Trends in insights and data include: 1) Data is now ubiquitous, accessible in real-time from many sources. 2) Social media allows new ways for people to negotiate culture and share opinions. 3) Consumers make decisions through complex influences from both online and offline sources. Traditional research methods are struggling to keep up with these changes. New approaches are needed to gather insights from diverse online and real-world communities.

1. once upon a time, many many years ago ......

2. the future of insights
dina mehta | convo.org
april 03, 2012

3. An Indian model displays a chip placed on a 'bindi' on her forehead during a
news conference by 'Mindtree Consulting' in Bangalore December 14, 2005
trend 1/7:
data is everywhere
big, cheap, accessible, mobile, real-time
data flows
“We never, ever in the history of mankind
have had access to so much information
so quickly and so easily” ...... Vint Cerf

4. trend 2/7:
social media allows
people to negotiate
culture & context
differently

5. traditional insight-generating purchase panels are not
equipped to handle the complexity of influence,
community and real-time in purchase behaviour
trend 3/7:
duality in
consumer
negotiations
and decisions

6. trend 4/7:
media consumption
convergence
current measurement systems do not look
at the “whole”. How long will these
standalone systems last?

8. trend 5/7:
expert?
redefining target group or influencer?
audience customer?
early adopter?

9. trend 6/7:
community at your
fingertips - real time
the power of a single tweet can be a very
real source of insight
they’re talking .... are you listening?

10. trend 7/7:
from 1-to-many
to many-to-many
to many-to-1

11. “The future is not some place
we are going to, but one we are
creating. Paths are not to be
so ... from where will found, but made, and the
activity of making them,
GREAT IDEAS come? changes both the maker and the
destination.”
John Schaar, Futurist

12. our practice morphs we need to put the ‘byte’ into the offline
we’re definitely not out of business! and the ‘human’ back into the online

14. crowdsourcing insights
and solutions from
community
image:
http://www.businessesgrow.com

16. subjects and customers
are now becoming
researchers
how do you bring these insights to you?
new egs. Gigwalk, Pinterest

17. Mobile App - examples

18. Blographies - an example
http://www.convo.org/immerse/wikimobile/

19. the future of insights
approach: grounded or empirical, much
more individual yet very networked and
social, co-creation
practice: participative, real-time, multi-
layered systems, multiple touchpoints
people: multi faceted people - an MBA or a
social science degree no more a passport
tools: offline and online - convergence

20. DIY research
“I know that you believe you understand what you think
I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard
and what you read is not what I meant.”
Robert McCloskey, American author and illustrator of
children’s books

21. Invisible editing of the web
“Facebook was looking
at which links I clicked
on, and it was noticing
that I was clicking
more on my liberal
friends’ links than on
my conservative
friends’ links. And
without consulting me
about it, it had edited
them out. They
disappeared.”

22. Privacy? Protection? Ethics?
who’s
watching?
who
owns
me?

23. Thanks for listening :)
Dina Mehta
@dina
dina@convo.org
April 03, 2012