Create case studies for the business value of “old” customer research

Experiments to push forgotten insights into product planning can shift perspectives on the value of existing research

Why invest in keeping important insights alive?

Unless leaders have seen how “old” research insights can have present-tense business payoffs, existing learning is going to remain waste.

You need case studies that show how your organization’s existing research is an untapped business asset.

The kind of early experiments that align “old” research knowledge with advancements toward what your leadership is aiming for. Inspiration to do more “continuous rediscovery” within what’s already been learned.

Increasing the use of known research insights is not a single, monolithic task. If you focus on smaller steps to start activating more research wealth in product planning, then there’s no time like the present. Those smaller steps can accumulate into bigger shifts.

Here’s a related excerpt from new Stop Wasting Research book:

What Starting to Recycle Research Might Look Like

A research operations professional at a household name financial firm has established solid operations for recruiting participants, and she now wants to show the value that “old” research reports can deliver. To create an example case study, the reops pro decides to:

• Ask researchers around her organization about wasted insights from old studies that could become quick wins.
• Meet with a technical product manager to get their sense of which existing insights could be low effort and high reward, factoring in the context of existing roadmaps.
• Do a deep dive on one promising existing insight, only to discover that not much has changed in the feature area or customer behavior since the research was originally conducted.
• Pitch a research-driven experiment to the group that owns the feature area.
• Help analyze the resulting experimental data, uncovering a massive win based on the years-old research — the kind of win that gets everyone talking.
• Connect the leaders to researchers with more insights that could be driving big metric lifts.

Learn more about Stop Wasting Research from Rosenfeld Media

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