Voices: the CMB Blog

While thinking about the challenges of Big Data, I’m reminded of this simple chart from the neat site Indexed:

Because, as we get more and more data (and information) and move further to the right on the x-axis, we face more confusion throughout our work. We face questions like: how do we get a handle on all of the information?  How do we manage the volume to avoid information overload and confusion?  How do we find the right balance?

It’s an interesting challenge: initially, when I think about handling “big data” my eyes look to the right side of the chart and I think about how we can help clients to move the curve.  But I suspect there are many people and organizations who respond to the challenges of big data by simply staying on the left side.A colleague made the point that data quality and information relevance also play a big part in reducing confusion, and that’s very true.  Even when accounting for this, we still run into the challenge of having too much or too little of a good thing, so let’s just think about the volume in this discussion.

We’re always seeking to find that middle ground, but we choose to seek that middle ground from being on either the left or the right side.  It's tempting to think that one side is better than the other – for instance, it is better to err on the side of too much information and then reduce confusion by reducing the information (hence, my initial biased view). However, an equally strong argument can be made for erring on the side of too little information and then reducing confusion by seeking more information later.

I’m trying to figure out how Big Data plays in all of this.  Obviously, the information scale is rapidly increasing, leading to the potential for greater confusion. If you choose to err on the side of too much information, you will need to work harder to reduce information to find that optimal point; and if you err on the side of too little information, you will need to work harder to gather more information.

How might this play out in a project?  We find a lot of examples where managers have strong positions on the two sides of the chart:

Data Minimalists:These people like to “keep it simple” and desire just a few key measures and facts to make decisions.  If they don’t have enough information, they send the team back out to find more.

 

 

Data Maximizers: These folks need more data to make sure they haven't overlooked any important details or facts relevant to a decision.  If they don’t have the right information for a decision they send the team back for more analysis.

 

 

 

Neither side is “perfect,” and I suppose the optimal answer is to find the right balance of people who err on the right and who err on the left. Good managers know to balance the two sides and appreciate the benefits that each bring to the design and planning of a decision-support information system.

 

 

Jeff is a senior consultant, methodologist, and unabashed lover of charts. He's on a mission to make sense of Big Data and reduce confusion wherever it's found. He tweets occasionally at @McKennaJeff.

Have you ever experienced one of these data dilemmas? Tell us about it.

1. –You have so much data, it feels like you’re drinking from a fire hose.

2. –It’s too hard to “connect the dots” between your data sets.

3. –You’re paying for new studies to get data you already have…somewhere.

4. –It’s a struggle to get the data you need from your data warehouse.

 

Last week I attended the FutureM conference here in Boston. There were a lot of sessions to choose from and some great speakers, but one presentation was so simple it caught my eye. The session was called Future: Simplicity with Chris Colbert (@cmcolbert) from @hollandmark. The session was an hour and a half, which seemed long, but it flew by and I was even disappointed when it was over.  Chris is a definitely an engaging speaker, but it was the content of his presentation that gave me a lot to think about, both personally and professionally.  His session reminded me even with all the technology available, sometimes “it” just gets complicated; “it” being everything from crafting your value proposition to explaining a TV ad about Massachusetts' Question 2 to your 7 and 9 year old.  Sometimes life is just complicated.  When it comes to the future of marketing, I believe having an eye for simplicity and the discipline to focus are key success factors.Throughout the presentation, Chris saw the simple in the complex, understood the need for focus, valued the currency of time, talked about the human need for comfort, and the fact that comfort is often found in simplicity. I thought a lot about where simplicity breaks down in my world as a marketer, and for me it is often when there is a loss of focus.  I would say I am a pretty goal oriented person and staying focused on those goals and how to achieve them gives me the discipline I need to stay on target. That being said one of the biggest things that can challenge my focus is the sheer volume and variety of data I have coming at me real time. Social, CRM, financial data, customer experience…I have a headache just thinking about the sheer volume of it all.

How do you connect all the dots? How do you uncover the story? How do you focus on the data that matters? It all comes back once again to simplicity and focus.  Focus on the business problem you are trying to solve, the key questions you need to answer and the ability to go from data to insights and deliver those insights in a way that makes them relevant to those who need to make the decisions. That’s a lot of what we do here at CMB.

This brings me to the next quote I jotted down that really hit home; “less is more, but less is harder.” It takes discipline to focus on the one or two things your product or service does really well because the temptation to try to be all things to all people is so great.  It also takes that same kind of discipline to focus on the key data sources and points you need to make a decision, and the confidence tune out the rest.

Simplicity requires focus, and focus often drives results.  This point rang true again in a recent study from the Marketing Leadership Council. They reported the best performing marketers are the “Focusers,” those who prefer depth of focus over breadth. Unfortunately, the same study also found that most CMOs’ are looking for someone very different from the Focuser. They are looking for the “Agile” marketer, those who are early adopters of technology who embrace change and are fast movers. Ironically, the Agile marketer often suffers from lack of focus and fell to the bottom of the list when rated by their manager on performance.

We all desperately need simplicity and focus, but how do you find it within this complex (and growing more complex every day!) world?  The answer is not to rely solely on the “agile” person who embraces every change and is quick to bounce from technology to technology.  Instead, the answer is cultivating a culture where people can be focused, and not become distracted in an ocean of data and by shiny new objects.

Kristen is CMB’s VP of marketing, an adjunct professor at Boston College Carroll School of Management and a mom of two. You can follow her on Twitter at @KristenGarvey

 

We hear a lot about Big Data—from Target using predictive analytics to tell which of its customers are pregnant, to MIT and Intel putting millions behind their bigdata@CSAIL initiative. Yet, I’m struck by the fact that most of what I read, and hear at conferences, is about  the wealth of data technology can provide researchers, managers and analysts. There is very little about how these folks can avoid drowning in it, and most importantly make the decisions that address business challenges.

For the uninitiated, the Big Data revolution is characterized by three traits:

• Volume - Technology has led to an exponential increase in data we have available

• Diversity - We can aggregate data from a wide range of disparate sources, like customer relationship management (CRM) systems, social media, voice of the customer, and even neuro-scientific measurement.

• Speed – We are able to field and compile quantitative studies within days; before online, IVR, and mobile data collection methods were available this took weeks

While there may be other definitions of Big Data, it is clear that technology is making data, larger, wider, and faster. What we need to think about is how technology can make our response to and analysis of data larger, wider and faster as well, and avoid drowning in it.

The water metaphor is often used to describe Big Data, and the folks at the GreenBook Consulting Group use the term “oceans of data.”  They describe three business models driven by data: The Traditional (based on Data Ponds), Transitional (based on Data Rivers), and Future (based on Data Oceans).

Traditional market research based on small discrete amounts of data has its place – but as the folks at GreenBook point out, market researchers must face the fact that progression from these Data Ponds to Data Oceans is inevitable.  The Traditional mindset is faced with inertia and will decline in relevance in the next five to ten years.

Those who are in the Transitional phase are moving forward, folks here are in a “reactive” position.  They are seeing these changes around them and applying some big data solutions in their word.  They might have tried one or two tools or are even using them now on a regular basis. But when faced with large amounts of data, they think about technology only in terms of how to collect more data – not in how to manage and apply it quickly and in big ways.  In contrast, the Future mindset takes a proactive approach; these are the people who think about how technology will be the fundamental basis for applying the ideas and solutions to lead companies.

In the coming weeks I’ll be discussing specific examples of technologies that are helping push market researchers towards this future. I’d love to hear from you about things you’re doing to respond to Big Data and the challenges and opportunities you are facing as we confront these Data Oceans.

Watch our webinar Using Technology to Help your Entire Company Understand and Act on Customer Needs here

Posted by Jeff McKenna, Jeff is a senior consultant at CMB and team leader for Pinpoint Suite-our innovative Customer Experience Management software. Want to learn more about how Pinpoint Suite can help you make sense of your "Big Data," schedule a demo here.

The day that we all become as tech-savvy and suave as Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible is fast approaching.  How do I know?  A few years after a Cruise movie is on the big screen, his cool gadgets are for sale in a store near you.  Don’t believe me?  Just watch any 24-hour cable news show and you will see that they are all using the same multi-touch wall display that Tom Cruise first popularized in the movie, Minority Report.

Now, Google is saying that we can be just like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible with the release of his iconic sunglasses that project information onto the lens.  Can you imagine it? You could be walking around New York City with turn by turn navigation, getting information on local restaurants, activities, even places your friends have recently checked in on Foursquare or Facebook, all while strolling along, looking up instead of down at a phone (or a map… remember those?!).

The fervor and excitement this device is creating has endless potential. I think a product like this will influence how retailers reach out to shoppers.  For example, in the future, the customer won’t be sitting at home, miles away from a store location…they will be right outside your door searching for products on their sleek Mission-Impossible-sunglasses.  As a result of this change, more focused local or location-based advertising will begin to replace the need for expansive mass media campaigns.

The shift to more personalized advertising is already taking place with the rapid popularization of the smartphone.  According to our Consumer Pulse report: How Smartphones are Changing the Retail Shopping Experience, released last year, over half of all smartphone owners use their device when shopping in a retail store. Currently, retailers are wary of these customers as “show roomers” who will go in store to browse, but who make their purchases online to find a better price. 

Instead of worrying, retailers need to take action and realize that these tech advancements in shopping can be used to their advantage to create a personalized shopping experience.  Leveraging data already collected from loyalty programs or Point of Sale can provide shoppers with a compelling reason to make their purchases in a retail store, creating and providing a seamless and elevated experience for the buyer.  The resources to make this experience a reality are available; retailers have the data, it is just a matter of learning how to use it effectively.

Someday, when we are all like Tom Cruise and wearing spy-like glasses, advertising will need to be personalized and relevant to the individual.  Such a marketing technique will draw people in, breaking through the mass noise and bombardment of content available all around you.  No longer will accurate advertising and recommendation-engine results be relegated to online sites alone—it will be a part of your everyday life, maybe even programmed into your sunglasses.

What do you think?  Will mobile technology transform the retail shopping experience?

Posted by Kirsten Rasmuson, Kirsten is a Senior Project Manager on CMB’s Retail practice. She’s looking forward to welcoming our new robot overlords.

Earlier this month I had the chance to present at the Market Research Technology Event in Las Vegas. Beyond the fact I just could not get accustomed to watching people walk by conference rooms swigging beer and wearing in flip flops; for me the event raised more questions than provided answers.

During the conference, one of the most quoted reports was McKinsey’s: Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity.  For me, one of the most striking takeaways from the report was a prediction that by 2018, the US will have a shortage of talent necessary for organizations to take advantage of big data—the US alone could face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep analytical skills as well as 1.5 million managers and analysts with the know-how to use the analysis to make effective decisions.

After we market researchers take a moment to celebrate our job security, we should consider that skilled market researchers will be asked to fill the space by taking on more tasks and working longer hours.  As the gap widens between the influx of data and the analysts we need to make sense of it, are 80 hour weeks inevitable? Certainly workforce globalization will be a key to filling “big data” needs, but I was very surprised to hear little discussion of how technology will help us deal with this shortage.

I left the conference with the theory that the “new technology” we need is the yet-to-be-realized application of a tool to change a process to yield a quicker, lower cost, or better quality outcome.  I think market researchers have yet to focus on how technology can act as a surrogate for the role they play within their organizations

So what might the future hold? I expect technology will allow market researchers to develop “analytical bots” to make sense of the vast ocean of data to answer specific business questions raised by internal clients. Watching Watson and Siri answer questions of fact with extremely high accuracy makes me wonder what our role will be.  If these machines “have all the answers” then what purpose do we have?  I don’t believe technology will replace market researchers; their skillset and output are still critical for companies to be competitive.  The purpose is to create the rules and algorithms that convert the facts into relevant information.  This is where market research skills will combine with technology to fill the resource gap.

We’ve heard a lot about expert systems—computer systems that emulate human decision-making. It’s my view that the market researchers who will lead in the next 5 to 7 years will be those who are setting up and managing expert systems, that take all of the facts and computations within large sets of data and apply what is relevant, to make decisions quickly, anywhere, and at any time.

Did you miss us at TDMRE? We'll be at the Audience Measurement Event in Chicago from May 21st to the 23rd. Register for a 25% discount by entering CMB2012 here.

Posted by Jeff McKenna, Jeff is a senior consultant at CMB and team leader for Pinpoint Suite-our innovative Customer Experience Management software. Want to learn more about how Pinpoint Suite can help you make sense of your "Big Data," schedule a demo here.