By Keri Vermaak, Regional Engagement Director, Infotools
I’ve been saying this for years, and I still believe it’s one of the most important ideas in our industry: until the moment a client does something good with research (e.g. makes a decision, changes course, takes action) there is no value. Up to that point, all we’ve done is spend money and time.
That might sound a bit stark, but it’s true. The real return on investment from research begins only when it leads to action. And that action becomes a lot more likely when the client is deeply involved from the very beginning of a research project.
When clients help shape the research from the outset (clarifying business goals, aligning on desired outcomes, contributing to study design) it sets a strong foundation. But that’s only part of the equation. Where I see the greatest opportunity is in the analysis and reporting phase, where insight is either brought to life or left to gather dust.
Insight doesn’t live in the handover
Too often, research is still treated like a handoff. The study’s been run, the deck is done, and the insights team delivers the results to stakeholders with the hope that something sticks.
But here’s the problem: that approach assumes understanding will just happen. That the “so what” is obvious and the business will subsequently read, interpret, and act.
In reality, the best outcomes come when clients are part of the process of finding the insight, not just receiving it. When they can dig into the results, ask their own questions, test hypotheses, and explore data through their own lens, the insights become real. They become personal, and they’re far more likely to lead to meaningful action.
Shared discovery beats static delivery
A while back, we worked with a global company that had one of the most complex research ecosystems I’ve ever seen: hundreds of brands, more than 100 data sources, and over 75 different agency partners. They were sitting on an incredible volume of information, but it was scattered, siloed, and wildly inconsistent across markets.
Their insight teams were facing a common challenge: how to give internal stakeholders timely, trustworthy, and comparable data, without getting buried under a mountain of reporting requests.
So, together, we helped them create a unified system, one that harmonized survey data across all regions, aligned every market and agency to a single set of protocols, and delivered globally consistent results. It wasn’t just a software solution (though that was part of it). It was a strategic shift in how insight was discovered, shared, and acted on.
This new approach streamlined workflows and transformed how insights were used. Brand and marketing teams could now access metrics themselves, explore performance over time, and tap into the same “source of truth” as their counterparts across the globe. The central insights team finally had the breathing room to focus on deeper analysis, strategy, and storytelling instead of chasing charts.
That’s what shared discovery looks like at scale: putting the right tools and processes in place so insights are not just delivered but discovered together, with clarity and consistency.
More questions = more value
There’s a funny misconception that if we give clients access to tools, they’ll stop asking questions. In my experience, the opposite is true. When stakeholders have the ability to explore, they come back with better questions that are more nuanced, more relevant, and more urgent.
And that’s when researchers can do their best work. They’re no longer stuck answering the same recurring requests, but can instead spend time uncovering patterns, building stories, and advising on decisions. That’s the shift I’m talking about: going from data deliverers to insight partners.
If you’re looking to make this shift in your own practice, a few things can help:
- Make insight discovery as easy as reading a headline. Set up systems where business users can log in, explore results, and instantly see what’s most interesting, unique, or changing across key groups without needing to know how to build a crosstab (or needing crosstabs at all for that matter).
- Move from requests to reveal. Use tools that automatically surface statistically significant patterns, similarities, and differences so you’re not waiting on reruns of the same cuts but actually uncovering new things in the data.
- Equip teams to explore without getting lost. Give stakeholders flexible ways to interact with data (cut by segment, overlay waves, track changes) while keeping the complexity under the hood. The goal is guided curiosity, not self-service chaos.
- Deliver insights where decisions happen. Build real-time, interactive dashboards or push updates straight to inboxes – whatever ensures the right people see and use the insight, not just admire the chart.
The real win is co-created understanding
A client who discovers something for themselves, whether through interactive dashboards, smart reporting tools, or even just asking the right question, will act faster and with more confidence than someone passively receiving a debrief.
They present the insights with more conviction while also championing the work internally. Most importantly, they make better decisions because they understand the insight from the inside out. They can take real ownership of the insights function.
Research isn’t finished when the fieldwork ends.
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to make reporting and analysis more collaborative, more flexible, and more intuitive. Because insight isn’t finished when the fieldwork ends. That’s just the halfway point. The second half is about interpretation: contextualizing results, asking new questions, spotting trends, layering in feedback, and connecting the dots across markets or segments. This can’t happen in isolation. It needs active involvement from the people who know their business best: the clients.
About the author:
Keri’s role as a Regional Engagement Director at Infotools involves managing resources and team members to ensure effective engagement during all phases of the Infotools’ Harmoni project implementation lifecycle; from inception and design, to client on-boarding and support, she is skilled at efficiently running projects to ensure client satisfaction. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, she has spent 30 years helping brands improve customer outcomes with data analytic platforms. Keri also has significant experience working with some of the biggest brands in the world, helping them navigate complexities surrounding multi-market research programs.