I strongly believe that true insight goes beyond just understanding what the numbers are telling you, it needs to be contextualized and packaged for delivery to really qualify. Without the context of language, a book is just a cryptography problem. Without the right delivery, it will struggle to find an audience. Without an audience to read it, nothing will be learned. Even with those hurdles navigated, if you never stop to question the meaning of a passage, you’re unlikely to gain any insight you didn’t already possess.
Coming to market research, I’ve found that my life, in one way or another, has left me with useful context for many of our brand strategy partners. A youth spent enjoying video games as a hobby has given me deep insight into an industry that continues to grow in leaps and bounds with every year. My time spent in academia doing research on community planning and working with local stakeholders gave me insight into research methodology and gathering public feedback.
I started my journey designing surveys at a small in-house agency for a Fortune 100 company and spent years refining my survey design skills. I learned that even the most mundane survey could yield interesting results because people are interesting, we all have stories, and many of us are eager to share. From there I moved to another Bay Area market research company, gaining exposure to mixed-method techniques for gathering insights and building on my quantitative roots.
Now, coming to The Value Engineers, I see an opportunity to truly refine my craft. I’m excited by the context that I can share and the ways in which I can help our clients gather insight, but I’m even more excited by what I’m going to learn: About the work we do, about moving beyond my quantitative roots to explore qualitative paths to knowledge, but mostly about people and what they think.
In my personal life I still stay connected to my gaming roots, but I spend most of my free time with my family and away from a screen. I love trail running, mountain biking, and rock climbing; in a gym or at a crag. I love problem solving and a good climbing route is nothing more than a series of kinetic puzzles with your body as your only tool.