Speaker 1: Hey friends, Katherine here from Research Rockstar. Thanks for joining me here today. And today I'd like to talk about market research project management. Now I know in this series of conversations we do often talk about market research methods and data sources and technologies, but I do think it's really important to also talk about project management. So today in episode 79 of Conversations for Research Rockstars, let's talk a little bit about project management. So my first question for you folks is, as you're thinking about project management for your own team, which may be a team of one, how has your team's project management practices evolved over the last, say, two to three years? Has it changed or has it really been the same? With a lot of the teams that I get to work with here at Research Rockstar, both teams from our students and also from our Renter Researcher Service, I would say that I see a lot of teams that really have evolved their project management practices over the last couple of years. And a lot of that is because of technology. A lot of teams have started to use different types of online tools to help with project management, especially with teams that may be geographically dispersed or teams that may have a mix of people who are working who may be in-house versus outside consultants and other types of partners and collaborators. So definitely I have seen an increase in the percent of research and insights teams that are using task tools, project management tools. Now sometimes it's fairly simple things like just getting everybody to use the same Google documents or to modify Smartsheet for your own in-house project management needs. Other folks, other teams may be using hosted project management tools like Asana or Wrike. I personally here at Research Rockstar, we use Wrike. If you are on a team that also does more technology work, maybe some software development, then you might be using Jira. So Jira is very common as well for project management, although again, typically it's got a lot of features that are really great if you're dealing with extremely complex things like you would run into if you're doing software development. So there's been a lot of advances in the variety of tools and online platforms that are available to support project management processes. And so those new technologies are really great. And with a lot of teams, this has also come with something else. It has also come with not only deploying new technology solutions, but also new processes. So for example, a lot of organizations have started to adopt best practices from the world of agile project management, which again, originally comes from the software side of the world, but is increasingly found in various types of marketing organizations, including market research. So we definitely see that there's been some changes for a lot of teams over the last couple of years, and that's fantastic. But the thing is, sometimes when I'm working with a team and I see that they've put a lot of effort into these new platforms and setting up the new processes, sometimes it seems that the basics may have suffered. That is, while we've been really focused on adopting these new tools and new processes, maybe other things haven't kind of kept pace. And this can especially be true for teams that are running really lean. Teams that don't have a lot of wiggle room in terms of staffing. You know, you really are at a place where you are running as lean as you can, and you've got multiple deadlines. And so on one hand, the project management tools can really help when you are running a lean team and you've got a lot of deadlines, a lot of projects all running at the same time. But there's more to it than just that. I mean, the technology is a huge help. And I really love, again, we use Wrike here at Research Rockstar, and I really appreciate its value. But I want to make sure that while I may be improving project management by using some of these new tools and processes, that I'm not forgetting those basics. So how do you know if your basics have suffered? One of the most common sources of evidence is if you experience poorly run kickoff meetings. So think about it for yourself. In the last year or so, have you ever been in a kickoff meeting for a new market research and insights project where people showed up unprepared, where people were unclear what their role was at the meeting, or where people were getting frustrated in the meeting because it didn't feel like it was a really great use of time? Poorly run kickoff meetings are a really good indicator that some of the sort of basics of project management may be getting left behind while we're focused so much on processes and technology. So a great way to fix this and to make sure that you don't run into this problem is to adopt a very simple best practice. Now I know this is going to sound really obvious, but I see this step getting missed a lot. So I know we all know we should do it, but how often are we doing it? In that step, making sure that you have an awesome agenda for that kickoff meeting. If you are taking the effort to hold a kickoff meeting to really have a great opportunity to work with everybody who's involved with this team, perhaps a mix of internal clients or for some of you, perhaps your external clients and collaborators, to have everybody in a room, which may be a virtual room, having that kickoff opportunity to get the project off on the right foot. We all know it's important. We all know a good kickoff meeting can really help to ensure the success of a big project. But if we show up to those meetings unprepared, then that sets a really bad tone for the rest of the project. And if you are dealing with clients, again, internal or external, a poorly run kickoff meeting just ends up reflecting poorly on the market research process. Now I get it. We're all on deadlines. You're juggling. You're running on a lean team. Taking time to create a great agenda can feel like an onerous task, but I promise you it is well worth it. And it's definitely something that you can template so that you have a template for a kickoff meeting agenda that you can just modify lightly for each different opportunity. So what are the must-have kickoff agenda items? What are the items on that agenda that is going to ensure that when people show up for that kickoff meeting, that people are feeling like that meeting is prepared, that the project manager is organized, and that it's going to be a good use of their time? Well, the first thing we have to start off with is actually just simple introductions. Now I know, maybe everybody has already met, if not by face-to-face, but by email. We still want to make sure that we start off every kickoff meeting with introductions. We need to be sure that everybody knows who's on that project, what are their names, do they know how to pronounce each other's first names, and specifying project roles and responsibilities. Who on the team, who in this meeting is going to be involved in reviewing early drafts of research instruments? Who on the team is going to be responsible for participating when the data is in and contributing to data analysis or synthesis? Who is going to be on the team who's going to be making sure that everything is staying on time and on budget? Who on the team is contributing as a subject matter expert? There are so many different roles that are going to vary depending on the type of research you do, but I want to make sure that at that kickoff meeting, that people are very clear about who is responsible for what. Once we know that we've done that, the next big agenda item is to review the project objectives. Now sure, by the time you get to a kickoff meeting, you probably know what the objectives are, but a lot of things can happen between the time you agree on the objectives in a written document and the time of a kickoff meeting. So we do want to make sure that we have that opportunity, that we have an agenda item to review the objectives, even if they've already been documented and agreed to. My point of emphasis here is verbal. It's incredibly important that the objectives are reviewed verbally, especially for those of you who may have collaborators, clients who don't have a lot of previous market research and insights experience. We really need to make sure that with those groups, that they get to really hear us talk about the objectives. What I often find is with people who have a less experience, it's at that kickoff meeting, it's at that point where we're actually conversing about the objectives, that they have that aha moment of, oh, that's what I need, and I also need this, or, oh, now that I understand what that item means now, now that I have a better understanding of what you mean by, by say, market segmentation, I really need to make sure that we also tackle this objective too. So by going through it verbally, you're helping that market research newbie get more comfortable and potentially also get them to clarify what they really need. Because for the newbies, it can be hard for them to do that. So this is a great opportunity for you to really hear them and to make sure that everything is confirmed, not just in writing, but also verbally. In addition to reviewing the objectives, we also want to make sure there's an agenda item to review the methodology. Again, by the time you got to that kickoff meeting, you know what the methodology is. However, I want to make sure that everybody fully understands it. So again, making sure we go over it verbally is going to help folks who may be more on the fringes of the project or might be newer to market research. But I don't want anybody making assumptions. And I can tell you from experience that people make assumptions, and I can also tell you from experience that people sometimes use language incorrectly. I have had a few different cases, for example, and this is extreme, but I've had a few different cases where I was working with a new client, and all through the planning process, they were talking about how they needed to do survey research. But when I actually got face-to-face with them, I realized that they didn't understand what they were asking for. When I really got into it with them in terms of what the methodology was going to be, it became really clear that what they would really benefit from would be more of a qualitative research approach. So unfortunate to learn that in a kickoff meeting, but I'd rather get that at the kickoff meeting than after the kickoff meeting. The next key item for my kickoff meeting agenda, to make sure it's really going to result in a well-prepared kickoff meeting experience for everybody, is to have an agenda item about the sampling plan. So if you're leading the kickoff meeting, you need to come to that kickoff meeting knowing exactly what you're recommending for the sampling plan, what the sample sources are, what screening criteria, what quotas, anything that's going to help the entire team understand with absolute precision and clarity how we're going to make sure that the participants are qualified for the study. Why am I emphasizing this so much? The reason why is this. If you get to the end of a market research study and the clients or collaborators are unhappy with the research results, the first thing that they'll do is question whether or not the correct people participated. I've had many instances in my 30-year career in market research where I had to deliver results that, frankly, my client wasn't thrilled to receive. I was delivering bad news. And the first thing they say is, well, maybe you didn't really talk to our target market because our target market would have this other attitude or this other behavior. So I really want to make sure in the kickoff meeting that I have that opportunity for a preemptive strike. I want everybody to verbally discuss the sampling plan so that I mitigate the risk of getting to the end of the project and people casting doubt on whether or not we had qualified people correctly. So it's a really important thing to confirm verbally, and it's something that's likely to mitigate some end-of-project risk if you are possibly going to be delivering any bad news or results that might be different than what the client was expecting or hoping for. The fifth item I always recommend on an agenda for a kickoff meeting is to have an agenda item so that you can save a few minutes to talk about success criteria. And this is where I will typically turn to my client and say, imagine it's the end of the project. How will you know the project was successful? And then I keep my mouth shut and hear what they have to say, right? So some people will immediately go into deliverables. Some people will talk about data, but more people will talk about the decisions they need to make. Oh, well, at the end of the project, I'm going to expect that I'm going to have the information I need to make decision X, or I'm going to have the information I need to help my colleague make decision Y or plan budget Z. But typically, it'll be about some sort of application. But if I can get them to articulate what their success criteria are at that kickoff meeting, that is going to really help me make sure that as I'm actually conducting the research and especially as I'm writing my research deliverables, that they will be very tightly aligned with what is going to make the client feel that the project was successful. And it is totally cool. And by the way, I've had so many clients tell me that I was the only researcher who ever asked them that question. So hopefully after today, there will be many more researchers asking this question. So it's really appropriate for you to ask your client or your colleagues at the end of this project, how will we know it's successful, right? Because the success isn't, oh, we said we were going to collect 500 completes on a B2B survey of insurance company IT managers. That's not the success criteria, right? So we really want to make sure we truly understand what's going to make the project successful. In many kickoff meeting agendas, we also want to save time for brainstorming. This will often come up in projects, whether you're planning qualitative and or quantitative based research methods. Very often there are situations where at the kickoff meeting, we want some time for brainstorming. So let's imagine we are planning a study related to understanding customer experience. And it's our first time really delving into it and really getting some original research from our target population about their customer journey. Well, I'm going to want to make sure that at that kickoff meeting, we have some time to do brainstorming. What do we think the journey is? Do we have any hypotheses about where they are getting derailed or where they're getting stuck? Do we have any hypotheses about what types of customers have great customer journey experiences and what types of customers have poor customer journey experiences? So there may be a lot of great opportunity for brainstorming. And I do this especially in studies where I know that I've got those subject matter experts in that room. Sometimes you'll be doing studies where the subject matter experts, they're not the researchers, but they have really valuable knowledge. And I want to make sure that I get that knowledge from them at that kickoff meeting so that I can really learn from them, really harness their brainpower, harness the power of their subject matter expertise so that I'm informed by that before I go any further. And certainly before I start getting into instrument design. So those are the six items that I would say I always like to see in an agenda for professionally run market research kickoff meeting. And there are other items that you may have too. But if you find that it's hard to keep up with these sort of basic best practices because you are running lean and you're juggling multiple deadlines, consider creating a simple template using these items so that you have something in your back pocket so that you don't miss this important opportunity to run an awesome kickoff meeting. By the way, if people would like a actual kickoff meeting agenda as a template or as an example, please add comments here. If I get enough interest, I'll be happy to share one. I can sort of take an existing one and make it a little bit more sanitized and share that with everybody. So let me know if you'd like me to create and share a kickoff meeting agenda template. I would be happy to do so if I get enough interest. So please do let me know. So that's it, folks. I hope you found this conversation useful. There's a longer article on this topic over at the Research Rockstar blog. So that's researchrockstar.com slash blog. And we have lots of awesome courses coming up over the next few weeks. We've got courses in data analysis, report writing, client management, data fluency, and more. So please check us out at training.researchrockstar.com. Thank you for joining the conversation. If you have any questions or comments, please do leave them here. If you're watching on YouTube, please do like and subscribe. If you're listening on iTunes, your reviews and subscribes are really important. 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