Lenses for looking, insight ladders, and latent biases

Attending industry events and conferences can be a sensitive topic.

👍 You might learn, experience, and network a bunch!

👎 BUT you’ll lose a day (or week!) of work time to travel, and then hopefully see some interesting presentations, maybe get some inspiration, potentially discover a new tool that can help your team, and ideally make strong connections…

It’s a lot – and frankly, often NOT worth it.

So whether you missed out on or skipped IIEX North America this year, we're coming to you live with everything you need: a rundown of the most interesting presentations, and some helpful (arguably “hot”) takes from strategy, insights, and innovation leaders in attendance on the state of strategic research in 2024.

All of the presentations are here, but 5 of the most useful and/or thought-provoking ones were:

1. LinkedIn’s take on 5 mindset shifts for future-forward insights & analytics teams. See the "from → to" overview on page 6 in particular, though the examples may be helpful for bringing each shift to life.

2. ESOMAR’s 20 questions to help buyers of AI-based research / insights services. Helpful insight on what buyers should be asking as you due diligence vendors with AI capabilities – five key areas are summarized on page 3.

3. PepsiCo’s approach to leveraging AI to maximize creative effectiveness. Pages 4 through 9 explore PepsiCo Labs’ innovation journey – great insight on what best in class volume and velocity of ideation looks like!

4. United Airlines’ simple but powerful roadmap for implementing predictive analytics. Pages 5 and 8 are helpful fodder for thought as you evaluate your own team and org’s insights sophistication

5. NBC Universal’s POV on how AI can actually help us “re-human” research. Anthropomorphism, self-determination, play theory, and (of course) empathy all play a role

More interested in a sampling of what everyone was talking about on the floor?

Here are 3 <60-second takes on innovative approaches to strategic research that are shaking up business as usual:  

1. “Lenses for looking” and “kaleidoscope thinking” will transform your innovation strategy (Laura Richardson, formerly VP CX at Publicis Sapient)

2. Three types of insights “ladder up” to help companies move quickly and stay relevant (Miguel de La Lama, Senior Product Manager at AT&T)

3. And, a friendly reminder (read: word of caution) that Google and all of these other AI tools are just like research participants: “What we feed them will bias what they give us back” (Lead UX researcher at a leading IT advisory firm)

To interesting presentations, inspiration, and new faces … without all the travel!

Victoria

P.S. If discovering new tools is your favorite part of IRL events and conferences, there’s one solution IIEX attendees said stood out from the rest. Why? A unique approach to solving a very real problem: how much time 99% of corporate America spends on Google (and now, wrangling LLMs).