Ethos

Data interrogation and research are only a means to an end. Identifying and focusing on the commercial objectives of the project and, crucially, how the findings will be used is at the heart of what I offer. The data generated by many of the projects I work on underpin business decisions involving substantial money at risk.

It is vital, therefore, that projects are designed and managed with an acute focus on the commercial objectives and to a standard appropriate to that money at risk.

There should be no technical smokescreen – sometimes complicated designs are needed to deliver the end objectives, but there should always be transparency as to what has been done. Ideally there should also be agreed quality standards and benchmarks. However, it is important those standards are realistic – being promised the earth (or ‘gold-standard’) when it is not possible runs the risk of misleading users. Better to make a realistic assessment and truly understand both the strengths and the weaknesses of the data.

I specialise in scrutinising methodology and data, assessing those strengths and weaknesses and, where needed, finding practical solutions. I make the complicated understandable. It should always be possible to explain what has been done in a straightforward manner, so that users can feel confident about the validity of the data they are using to make business decisions.

It should also always be possible to give an overview of the findings and highlight key insights so that users understand the bones of what they have to work with and have clear conclusions on which to build future strategy. Sitting on the fence or drowning clients in detail are not acceptable options for researchers!

Finally, there is no such thing as ‘future-proofing’ – the media landscape is changing too quickly for that – but there are increasing opportunities to work smarter by creating and combining different data sources. The future of audience measurement has to be about following the customer and following the content, rather than working in silos.