auckland’s expanding cycle network.
8. MY WORST JOB WAS: A summer spent attaching adhesive labels to bottled water. 9.
IF I WASN’T A MARKET RESEARCHER I WOULD BE: In any job that paid me to hang out with cats all day. Earlier this year I heard about a vet clinic in Ireland seeking a professional cat cuddler’, sounds like a dream job to me :)
10. OTHER RESEARCHERS SHOULD CONTACT ME IF: They enjoy talking at length about craft beer. 11.
I LOVE MY LIFE BECAUSE: I feel blessed to call New Zealand home. I’m grateful for the all wonderful experiences we had in Canada; however, living abroad has given me a new appreciation for everything I once took for granted.
33 << BACK 27
