The Office Research Edition | Episode 2: Ever Heard of a Data Culture?

Customer obsession, creative thinking, and stakeholder wars…sounds like another day as a researcher. Introducing The Office: Research Edition. This one’s for all the insights leaders in the room. We’ve worked with 400 teams and we’ve seen our fair share of dirty data—as well as the ingenuity it takes to deliver value through it all. Sign up here to receive the 3-episode limited run series in your inbox. 

INT. VIBEBYTE OFFICE – RESEARCH DEPARTMENT – MORNING

The VibeByte research team bustles with activity. MICHAEL, the Head of Research, stands at the front of the room, a slightly disheveled but eager expression on his face.

MICHAEL

Conference room, everyone! Big news: We’re going to conquer the EMEA market! And we have a special guest today: our very attractive, talented friend Ryan from the corporate strategy team!

RYAN

Well, um, yeah. We need to make a solid proposal to the execs about where to focus our resources for EMEA expansion. Any help would be, you know, awesome. I couldn’t find the answer on Google, which usually does the trick for me.

DARRYL

No worries, Ryan, we got this. Our buddies at NewtonY can find our AgTech professionals and do in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis across our three target markets. They’ve even got ex-MBB consultants to pair with your nice MBA.

RYAN

Are you making fun of me?

DARRYL

I’m helping, Ryan. All you need to do is check the final analysis with internal data and your market sense before proposing to our VP Jan. I’ll join the meeting with you to answer her questions.

[Darryl films a solo sidebar: I’m happy to help. I love full service research partners like NewtonY. They can do the analysis and we can cut straight to better decisions. With the time savings, I can day trade and save for my daughter’s 529 plan. It’s a win-win.]

INT. VIBEBYTE OFFICE – 4 WEEKS LATER

MICHAEL

Team: it’s time. We’re committing to a data culture! I read about it in Fast Company. 

DWIGHT

Question! Does a data culture include documentation? Because I’ve been putting together The Ultimate Research Playbook. It includes everything from briefing to respondent validation measures to understanding how astrology signs can skew your respondents answers.

JIM

Are we allowed to collect that kind of personal and totally arbitrary data…?

PAM

Michael, you can’t just announce a data culture. How are you keeping your vendors accountable to the data they deliver? Because half the time it’s trash. Where are you getting the budget to invest in good data? Because you’ll need to have a conversation with Jan for that. 

MICHAEL

Okay, okay. I’ll talk to Jan. 

MICHAEL walks into the conference room, where RYAN and DARRYL are presenting market entry insights to Jan.

PAM

Oh, wait Michael, I think they’re in an important meeting…

JAN

(pummeling Ryan & Darryl with questions)

Are you sure? Extra sure about this data? We can’t afford any mistakes with the market entry in this economy. 

DARRYL

Jan, we’re leveraging the expertise of NewtonY, a reputable B2B research specialist with extensive experience in the EMEA market and AgTech professionals. We developed our hypotheses together and already narrowed down into potential submarkets for investment. Don’t worry, with them, we can increase the upside and minimize the risk to all of our decisions.

FADE OUT.