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Interviews

Margaret Heffernan on “Uncharted – How to Navigate the Future”

by Kay Corry Aubrey

Margaret Heffernan was born in Texas but has spent most of her life in the U.K. She is a TED speaker and has had many successful careers that include thirteen years as a producer of documentaries for the BBC and as a serial entrepreneur and CEO of several tech companies in the United States. She is currently a professor at the University of Bath. Margaret has written four internationally acclaimed books on business and how to live a meaningful life that meets the challenges of our time.
We talked recently about the ideas in her most recent book, “Uncharted – How to Navigate the Future”. Margaret describes how we have become reliant on invisible systems that we do not understand. In the process of outsourcing our intelligence we have lost human skills, such as the ability to read a map, direct our attention, deal with ambiguity, or with people who are different from us. The way we are profiled by technology and algorithms impacts our ability to get jobs or loans or gain access to other opportunities. The scary part is we are unaware of how these systems directly impact our lives. Apps that show us how to raise our children diminish our ability to trust our own judgment. The algorithms are invisible—we do not know how they work or the value system that is embedded in them. But one thing is certain—they are designed to serve the interests of their creators and not the average person.

Here is a link to our QRCA VIEWS Luminaries Interview and to a review of Margaret’s book and a link to the audio podcast on QRCA VIEWS magazine of our conversation.

Jane Frost of the UK’s Market Research Society on How to Raise the Profile of Our Profession

by Kay Corry Aubrey

I interviewed Jane Frost, CEO of the UK’s Market Research Society for the Fall issue of QRCA VIEWS magazine. https://lnkd.in/e2mxuYq. With over 5,000 members the MRS is the second largest market research professional organization in the world. Jane described the central role qualitative research plays in the UK, how her organization is working with government to help the industry stay strong during the pandemic, and the MRS commitment to diversity. The face-to-face market research industry in the UK has disappeared overnight and may never come back to its previous level.

Jane described how qualitative research in the UK is more “pure” using traditional face-to-face methods such as in-depth interviews and focus groups. On this side of the pond, clients expect numbers to justify insights so our approach tends to be mixed with quantitative methods, though that may be changing. The MRS plays a pivotal role in advancing the stature and skills of their members and offer high quality professional education to their members to help them stay up to date and competitive. They also sponsor excellent conferences.

Lately, Jane and her organization have focused on advancing diversity and equity within the sector. The MRS has created the “MRS Pledge” where market research industry organizations sign on and commit to actively recruit and promote employees from under-represented and non-traditional backgrounds. Jane is hoping to generalize the “MRS Pledge” to become a model for a world wide “CEO Pledge” to raise diversity within the profession beyond the UK.
Here is a link to the article

Steve Portigal on techniques for engaging end users in a user research interview

by Kay Corry Aubrey

Steve Portigal is a true Luminary in the User Experience industry. He’s a well known author, keynote speaker and the host of the “Dollars to Donuts” podcast where he interviews high-level UX managers on their work, how they developed a UX practice within their organization, and the career path that led them to their current job. I’ve learned a great deal from Steve over the years and was delighted when he agreed to do a QRCA VIEWS Luminaries interview with me for the Summer 2020 issue. In this conversation Steve describes his techniques for quickly establishing trust with a participant and how to keep a UX research interview open and engaging for the user as well as for your client team.

Here is a link to the published article.link to the published article

Karen Mangia of Salesforce.com on how to achieve “Success with Less”

by Kay Corry Aubrey

I had the pleasure of interviewing her for the Spring 2020 issue of QRCA VIEWS magazine. We talked about the various modalities her team at Salesforce uses to stay close to their customers. These involve traditional market research methods like surveys and focus groups as well as global online communities and events. Karen describes the talents and skills she seeks in a qualitative researcher (curiosity, the ability to ask great questions, and being able to pick up on what is not being said) . We also discussed her new book “Success with Less”, where she lays out her pause-ponder-prioritize approach to decision making for personal fulfillment. Karen is a delightful, sparkly and very down-to-earth person and I hope you enjoy reading our interview.

Here’s a link to the published article.

Martin Raymond on finding the future in the underbrush of culture

by Kay Corry Aubrey

Martin Raymond is the co-founder of the Future Laboratory Network in the UK and author of one of my most favorite books on qualitative research methods “The Trend Forecaster’s Handbook”. The Future Laboratory Network has advised over 1,000 businesses in 50 countries identify trends and engage with future consumers to focus innovation. In his book and in this interview Martin describes the systematic process he and his company uses to form a vision of the future that’s based on the existing landscape. They plug into “an ecosystem of anomalies; an ecosystem that is about differences and ecosystem about being contrary and different” and the process begins by identifying “the 2.5%” who think and do differently. This was a great interview with a brilliant person. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Link to my Luminaries interview with Martin Raymond from the QRCA VIEWS Magazine Winter 2019

Link to my book review of The Trend Forecaster’s Handbook from the QRCA VIEWS Magazine Fall 2019

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