Quando l'analista di MCI genera intuizioni
Segnaliamo un articolo pubblicato su LinkedIn da Craig Fleisher, nostro "collega" nell'ambito della MCI in ambito accademico e internazionale. Secondo l'autore, l'obiettivo di un'analista di Market & Competitive Intelligence è generare "insight", ovvero intuizioni e nuovi punti di vista sull’ambiente competitivo e di mercato. Impresa ardua nella vita di un'analista!
Alla maggior parte di voi sarà capitato di comunicare i risultati di un'analisi e di ricevere alcune di queste risposte dai vostri clienti:
"Non c'è niente di nuovo in ciò che dici"
"E allora? Già lo sapevo!"
"Perchè non l'ho visto/pensato prima?"
"Davvero? Come fa a essere così?"
"Oh...ho sempre voluto saperlo!"
Come capire se è stato individuato un vero "insight"? Quali sono le sue caratteristiche?
(...) for a deliverable to truly be an insight, it must be characterized by at least the following six qualities. To the extent it fails any one or more of these, it likely falls short of true “insight” status:
- Insights are rare. They cannot be conventional in nature or broadly representative of the population of ideas around the targeted outcome. It must pass both the “what?” and “so what?” tests, and better still, the "now what?" one. Many analysts may only generate one or two insights for their organizations during their careers. This can still lead them to be viewed as significant contributors if the ones made were valuable enough to properly compensate the organization for the investment they made in their analysts and analysis processes.
- Insights are asymmetric. (...) If the result is something that others know, and offers no new, uniquely perceived context or data, then it is not an insight, or at least not likely to be a valuable insight. Insights nearly always surface previously unearthed assumptions, challenge the status quo, and topple existing conventions. Asymmetry means that insights are unearthed when your analysts and organization ask questions that no one else is asking. (...)
- Insights are relational and unequal. A powerful insight to one individual in an organization might be commonplace knowledge to another. For a deliverable to really be an insight, it must motivate deep understanding and action for those individuals or groups who have the decision-making authority, resources, leadership, plans, and/or motivation to solve a vexing problem or exploit a great window of opportunity. Lastly to this point, not all insights are of equal importance. The best insights offer a new meaning and a clear, unequivocal sense of making a significant difference for both the organization and its stakeholders.
- Insights are combinatorial. (...) it is exceedingly rare that an analyst will fortuitously find a “needle (the insight) in a haystack (the context)." Today’s reality demonstrates that there are too few needles and too many haystacks (think “big data” firehoses digitally created by mobile devices) to pore through; additionally, most people look for those elusive needles in similar haystacks and/or use the same analytical, development, discovery, or innovation processes, anyway. (...) The analysts who truly uncover the insights combine a unique and different vision of the what the needles look like, scrutinize diverse haystacks, and/or use unusual or creative processes – involving orchestrated admixtures of both the human mind and technology - to find them.
- Insights are ephemeral. The raw materials, such as needs, feelings, data, attitudes, even recent behavior that an analyst shapes and combines to create an insight are likely, at a minimum, to be dynamic. A valid insight is applied to a specific relational and temporal context, and those contexts may be fleeting in and of themselves. As such, upon its tentative discovery, an insight should be challenged both internally by other open-minded analysts as well as tested in the so-called ‘real-world’ of markets, competition and customers. Only when tested against these actors and phenomena over time will the true power of an insight be discerned.
- Insights are clearly communicated and applied to important contexts (i.e., organizational challenges and opportunities). The best insights, though often "secretive" - at least internally at first, will closely connect with, illuminate and inspire stakeholders in obvious ways that the organization “gets” or truly understands the stakeholder at a deeper emotional, logical and/or even a spiritual level. The best insights pass the “now what?” test; consequently, they create and accelerate growth by connecting and creating more supportive stakeholders in the process of their experiencing and interacting with the insight.
Fonte: C. Fleisher, LinkedIn
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