There has never been a greater need for businesses to collect quality feedback and insight from key stakeholders on which their business depends upon: customers, users, donors, volunteers, etc. Knowing how to create and execute a successful market research project, as well as how to interpret the findings and then knowing what to do with them, is an absolute must. This Lunch and Learn will provide you with the knowledge and tools to develop and run an analytics project that will help you solve problems and improve your business. -- About UCI Applied Innovation: UCI Applied Innovation is a dynamic, innovative central platform for the UCI campus, entrepreneurs, inventors, the business community and investors to collaborate and move UCI research from lab to market. About the Cove @ UCI: To accelerate collaboration by better connecting innovation partners in Orange County, UCI Applied Innovation created the Cove, a physical, state-of-the-art hub for entrepreneurs to gather and navigate the resources available both on and off campus. The Cove is headquarters for UCI Applied Innovation, as well as houses several ecosystem partners including incubators, accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists, mentors and legal experts. Follow us on social media: Facebook: @UCICove Twitter: @UCICove Instagram: @UCICove LinkedIn: @UCIAppliedInnovation For more information: cove@uci.edu http://innovation.uci.edu/

1. How To Run an Effective Research or Analytics
Project

2. Why Do “Research?”
Research/analytics is: Feedback from any of the constituencies that your product or service serves – your
consumers, your clients, your customers – whether B to B or B to C
Why do it?: Because sometimes it is the only way to answer the questions or solve the problems you have
More importantly, done well, it can provide you with the best solution
• Objective – not based on someone’s prejudice or selective memory
• Empirical – refers to evidence that is demonstrable
• Verifiable – it doesn’t depend on who is looking at the evidence. The evidence stands on its own
• Logical – the conclusions are connected to the evidence
• Unassailable – if you agree with the logic, you must agree with the conclusions, even if you don’t like them!
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 At its most basic, research is about making important
decisions based on what evidence tells you is true.
• Facts have a habit of sticking around, unlike “fake news.”
 And, it is not just collecting or analyzing data. It is about
using the data to help you think clearly about your
business

3. 4
This is What I am Talking About
We use an active scientific process
of arriving at the right answer
• Clear Objectives
• Well Thought Out Design & Methods
• Extracting and Collecting Good Data
• The Correct Analysis
• Conclusions, Predictions and Extrapolations

4. Research/Analytics: A Continuous Feedback Loop
Almost all the really important questions about constituencies fall into one of these categories:
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Product/Service Development
What to offer/sell, where, at what price?
Communicating Effectively
What are the right messages and how best to convey them?
Keeping Score
How did we do against our goals?
Recognizing Trends
Turning Them into Opportunities
Developing Strategy
Who to target and why?

5. Steps In An Effective Research/Analytics Project
Focus on the questions you want to answer
Come up with tentative answers based on what you know and what
you think is happening
Write a brief that majors in the questions and their possible answers
Get help with execution from someone experienced
Fast follow the research with an action plan
Remember what you learn from the research
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6. Come Up With Tentative Answers To Your
Questions
Most smart people who know their jobs have hunches about what the
answers are
• Articulating them is important
• Don’t just assume that researchers/analysts can read your mind
If you are trying to prove or disprove an answer, you are more likely to
get to the truth than if you are on a fishing expedition
• That you can build your action steps around.
Tentative answers act as a guide for what to ask and who to ask it of,
how to interrogate the data you have
• They focus you on the most important issues – confirming or finding alternative
answers to the key questions
Think your questions and answers through logically – you might decide
you already have the answers
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7. Check Your Working Assumptions!
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Case Study: “Exclusive Homes.”

8. 9
Case Study: Get Your Positioning Right

9. Steps In An Effective Research/Analytics Project
Focus on the questions you want to answer
Come up with tentative answers based on what you know and what
you think is happening
Write a brief that majors in the questions and their possible answers
Get help with execution from someone experienced
Fast follow the research with an action plan
Remember what you learn from the research
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10. Write a Detailed Research Brief
Brief should contain:
• Your questions
• What you think the answers might be and why
• Why the answers to these questions are important, or what decisions rest
on the right answers
• Timetable
• Budget – even if just an upper limit on what you would spend
Leave open – any methodological questions or analytical strategies,
unless you know that the solution can only be found by approaching
it in a certain way.
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11. Get Outside Help and Hold Them Accountable
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Analysts are also expected to develop the following skills during their time as analysts:
•Understand fundamentals of research design
Scientific vs. non-scientific explanation
Difference between experimental and non-experimental designs
oCommon types of research designs
oSampling and assignment of respondents to treatment conditions
Concept of experimental control
Theoretical and operational definitions
Internal and External Validity and threats thereto
Measurement
oLevels of measurement
oReliability and Validity
•Understand commonly used research designs in market research
Establishing Position – Target and Benefit Identification
Assessing marketing effectiveness
Developing new products
oConjoint analysis and other decomposition methods
Simulation designs – e.g. for forecasting new products
•Understand difference between qualitative and quantitative research and when to use each one
•Questionnaire writing
Be able to turn proposal language into questionnaire with the following attributes:
oGathers all the data necessary for answering a question or solving a problem
oEnables comparisons to existing data as available:
Eg. Other studies – such as Sandelman for QSR research, Census Bureau for demographics
oGathers data efficiently
oGathers data with validity – minimizes threats to internal or external validity
oWithin the time allotted in the cost estimate for the project
•Statistics
Basic sampling theory and practice - representativeness
Relationship between statistics:
oMeasurement
oResearch design
How to calculate descriptive statistics using either SPSS or S-Plus
oMean, median, mode, standard deviation, standard error
oCorrelation and other measures of association
oRobust methods
oConfidence intervals
oTime series measurement statistics:
Moving averages
Smoothing functions
Seasonal adjustment
How to calculate the following inferential statistics
oT-test (for nominal level and interval level data)
oChi-square test of independence
oOther univariate and bivariate statistical tests as appropriate for data collected.

12. Get Experienced Help
If going to outside consultants:
• Get proposals from 3 companies you think can do the work
• Evaluate the proposals. Good proposals will do the following:
• State clearly the problem to be solved or the question to be answered
• Present a research method for doing so
• Analytical plan – that links the research methods explicitly to the questions that are being answered
• Detailed timing, including steps in the process and responsibilities for those steps
• A budget estimate, including
• What is included and not included in the cost estimated
• Any assumptions or contingencies on which the budget is based
• Who is going to work on the project, what their roles will be, and the elements of their qualifications
and experience that are relevant to the project
If you are going to do it yourself, get some advice on design and
methods, and also on setting up the data for analysis.
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13. Develop an Action Plan Quickly
If the research/analytics does not lead to action, then probably better not to do it.
Specific action steps as a result of the analytics will often be clear
• Sometimes there is a long distance between research findings and action steps
Explicitly articulate the action steps
Do so quickly while the knowledge is still fresh
• Knowledge decays quickly
• The impetus for implementation wanes quickly too
• Sometimes implementation takes a long time and people forget why they are doing things.
Use the research firm to help you develop action steps
• They might be able to help you with implications, but they will surely be able to help guide
you about what not to do
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14. Remember What You Learn From the Research
Businesses are notoriously bad at institutional memory
Research/analytics can often be used for purposes other than
which it was intended.
• But, it can’t if no one remembers what it was!
Good business thinking builds on the knowledge that already exists
• Sometimes you already have the answers if you know what you already
have and do a bit of thinking
Make sure that what you learn is widely known.
Institutionalize the learning in important documents – annual
reviews, situation analyses, future plans
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15. In Sum
Research/analytics can be the best tool you have for solving difficult problems, if
you approach it correctly
• It can save you money rather than cost you
• And, it some cases, it can help you make more money than you thought!
• It can certainly help you think better.
Focus on the things that you can do well and hire help on the things you can’t
• Articulating what the key questions are
• And, what you think the answers might be
Put a lot of effort into translating findings into action
• Do it as soon as the project is finished
• Do whatever you can to make sure your organization does not forget what you have
done.
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