Defining the Team’s Identity (before it’s defined for you)

As noted in our most recent piece, insights professionals know the value they bring. They know what they have the potential to deliver to the organization and why they should be consulted. In that piece we argued that communicating that value requires understanding internal stakeholders as consumers of insights.

But what happens when that value isn’t recognized?

For example, someone from marketing comes to the insights team with a positioning territory to be tested – and the insights lead realizes that the positioning is based on zero data. And even worse, the lead sees immediately why it won’t be well-received.  

The product team comes with a request for 5 focus groups with current customers – a pre-defined methodology with no context and no request for input from the insights function.

In effect, internal stakeholders are treating the insights function as order-takers rather than the strategic partners the team is equipped and eager to be.  

This is the quieter risk underlying the dynamic we recently described, about understanding internal clients as consumers worth studying on their own terms. Understanding what stakeholders need helps the insights team define the role it intends to play in meeting those needs. And, absent considered strategic thought about the team’s identity, the default is almost always the same: an executor of research that rarely gets invited in early enough to affect decisions and deliver strategic value.

We posed three starting questions for insights leaders: what do internal clients actually need, why might they de-value the team’s involvement, and what else is competing for their attention. Each of these has a second question underneath it about the posture the insights team decides to bring.