Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Role Playing to make impactful presentations

We, as market researchers, need to create presentations for our clients. But have we ever wondered about what the client feels when she is looking through our slides? It becomes difficult for us to visualize and think from the client's perspective about the same presentation that we have created with our own hands. The reason is that we already know all the rationale behind the information presented in the deck. But does the client share the same level of understanding about "why" you have created each slide and "what" are you trying to say in each slide?

The best way to understand the client's perspective is to play the role of a client and look at the presentation like a client - asking at each slide,

"What is the key takeaway from this slide?"

"So what should I do about this information?"
But be cautious about choosing the presentation that you want to scrutinize as a client. Do not use the presentation created by you because you will be biased towards it and will already know the "hidden" facts. It works very well if you pick up a deck created by someone else on an unrelated topic and look at it like a client. In this process you will realize the common mistakes done by researchers (including yourself) while presenting data and giving recommendations.

It is very fascinating to dig out some old decks created by employees who worked for the same client before you joined the team, and to scrutinize them.

Insight is the Elephant

There is a famous story from Indian folklore about the Elephant and the blind men. We can clearly draw a parallel between the blind men and market researchers who are trying to understand the "insight" which is the elephant. This makes it more important for researchers to look at integrating multiple sources of data to get the "complete" and "real" picture of the consumer.





Here is John Godfrey Saxe's ( 1816-1887) version of the famous Indian legend,

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approach'd the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, -"Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"

The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he,
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Then, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

MORAL.

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!


I have also made a case for integration on the ESOMAR RW-Connect blog. You can read the blog-post titlted, "Let's Play a Game of Jigsaw Puzzle".