Data is everywhere. What most people take for granted is that it takes commercial nous and more than a little know-how to turn that data into actionable insight. If your Insight team are the only ones who can do this, then you risk the danger that they become a roadblock. To get the most value from your community you need train a cross-section of the business in what the insight platform is, how you use it and how to draw data from it. Teaching them a little on how to read that data isn’t a bad idea either!
With different business users all using your community, it becomes increasingly important to marry together research outputs with business outputs. Research outputs tend to be reports, summaries and recommendations where business outputs tend to be decisions and actions.
To get from one to the other it’s important to:
This will make it way easier to marry key business stakeholders and Insight professionals in interpreting, shaping and sharing insight.
"If you're not careful, your community might only be used for agile research. It's crucial you tie it into the longer-term goals and problems of your brand."
It’s pretty easy to write about your data and your business needs becoming best friends, but the reality is more difficult. Whenever you are changing the way in which your organisation works, you should consider employing some form of change management. You need to have a project owner, sign off and support from your C-level management, a plan and timeline for the change to take place and some reinforcement to make sure it sticks. The point of good Insight is to make better informed decisions, but without the right tools, training and appetite within the business this can often feel like another hoop to jump through. Your brand will get much more value out of an Insight Communities if every part of your organisation can understand the benefits, can easily access and understand the data and can transform that data into the insight edge.
