Welcome to the Future of Insight

Hello world!
What does the future of market research look like?

Of the many possible development paths available, which are the most desirable and which are the most likely?

Welcome to the Future of Insight, dedicated to exploring these questions and thinking deeply about the industry and where it is going.

Feel free to read recent interviews on the topic and add your own thinking to the discussion on the Community Insights page.

Corporate Researchers Conference Speech Preview

20 September 2012

I’m here in Dallas for the Corporate Researcher’s Conference 2012. My speech tomorrow morning is titled “The Once and Future Roles of Corporate Researchers”, it begins with Shakespeare (a personal weakness) and explores 5 possible future roles. As usual, my presentation borrows heavily from strategic foresight principles and future scenarios. And, as usual, the presentation is a bit [...]

Talking @ TMAG

22 August 2012

Today I’m speaking at TMAG – the Technology Market Analysis Group here in San Jose – bit.ly/MkVbfW . My speech is on, what else, the future of market intelligence… Some points that I’m going to hit today: 1.  The Age of Disruption:  Most observers focus on the internal functioning and development of the market research [...]

Today’s Presentation at MRMW

19 July 2012

I gave a preview of my presentation yesterday. Here’s a deep dive on the 3+1 scenarios I present today: Tribal Rituals:  In this MR future consumptions becomes increasingly about experience and purpose and marketers turn increasingly to the creation of community and ritual with the physical product embedded at the core.  Think scapbooking parties, motorcycle [...]

See more articles in the archive

2019 Project

Rateocracy Redux

Posted on 10 December 2012

As many of you know, Research World recently ran my thoughts on Rateocracy and market research in the October edition. If you’ve read restaurant reviews on Yelp, rated a vendor on Angie’s List or rated a seller on eBay, you’re already part of the movement toward Rateocracy, a world in which everyone and everything has a [...]

AAPOR

MR Millennials Update

Posted on 23 January 2010

Tom Ewing has an update to his thinking regarding Millennials in MR. There was such a great response to his question (Are the kids alright?) that he revised and extended his remarks. It is worth reading the comments. I maintain that there is plenty of young talent in the industry, but that these talented folks [...]

Delphi Process

“Foresight”

Posted on 28 October 2010

We’re hearing the word “foresight” quite a bit today here at the ARF’s Industry Leader Forum. As I’ve noted in a previous post, I think the word is being used in a general way to mean “thinking ahead of the curve” and not in the specific sense used by professionals working in “strategic foresight.” I [...]

ESOMAR

High Impact Research

Posted on 17 March 2010

Ian Lewis has an exceptionally good piece in March’s Research World. Ideally, it should be read in tandem with his January Quirk’s piece titled “Ten keys to increasing the impact of research” and with his comments on this website. Although I highly recommend that you read (and re-read) Ian’s piece in Research World and draw [...]