Insourcing is one of the solutions being considered by many insights departments. When the pressure increases to deliver more innovative approaches, solve more complicated problems, and doing so with ever decreasing budgets, what is an insights leader to do?
Many companies are looking for ways to bring both the work and the newer research tools in-house. The alternative? Writing yet another traditional research brief, sending it out to the larger research agencies, and waiting weeks for a proposal with a large price tag.
Which brings us to the million dollar question. Can this problem be solved in-house?
Technology is Making Insourcing Possible
The DIY label is no longer a negative one. If the available tools are used by an experienced researcher, the need to send a brief to larger companies diminishes. Additionally, tech companies with an understanding of research methodologies are applying their knowledge of technology to develop tools that automate the process. As a result, the researcher can do much more in less time. AI, machine learning, templates, data visualization dashboards, and automated data processing tools have all changed the way traditional research is done and the time it takes to complete it.
If your stakeholders are expecting more insights out of your team in shorter time frames, you can now respond appropriately.
The Gig Economy is Freeing Up Talent
In addition to these new tools, you can now bring more research specialists onto your team that have experience using them.
You can bring consultants in on an as-needed-basis before hiring a person full-time, or before your new headcount is approved. An experienced consultant can learn your approaches and research strategies, and offer suggestions for improvements because they bring a wide range of experience from other assignments.
For example, if you want to access internal databases for customer data, and search external data sources, you may need a data scientist to wrangle the data into a manageable form. This person would need to use SQL or Python or R to accomplish this task. So, either ask one of your current team members to learn the new data languages or… you guessed it, bring in a consultant.
Has your company considered insourcing? There is no denying that doing so is now easier than ever before. If you do determine that insourcing is the right move for your company, the only thing left to consider is who you’re going to hire.
Knowing how to hire is one thing, but who you should hire can be tough.
That’s why we took our market research expertise and created this short quiz.
Who is going to make the biggest impact on your team? Take the quiz and find out today!
