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B.U.I.L.D.®: Learn – An under-utilised step for progression

B.U.I.L.D.® LEARN

In our last article, Implement, Lara and I explored how to move from insight to action by embedding new mindsets and behaviours into everyday practices and the development of successful customer value propositions.   But behaviour change, and maintaining a positive, growth mindset, is not a one-off exercise.
Without continued learning, even the most successful initiatives can lose momentum. Habits fade. Motivation dips. Results plateau.

That’s why the Learn stage of the B.U.I.L.D.® framework is so important.
It’s not a full stop. It’s a specific and deliberate pause to take stock and further build on what’s already in motion.

Why Learn Matters

Many organisations launch change programmes with energy and optimism, but sometimes, a few months later, we are told again and again that they find themselves wondering: “Why aren’t we seeing the impact we expected?”
And then, we identify it’s because they didn’t take enough time to stand back to LEARN and take a measured view, really asking

  • What is, and isn’t, working?
  • What needs to change?
  • Where could we go from here?

Learning isn’t just about reflection. It’s about realignment. It helps create the clarity and awareness needed to make smart, timely decisions, moving from activity to genuine, additive, progress.

What Learning Looks Like in Practice

At this point in B.U.I.L.D.®, we work with individuals and teams to review progress, surface insights, and adjust strategies. This might include:

  • Progress Tracking
    One client began with a Positive Intelligence (PQ) score of 52, meaning she responded positively about half the time. It was a coin toss whether a difficult email or meeting would trigger self-doubt or calm resilience. Through weekly micro-practices that helped rewire her thinking, she increased her score to 75, the recognised tipping point for sustained wellbeing and performance. She became the steady voice in meetings, and a leader who supported growth in others too. She could feel the difference her efforts had made, but quantifying her progress helped her celebrate her growth and continue to apply what she had learned.
  • Regular Reviews and Reports We helped one team formalise a rhythm of regular commercial check-ins and individual reflection sessions to focus on learning and growth. By reviewing progress with direct questions like:

On the commercial side

  • How has our understanding of our customers and prospects improved?
  • Are we still certain about our proof points? And our key North Star?
  • How are we doing on the KPIs in our marketing funnel?
  • What are our current challenges and next immediate actions?

On the individual side

  • How do you feel your operating rhythm, and that of the team, has been?
  • Have you moved from good intentions to regular positive small steps each week?
  • Are you now spending more time on high impact areas?

…these foster a culture of purposeful reflection and shift a team’s focus from activity to impact, supporting performance without compromising wellbeing.

  • Employee Engagement
    The marketing and sales teams in a lead country for one client were working in silos, mainly as the marketing team focussed on multi-country global campaigns and the sales team mainly on home country tactical activations. When the company decided to pivot to a new strategic direction, the leaders of each team recognised the potential benefits of closer collaboration, to learn from each other. To identify the key tasks ahead, we moderated a 2hr interactive online workshop with 4 targeted questions around wishes, reasons why customers would want the new services, information needed for decisions emerging and what success would look like next year. A simple exercise, sparking improved communication and clear goals.

“We found a great set of actions to progress from listening and learning from everyone. This workshop helped us set a clear course and gave us the confidence to move forward together”,

For Individuals: Insight for Intentional Growth

Learning isn’t just about actions, metrics and targets, it’s also about self-awareness. We help individuals reflect on:

  • How do I respond to pressure now?
  • What patterns have shifted?
  • What kind of leader am I becoming?

Using tools like PQ scores, 360 feedback, and self-reflection exercises, clients uncover what’s working and where to focus next.

A typical feedback:
“I went from feeling completely stuck and overwhelmed to discovering both an inner resolve and the value of being more open to the ideas and views of others. It wasn’t just about changing my, or our, circumstances overnight, but about changing how I showed up every day and experiencing how the reflection process had reduced conflict between colleagues.”

For Teams: Making Success Repeatable

The Learn stage helps teams pause, reflect, and understand what’s really happening so they can make informed adjustments.

We support this by:
✔ Listening actively with surveys and engagement tools to capture shifting sentiment
✔ Reviewing trends through structured reflections and quarterly reports
✔ Spotting what’s working and identifying issues early, before they escalate
✔  Tracking progress through updated assessments and revisiting initial goals

As one team put it:
 “We used to just react to everything. Now we reflect first, then respond with purpose.”

What Comes Next?

Once learning becomes part of the rhythm, the way forward becomes clearer. That’s when we move into Develop: sustaining progress, scaling success, and building for the long term.

📩 Ready to make space to learn from your recent progress?
Download our B.U.I.L.D. ® info pack or book a call here

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B.U.I.L.D.®: Implement – Turning Insight into Action

Sourced from Canva

In our last article, Upskill, we looked at how individuals and teams can develop the mental and emotional capacity for meaningful change. Strengthening resilience, collaboration, and confidence creates the conditions for growth, but it still leaves one big question: How do you make it stick?

That’s where the next stage of the B.U.I.L.D.® framework comes in: Implement.

Why implement matters

Many organisations invest time and money in training and strategy, only to find that when it comes to putting new ways of thinking into practice, people default to old habits. Busy schedules take over, confidence wavers, and positive intentions slowly get sidelined.

It’s not about a lack of intelligence or ambition. It’s about the lack of structure and support to help people consistently follow through.

The Implement phase of B.U.I.L.D.® exists to bridge that gap. It helps individuals and teams move from ideas and insight to clear actions that align with their goals and values.

This is where change becomes part of the everyday.

What implementation looks like in practice

In this stage of B.U.I.L.D.®, we work with clients to put mindset into motion. This includes a range of coaching, facilitation and planning tools designed to create alignment, accountability and meaningful progress.

There are a number of ways we can help support implementation:

🧭 Vision Crystallisation Sessions Clarifying what success looks like for an individual, team or organisation. These sessions help ensure everyone is working towards the same goal, with shared language and purpose.

🗂 Action Planning Workshops Bringing people together to translate strategy into steps. We break down big ambitions into manageable, visible actions that can be tracked and reviewed.

🔄 Change Management Support Providing tools and coaching to help people lead themselves and others through change with confidence and care.

📆 Productivity Planning Helping individuals and teams rethink how they spend their time and energy. The aim is to reduce friction and create more space for work that matters.

🧠 Leadership Coaching and Development Ensuring new mindsets and behaviours are not a one-off, but become embedded in how leaders operate.

Workshops in action: How implementation comes to life

💡 The 10% Positive Approach – Idea Box Workshop In this session, team members are encouraged to share ideas without pressure for perfection. Instead of critiquing, the group looks for the 10% of value in every suggestion, to build upon.

“One of our strongest campaign ideas came from something that started out as a throwaway comment. Our old culture would have dismissed it, but this time we stayed curious and built on it.”

🛍️ Retail Safari – Out ‘n’ About Rather than sitting in a meeting room, we took a client team out in a customer immersion exercise to see how their product was actually being experienced in the market.

“We saw things we’d never considered: packaging issues, price confusion, how it sat next to competitors. It completely changed our priorities for the next quarter.”

Implementation doesn’t always start with a plan. Sometimes it starts with seeing things differently.

🎭 Brand Obituary Exercise In another session, a senior team was invited to write the obituary for their own brand, imagining why, when, where, and what had caused it to fail.

“It felt uncomfortable, but incredibly clarifying. It showed us where we were avoiding key decisions. When Jeff asked us to then flip and write the obituary for our competitor, the shift in energy and perspective gave us the courage to act.”

Facing what’s uncomfortable often unlocks what’s possible.

Implementation at a Human Level

For Individuals: We help leaders bring their learning into day-to-day actions. That might be how they manage their priorities, make decisions, or hold conversations.

“Before, I had good intentions, but no follow-through. I was prevaricating. Now I know exactly what small steps I’m taking each week – and I’m actually doing them.”

For Teams: We help teams build consistency, accountability and momentum, moving from idea-sharing to coordinated action.

“Our meetings used to end with lots of nodding and no action. Now, as a minimum we end with three clear tasks and an owner for each.”

What Comes Next?

Once new behaviours are in place and showing results, the next phase is Learn, where we review progress, make adjustments, and ensure development continues.

Would you like to explore how Implement could support your team, function or career?

Download our B.U.I.L.D. ® info pack or book a call here

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B.U.I.L.D.®: Upskill – Strengthen the Mindset Muscles That Drive Sustainable Success

In our last article, Baseline, we explored how to uncover the invisible barriers that hold individuals and teams back, from self-sabotage and outdated beliefs to systemic blockers that quietly drain performance and wellbeing.

Once you know what is getting in the way, the next step is clear: build the capacity to move beyond it. This is where Upskill comes in.

Why Upskill Matters

In today’s complex working environment, where AI disruption, hybrid teams, a challenging business environment and tougher expectations combine, it is not just technical skills that determine success.

What matters just as much is the ability to stay clear-headed, confident, and creative in high-pressure moments. But without the mental muscles to adapt, collaborate and lead through uncertainty, change doesn’t stick.

You cannot delegate self-awareness. You can’t innovate or easily be creative if your saboteurs restrict you from taking positive steps. And you certainly cannot collaborate effectively if your team is stuck in defence mode, afraid to fail, quick to blame, slow to trust and unable to work through these fears and pressures to find positive solutions.

That is why we focus on teaching these skills as part of the Upskill stage in our B.U.I.L.D.® framework.

How we help you and your teams to Upskill

In this stage of B.U.I.L.D.® we use the Positive Intelligence (PQ) approach. This is a science-backed method that helps individuals and teams shift from reactivity and self-sabotage to greater clarity, resilience, and creativity.

Individual participants build the mental muscles to:

  • Interrupt unhelpful habits such as perfectionism, overworking, or people-pleasing
  • Respond to challenges with empathy, curiosity, and confidence
  • Show up consistently with more calm, clarity and courage

Teams learn to

  • Collaborate more effectively and creatively
  • Hold one another accountable for standards / actions
  • Work together under a unifying team purpose and vision
  • Engage in healthy conflict resulting in win-win resolutions

What Does Upskilling Look Like in Practice?

There are a number of ways we can support you or your team in the Upskill stage

The full PQ training programme
Runs over six weeks via a simple app, with short daily practices, weekly reflection, and coaching support. Taking just 15 minutes of activity per day and supported by weekly 1:1 or group sessions with Lara, a certified PQ Coach

Leadership Coaching and Development
 Personalised coaching to build self-awareness, shift mindset, and strengthen leadership impact – either 1:1 or for Teams

Mindset Talks and Workshops
 For larger teams we can offer interactive talks and workshops to generate fresh thinking, motivate teams, and create lasting mindset shifts

For Individuals: Building Confidence and Self-Mastery

“Before this, I thought I had to be in control all the time. But I realised that urgency and control were my saboteurs—and they were exhausting me and my team.”

This senior leader learned to recognise these patterns, pause, and respond differently. The result was stronger team relationships, more balanced decision-making, and increased energy for strategic priorities.

For Teams: Breaking Through Cultural Stagnation

An insights agency team was experiencing poor collaboration following years of structural change. Saboteurs were fuelling negative behaviours – one team member was micromanaging everything as a result of their ‘Controller’ saboteur – which activated another team members ‘Pleaser’ saboteur that said “yes” to every little change or request posed. Neither was happy and in fact they often were both dismayed by the others requests and way of working – it was having a detrimental impact on the rest of the team….

Through the introduction of shared language and PQ mindset tools, the team began to rebuild psychological safety and creative flow. Conversations became more open, feedback more honest, and ideas more frequent and braver. The result was not only improved client delivery, but greater engagement and cohesion.

What Comes Next?

Once individuals and teams strengthen their mindset muscles, we move to Implement—the next stage of the B.U.I.L.D.® framework. This is where learning becomes embedded in daily routines, and insights translate into sustainable action.

Would you like to explore how Upskill could support your team, function or career?

Download our B.U.I.L.D. ® info pack or book a call here

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B.U.I.L.D.®: Baseline: The power of a clear Baseline: Identifying what you truly need to change

In our previous article, last month, we introduced the B.U.I.L.D.® framework— our structured approach to integrating mindset and action for meaningful transformation. The first step in the framework, Baseline, ensures that individuals, teams, and organisations take a step back to gain clarity, before making strategic shifts.

This is never more relevant than at times of economic malaise and contextual step changes such as with the recent tariffs on goods produced outside the US.

Avoid a common trap: jumping to solutions without understanding the root cause.

Whether it’s declining team performance, slow decision-making, or a lack of confidence in stepping up, leaders and professionals alike often assume they know the issue – and the solution – and rush to fix it.

But what if the real challenge isn’t what it seems?  What if hidden factors within yourself, your team, or your organisation are the real barriers to success?

Just as researchers wouldn’t measure the success of an ad campaign without a Baseline, to compare to, organisational, leadership and career growth require the same foundational clarity. Without fully understanding where you are today, any actions you take, may be misdirected, leading to wasted effort and ineffective strategies.

Most leaders and professionals’ default to tangible performance indicators—like project completion rates or revenue growth—but overlook the intangibles that drive long-term success:

✔️The presence of self-sabotaging behaviours (both personal and cultural)
✔️How individuals and teams operate under pressure
✔️Levels of positive collaboration

These unseen forces impact everything from decision-making to innovation.

A leader might, internally, blame their team’s hesitation or lack of initiative, when in reality, their own micro-management has conditioned people to wait for approval.

An individual might assume they have a skills gap when exploring a career shift, when in fact, it’s a mindset shift that’s needed.

If you measure the wrong things, you get the wrong results

The Baseline phase of B.U.I.L.D. ® helps you avoid this, by moving beyond surface-level observations to uncover deep insights that shape an effective strategy. Whether working with individual leaders, teams, or entire organisations, we gather insights to identify strengths, challenges, and opportunities, setting the stage for impactful development.

For Individuals

✔️ Personal Assessments: Identify self-sabotaging tendencies and how they impact decision-making, confidence, and career progression. An 8-week enhancement of your positive intelligence
✔️ Individual Reflection Exercises: Pinpoint personal patterns, mindset shifts, and areas for professional growth.
✔️ Strengths & Blind Spot Analysis: Gain clarity on what’s helping or hindering your progress.
✔️ Goal Setting & Career Alignment: Define what success really means for you to create a foundation for intentional growth.

For Teams & Organisations

✔️ Team & Leadership Assessments: Identify self-sabotaging behaviours that impact collaboration, team trust, and performance.
✔️ Leadership Interviews & Employee Surveys: Gather candid feedback on team dynamics, communication, and leadership effectiveness.
✔️ Cultural & Behavioural Analysis: Understand how workplace norms, habits, and unspoken rules influence engagement and innovation.
✔️ Industry Benchmarking & Desk Research: Compare your organization’s leadership and team effectiveness to best practices.
Without this foundation, leaders risk making surface-level changes that fail to address the deeper issues holding individuals, teams, and businesses back.

What’s Next?
Establishing a Baseline is the first vital step of B.U.I.L.D.® —once we uncover the real dynamics at play, the next stage is about equipping leaders and teams with the skills to shift behaviours and mindsets.

Next article: UPSKILL: Building the mindset & capabilities for sustainable growth.

Want to assess your own or your team’s Baseline? Download our B.U.I.L.D.® info pack here:  B.U.I.L.D.© FRAMEWORK Info Pack or drop a note to Lara or me to have a chat: insights@insight-engineers.co.uk

Read our previous article “Creating a growth mindset with the BUILD framework“

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Walking a Growth Mindset path with the B.U.I.L.D.®Framework

Helping practitioners and users of Insight and Market Research, coach themselves and their company. In our last article, Walking the Growth Mindset Path, we introduced the idea that essential shifts in mindset are necessary to help individuals and teams embrace change, unlock potential, and sustain high performance.

But mindset alone isn’t enough—we need clear, actionable steps to transform insight into tangible outcomes. That’s where the B.U.I.L.D.® Framework comes in.

@Lara Meyer and I have developed B.U.I.L.D.® as a structured approach to creating meaningful, lasting change. It’s designed to surface areas of focus (including blind spots) and then bridge the gap between understanding growth mindset principles and embedding them into everyday behaviours and business strategies. By working through these five stages, individuals, teams, and organisations can develop the resilience, adaptability, and performance needed to thrive in an evolving world.

The B.U.I.L.D.® Framework

  • Baseline – Understanding where you are today.
  • Upskill – Equipping your people with the right mindset and tools.
  • Implement – Turning insights into action.
  • Learn – Measuring progress and refining the approach.
  • Develop – Embedding growth for long-term success.

BASELINE: Understanding where you are today

We start by assessing your current culture—what’s working, what’s not, and where the opportunities lie.

This involves deep listening and analysis, including depth interviews, team workshops, confidential employee surveys, and relevant desk research. By identifying challenges, pain points, and aspirations, we create a clear starting point for growth.

UPSKILL: Equipping your people with the right tools

Mindset shifts require skill-building, and it’s not a given that your teams have the tools they need, in order to drive growth.

We provide targeted training on mental fitness, resilience, and leadership, helping individuals and teams develop the habits that sustain growth. This includes time-based coaching support and PQ Mental Fitness Training, delivered either one-to-one or in team-based cohorts over six weeks. These sessions create the foundation for sustainable change.

IMPLEMENT: Turning insights into action

The best strategies are those that get put into practice. We guide organisations in applying their insights to strategy and day-to-day operations.

This includes Leadership Team Vision Crystallisation Sessions to define purpose and direction, as well as Action Planning Workshops to create structured roadmaps for execution. These practical steps ensure that mindset shifts translate into meaningful action.

LEARN: Measuring progress and refining the approach

What gets measured gets managed. What we mean by this is that sustainable growth requires regular check-ins and reflection.

We help teams track progress and measure impact through structured evaluation processes, including interim surveys and quarterly management reviews. This step ensures accountability and allows for agile adjustments based on real-time feedback, reinforcing momentum and focus.

DEVELOP: Embedding growth for long-term success

True transformation isn’t a one-time event—it’s an ongoing process.

In this final stage, we refine propositions, strategies and support long-term development. This includes one-to-one coaching on key challenges (such as handling conflict, overcoming sales objections, or ensuring ethical compliance), strategic Customer Value Proposition (CVP) workshops, and input into talent recruitment to build a strong, future-ready workforce.

Why B.U.I.L.D.®?

We developed the B.U.I.L.D.® framework because it reflects the work we do—helping individuals, teams and organisations construct a solid foundation for growth. Unlike one-off training sessions, our approach creates a continuous cycle of learning, applying, and refining. Whether you’re leading a team, driving organisational change, or simply looking to enhance your own mindset and performance, B.U.I.L.D.® provides a structured yet flexible path to meaningful growth.

Ready to B.U.I.L.D.® a growth culture in your team or company?

Let’s connect. We’ll share our insights, make some recommendations and outline our tailored approach for you to rapidly improve performance, relationships and wellbeing to help your organisation thrive.

You can email us both – and we’ll get right back to you to set up a time to chat

Lara – lara@lara-meyer.com

Jeff – jeff.deighton@insight-engineers.com

Download more information here

 

What’s next? The next 5 articles will share more detail on each of the 5 steps in the B.U.I.L.D © framework: Baseline, Upskill, Implement, Learn, Develop

Read our previous article “Walking the Growth Mindset Path“

 

 

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Walking the Growth Mindset path: a new partnership for transformation

As part of a recent webinar to ICG members, Lara Meyer shared a story that, until then, she hadn’t been brave enough to tell.  It was about how she moved to Bahrain with her husband and how her overly optimistic “just get a job” plan quickly crumbled in the face of reality. Carrying on in her own words …

… at the time, I was caught between feeling like a failure, and realising that, in fact, this was a turning point for growth.  Rather than panic, I leaned into a growth mindset.

This was something I had been practicing for years, ever since I came across the concept at Microsoft.  At that point, I stopped focusing on my distant end goal and started focusing on daily progress, even if that meant taking small, uncertain steps. The journey of this self-discovery became transformative, and eventually, it led me to find my new path, in coaching and facilitating personal and company transformation.

But the real turning point came when I shared this personal story during the webinar to the ICG … as I shared my story and my insights, I could tell it was striking a chord with those attending from the comments, questions and general engagement with what I was sharing. But the most powerful thing was what happened after the webinar was over.

A fellow ICG member, Jeff Deighton, reached out to me directly. He shared that my story had resonated with him deeply, reminding him of his own journey of transition and growth at various points in his career, and how with the right mindset – achieving amazing things is truly possible, even if you’re away from your homeland and out of your comfort zone.

But what made Jeff’s message stand out was his genuine desire to help me.  He didn’t just say, “Great story!”. He went a step further.

Jeff offered me some observations and thoughts that built on my webinar, identifying some areas where he saw potential for my business to build upon the thinking and foundations I had shared to the audience.

Over the past few weeks, his kind and wise input has been bringing clarity, focus and definitely challenge!

Like any great colleague, Jeff’s style isn’t about telling me what to do; it was about helping me think differently, take smarter risks, and create better strategies to achieve long-term success in easy to manage small steps and positive thinking. The heart of my own talk.

What was once a moment of vulnerability for me, became a door to collaboration and partnership that we both immediately knew we wanted to walk through together.

We see how we can make a real impact on individuals, teams and business in the insights industry from helping leaders enable their organisation to take the right steps to thrive through challenges and industry change

This experience has made L.M.I even more passionate about the importance of mentorship and collaboration. None of us have to figure it all out alone—and with the right mindset, the right people, and the right approach, organisations can equip their teams to thrive.

So, I’m thrilled to announce this new partnership between L.M.I. and insight engineers.

Jeff and I are walking this path together, bringing our combined experience to leaders and teams who want to bring mindset and action together for tangible results seen in business performance, staff well-being, and team collaboration.

  • My role is to equip you and your teams with the tools to establish (and maintain) a growth mindset, through coaching, workshops and training.
  • Jeff ‘s role is to help you track progress and to harness that new mindset to generate ideas that drive real, tangible, business growth

Ready to bring a growth mindset culture to your team? Then let’s connect.

If our story has resonated with you personally, or feels like it could help your organisation let’s have a short chat to identify a couple of concrete progressions

We’ll share our insights, make some recommendations and outline our tailored approach for you to rapidly improve performance, relationships and wellbeing, to help your organisation thrive.

You can email us both – and we’ll get right back to you to set up a time to chat

Lara: lara@lara-meyer.com

Jeff: jeff.deighton@insight-engineers.com

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Looking forward to 2025 – wishing you a happy, healthy and successful Year

Happy New Year 2025

Insight Engineers would like to thank all our clients, partners and friends for their custom and support throughout a busy 2024.  We look forward to starting the new year of 2025 together with you and wish everyone a healthy, productive and successful year.

Insight Engineers bedankt sich bei allen unseren Kunden, Partnern und Freunden für ihr Engagement und ihre Unterstützung in einem arbeitsreichen Jahr 2024.
Wir freuen uns darauf, gemeinsam mit Ihnen ins neue Jahr 2025 zu starten und wünschen allen ein gesundes, produktives und erfolgreiches Jahr.

Great Image courtesy of Mohammed Hassan on Pixabay: Image 9073116

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Wishing Everyone a Happy, Healthy and Successful 2024

Insight Engineers would like to thank all our clients, partners and friends for their custom and support throughout a busy 2023.  We wish everyone a happy and healthy 2024.

Insight Engineers bedankt sich bei allen unseren Kunden, Partnern und Freunden für ihr Engagement und ihre Unterstützung in einem arbeitsreichen Jahr 2023.
Wir wünschen allen ein glückliches und gesundes Jahr 2024.

Great Image by Rochak Shukla on Freepik: https://www.freepik.com/author/rochakshukla

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Wishing everyone a healthy and successful 2023

New Years Day with Growth

Insight Engineers would like to thank all our clients, partners and friends for their custom and support throughout a busy 2022.  We wish everyone a happy and healthy 2023.

Insight Engineers bedankt sich bei allen unseren Kunden, Partnern und Freunden für ihr Engagement und ihre Unterstützung in einem arbeitsreichen Jahr 2022. Wir wünschen allen ein glückliches und gesundes Jahr 2023.

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Merry Christmas 2021 and Happy New Year 2022

Insight Engineers would like to thank all our clients, partners and friends for their custom and support throughout a busy 2021.  We wish everyone a happy and relaxing festive break and a happy and healthy 2022.

Insight Engineers bedankt sich bei allen unseren Kunden, Partnern und Freunden für ihr Engagement und ihre Unterstützung in einem arbeitsreichen Jahr 2021. Wir wünschen allen eine fröhliche und erholsame Festpause und ein glückliches und gesundes Jahr 2022.

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Problem Definition: never more important to get it right

A leap of faith or a planned jump?

Introduction
Is the man in this opening image going to land safely? Did he prepare properly and make an informed decision to jump in this failing light after checking the hazard out fully, or did he just go ahead in a rush at that time, as it seemed the only choice?
Like the man in the opening image is about to, corporate initiatives can fall short without proper preparation and information; and as a result, incur cost and time to rectify. Which could have been better spent on meeting/realising objectives. One wonders how the man in this image felt when the better option of a nearby footbridge was visible in the morning light.

The last 2-3 years have already seen customer behaviour becoming more fragmented and Covid-19 has added another layer of complexity into business decisions. Whether you are working client or agency-side, commercial success ultimately requires everyone to find mutual ground and to make the best decisions possible. But how can you achieve this?

This short post shares our observations and experiences over the last 2 decades about successful problem-definition and how insight engineers can help you to harmonise your commercial objectives to achieve in-market success.
There is a link to download a full PDF of this paper below.

  1. Why Do Problems Need Definition?

Before starting to work immediately on the apparent solution, most successful organisations have learnt to stand back first and invest time and effort to improve their understanding of their problem and associated objectives. As Einstein once said, “A well-defined problem is 90% solved”. But, do you sometimes find you are on a completely different wavelength to the other people you work with? Agreeing on a clear problem definition with colleagues can be extremely challenging – different people, in different disciplines and positions of responsibility, with different motivations and pain-points, will often focus their thinking on disparate solutions.

Research evidence helps everyone get on the same wavelength, neutrally. Carefully curated insights can create a strong narrative on the feelings and inclinations of your target market in management level discussions, bringing stakeholders together within a common language. And especially when this information & insights are part of a structured problem definition process. This framework helps clients to avoid relying on the past, gut feel & intuition or the strongest opinion, and helps plot the best course of action, especially in times of business pressures.

When the world has just fundamentally changed, it is logical that a fresh attitude and new input is needed to make decisions for solutions in the post Covid-19 situation. The importance of harmonising your objectives and defining your problem with the right questions has never been more important to get right.

  1. What Questions Should You Be Asking on the Client-Side?

A good client-side project manager will constantly look to improve their understanding of a problem and more importantly which decisions need to be made and what information is needed to assist in these decisions. The inputs that start this necessary comprehension stage relate to the familiar 5Ws – Who, What, Where, When and Why. Here are the initial 10 questions, logically ordered, that our clients start asking of themselves: –

You can download these 10 questions and the rest of the full article <here>

Wrap up
Whether you are client-side or working at another agency, the value of a systematic approach to defining your problem and the routes ahead, will help you make the best customer-centric decisions in alignment with the end objectives. Ultimately, success then requires the right core team working towards the shared vision and the identified success factors to drive sales. And to revisit the 5Ws as you progress; changing your plans if conditions change.

insight engineers are used to being part of such initiatives for future pipeline and sales. We work regularly, internationally, on understanding customer behaviour and response to concepts, ideas and propositions. Your tricky B2B and B2C questions are our calls to action. Beyond quality, speed and value, our role is to be a strong partner in the team, helping you to deliver on your objectives. We find a problem definition process, such as the one in this paper, always enhances the chances of success. Working well together, a project team will normally ask the right questions and turn resulting information into profitable wisdom. Wouldn’t it be great to be in such a team in the future saying “Without us, X would not have existed”?

To people who have not worked with us before, let’s talk. Nobody loses from opening a dialogue.

Jeff Deighton
(e) jeff.deighton@insight-engineers.com
(ddi) +44 1753 916 908

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COVID-19 pandemic

To everyone in these unprecedented times, a short message of understanding to you & your loved ones, colleagues and anyone who has sadly lost someone near & dear.
A big shout out to all the front line people working hard in unnerving situations to keep people fed, cared for, and not isolated – may you continue to do this for us all and stay safe yourself.

Remote working has been imposed on everyone, it can he hard to adjust to.  I founded insight engineers as a virtual international network 17 years ago and we are proud to have conducted on-line Quant and both F2F & VOIP Qualitative work in over 40 countries in this time, using what has now become best workforce planning – split team working. We are used to project managing and delivering complex B2B and B2C projects in hard to reach target groups across countries, comfortable in using technology, tight procedures and clear communication to make all happen smoothly.

In the last month we have continued to migrate F2F Qualitative in Europe to on-line interviewing and found some previously hard-to-reach target groups willing to talk at short notice on VOIP channels during the day, evening and even weekends.

Businesses are emerging from the shock of recent weeks and our clients and their referrals are embracing a much stronger “can-do” attitude. We are working hard to help inform short-term tactical response to the effects of Covid-19 and longer-term strategic guidance on future purchasing mentalities. Our clients are switched on people, and those not on furlough, are already striving hard to plan how to emerge from these troubles with a clear view on how to market to target audiences; and especially how to sell in the second half of this year to recover losses this quarter.

We can support you similarly with Quality, Speed and Value. We promise you no loss of productivity and the delivery of grounded ICRs (Insights, Consequences, Recommendations) as we enter our 18th year.  Thank you to our long-standing clients for continuing to believe in the influence & power of our research at this time and for continuing to commission work with insight engineers (and in these turbulent times for actually paying us faster than usual!).

To people who have not worked with us before, let’s talk – nobody loses from opening a dialogue.

Please use the contact form on our website or reach out to me: Jeff Deighton, Managing Director: insights@insight-engineers.com

Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash

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Market Entry and Go-to-Market Success

Market Entry

Finding & understanding available information to accelerate growth

Many organizations have a directive and need to plan to grow – but entering a new country and market sector is complex and challenging and will usually require significant time and monetary investment, even in these days of digital marketing and technological advance.

And this ambition has to be based on evidence and measurable data, not just gut-feeling. Typically, this ‘market entry’ ambition starts with the macro – wanting to prioritize which countries have the best chance of success and then requires the micro – detail on critical aspects for your specific sector – to build back up to the business plan internally.

We have been ‘engineering’ this type of ‘insight’ delivery for many years, utilizing low budget, high value ‘secondary desk’ research information and expert interviews to turn such public domain information into profitable wisdom specific to each client. The recent BREXIT years have only heightened the level of requests as many organizations – in East, West and the Americas – recognize the need to land new opportunities outside of home territories.

Some of requirements we have been approached with may well strike a chord with you:-

  • We need robust sector/category information to be able to create a reliable business plan and accurate forecasts
  • Who, or what type of customer/company/person will be interested in buying our product/service/idea?
  • How many of them are in Country A versus Company B?
  • Will our product/service/idea appeal only to our traditional customer groups or can you identify interest among new/different customer groups?
  • Who are the key competitors – are they local or global?
  • What has/has not worked for the current companies – and importantly, what are they planning?
  • What cost advantages do they enjoy in their supply chain?
  • What is the media landscape? Where and how do people inform themselves?
  • Does the Corporation Tax level in the country preclude or encourage our own subsidiary?
  • How will local regulations and labour laws impact how we would go about normal business?

We have written this paper with our partner, Benori Knowledge Solutions in India, based on our shared experiences of delivering solutions across multiple markets.  Projects have ranged from 1 to 40+ prospective markets & countries evaluated, with clients spanning B2B and B2C categories for established multi-nationals, local players wanting to expand, EU grant supported companies in New Energies, Education Bodies, Charities and new Start-ups with a good idea – from the obscure to the common.

The shared ingredients in the cake each company has sought to bake have been to understand the category landscape, relevant trends, competitive landscape, buying processes, regulatory and pricing situations across countries to help them decide how to best accelerate growth, before large-scale investment.

The most valuable insights about the entering new markets lie in four main aspects: –

  • Sector landscape
  • Competitive scenario
  • Cost & Pricing
  • Market Assessment Summary

You can download the full article with more details on these 4 sections <here>

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Season’s Greetings

Insight Engineers would like to thank all our clients, partners and friends for their custom and support in 2019.

With best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and successful 2020.

Wir danken Ihnen herzlich für Ihr Vertrauen und die gute Zusammenarbeit im alten Jahr und wünschen Ihnen ein frohes Weihnachtsfest sowie ein schönes, gesundes und erfolgreiches Neues Jahr 2020.

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The Power of Networking on Performance Development

Spiral Dynamics

The power of networking on Performance Development – June 2018

Imagine the difference a best practice team of independent performance management experts could make to your business growth and customer experience journey by instilling performance-oriented thinking.
How do you find collaborative thinkers and experts in the 4 critical elements for sustained business success – Finance, Customer, Organisation, People? Read more

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The New Energy Context

insight engineers_The New Energy Context_Pexels EV Photo

The New Energy Context – Dec 2017

Traditional internal combustion powered vehicles account for over 95% of the UK & European market.

Until recently a fringe choice, the reality of electric plug-in vehicles soon becoming more mainstream was given a major prompt when GB & France governments announced this summer that no new only petrol or diesel powered cars & vans will be sold after 2040 and both Germany and The Netherlands announced they were aiming for an earlier timing. Norway have declared that all forms of petrol and diesel vehicles will not longer be permitted to sell from 2020. Read more

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Data Visualisation Resources for Market Researchers – Part Two – Online Resources

This is Part Two of an occasional series aimed at grouping together all the main Data Visualisation resources Market Researchers and Insight professionals may find useful in furthering their ability to communicate data more visually, memorably and, you know, just generally better. Read more

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The Known Knowns

To have a fairer than average chance of ‘winning’, all businesses, regardless of sector or product, need to know the answers to certain questions.

As an insight professional servicing internal clients, knowing what these questions are likely to be is the first stage to becoming an effective resource. Read more

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Start-Up Britain 2017: The Wisdom of the Crowd(funding)

Recent ‘Crowdfunding’ success stories, such as maverick Scottish brewer, BrewDog, may have piqued interest in alternative investments, following a record period of low interest rates and government bond yields.

Following on from our ‘Start-Up Britain’ entrepreneurial poll, Insight Engineers questioned over 2,000 UK nationally representative consumers on their attitudes toward Crowdfunding, and discovered the opportunity appeals to a wide audience of potential investors.

Read more

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Start-Up Britain 2017: Ambitious ‘Millennials’

Post-Brexit, there may or may not be uncertainty in the economy, but one thing is certain, the Great British public are as entrepreneurial as ever!

In Insight Engineers’ recent polling of c. 1,500 UK nationally representative consumers, we discovered a quarter of us have plans to start a new business venture in the next 12 months and 1 in 12 are confident enough to say they will ‘definitely start one’.

Read more

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Mobile Surveys Made Easy

Insight Engineers adopts an agnostic or method-neutral approach to data capture – after all, as independent business intelligence consultants, it is our job to advise clients on the most appropriate project design to help better understand and solve business intelligence ‘problems’. Read more

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UK Small Business Saturday 2016 – ‘Shop Small’

The first Saturday in December is Small Business Saturday UK.

Established in 2013, the UK movement seeks to celebrate and champion small businesses (traditional ‘bricks & mortar’ retailers and their online equivalents) Read more

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Data Visualisation Resources for Market Researchers – Part One – Books

Increasingly, as Market Research professionals, we find ourselves trying to communicate ever more complex data sets to clients for whom statistics (or indeed numbers in general) are not a first language. Read more

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Friendly Review – Helping Clients Navigate the Market Research and Insight Process

It’s safe to say that Jeff, Phil and myself are all quite different from each other. Different things make us tick. Different parts of the job interest us in different ways. But what we share, apart from a bit of age and experience, is a philosophy which shapes Insight Engineers. These fundamental beliefs have helped us build our business into two core strands: Read more

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Range, Momentum, Brand Franchise

By asking three simple questions, we’ve found that we can learn quite a lot about a sector’s direction of travel, and where the brands within that sector sit in relation to one another. Read more

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