HappyMR Podcast - Nurturing the next generation of market researchers

We were thrilled to have an opportunity to sit down with Jamin Brazil at the sold-out Women in Research (WIRe) event in Austin at IIeX North America last month. Our Group Services Director, Horst Feldhaeuser, chatted with Jamin on his HappyMR podcast about some of the work we’ve been doing recently, including how our 28 years in the market research industry have helped give us a unique perspective on its future needs.

The interview began with Horst giving a short overview of our work and business - saying, “apart from data collection, we do it.” Not only do we have expert market researchers on the team that provide high-level services to big brands like Orange, Samsung, and Shell, but our cloud-based platform, Infotools Harmoni, does it all: data analysis, data harmonization, dashboarding and more.

It is this tool that we recently made available to students at the University of Auckland Business School to give them some hands-on experience. The University has a close relationship with the market research community in New Zealand, and each year, students compete by undertaking real-life projects for non-profit organizations. This year, they are using  Infotools Harmoni to analyze and report on data they have collected for a project supporting the New Zealand Housing Foundation.

Horst, who just completed an in-depth training session with the participating students, said,” We wanted students to have the opportunity to really use the solution and play around with the data. We want to support students in the industry, and this program would be easy to expand globally.” He said we’ve also received interesting feedback from the students who ask questions that are not grounded in predetermined biases and thinking, giving us a fresh view of the future.

Jamin emphasized the importance of being open-minded to what the next generation is telling us, building relationships with new entrants to the industry. Horst says that when engaging with this generation of researchers, we need to make it easy for them by providing multiple opportunities to connect on social, in person at conferences and the table - giving them a chance to have their voices heard.

They closed out the broadcast with an interesting question: If there was one question that young people entering the industry should ask a seasoned researcher, what should that question be? Horst said: “I would focus on following your curiosity and ask the questions you want of the data, and gain an understanding of how you use the data and bring it back to the business.”

Listen to the whole podcast here: https://happymr.com/wire-series-horst-feldhaeuser-infotools/.