Delivering high-quality market research takes a lot of expertise. Delivering agile research requires that expertise and more.

As we all know, successful insights teams lead with agility and embrace the unexpected. Research pros at large corporations and startups alike share the belief that when you kick off with the right mindset, agile research can work even harder for you. In our most recent webinar, we talked about leading successful insights teams by enabling agile ways of working.

Operating in an uncertain world requires the ability to think like a startup. This year, we're encouraging companies to go back to their entrepreneurial roots. Back when decisions were made by relying on bold and courageous thinking. Agile research helps insights teams navigate those uncertainties with quick thinking and speedy decision-making.

Elon Musk is the richest man in the world – at age 49, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX is a multi-billionaire many times over. He does what he wants. He says what he thinks. He has disrupted the status quo again and again with his relentless innovation and refusal to follow the tried-and-true path of established U.S. corporations. The guy who quit Stanford after one day is doing things his way – and it’s not about the money. It’s about creating something new; creating real value.

It’s been a challenging few years, to say the least. As we look ahead to the coming years, we wanted to uncover the biggest challenges currently facing market researchers. So we did what we do best: designed and conducted a study of 145 insights pros to learn more about the difficulties they’re facing – and then provide ways to address them. Here’s what we learned.

Market research has changed tremendously over the past few years. Advances in technology are making it faster and easier for research teams to conduct both qualitative and quantitative research in-house. What used to take weeks and a specialized team of experts can now be done with a few clicks of a mouse.