2010–2018
Before research became strategy, leadership or product building, I had to learn the fundamentals: how to listen, how to make sense of what I heard, and how to make somebody else care.
I learnt the craft on the ground — moderating groups, conducting interviews and ethnographies, observing people in context and learning to separate what was interesting from what was actually evidence.
Listen before you explain.
Advertising taught me that a good insight does not travel on evidence alone. It needs a point of view, a story and a reason for someone to remember it.
Evidence needs a story before it can move people.
Working across markets, brands and shopper contexts pushed me beyond reporting what I had learnt. Research had to help clients see the problem differently and make a better decision.
Insight earns its keep when it changes the conversation.