Researchers spend their careers segmenting other people. We divide consumers by attitudes, behaviours and motivations because we know demographics only tell part of the story, and yet when it comes to ourselves, we resort to functional categories: Agency and client-side; qual and quant; junior and senior.

Is this really the best way to segment researchers? I find it fascinating that moving client-side has changed my job title and role – yet the underlying “job” I’m trying to do is exactly the same.

It got me thinking about a classic marketing framework: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”
The premise of “jobs to be done” is simple. People don’t buy products or services; they “hire” them to complete a job. It’s a framework researchers use all the time to understand consumers, but I’ve rarely seen us turn the framework on ourselves. 

Instead of asking whether we are agency or client-side, perhaps we should be asking: “What job are you trying to get done?” Two seemingly different people – an agency-side executive and a client-side director – may both wake up thinking the exact same thing: “How do I become someone whose judgement people trust?”

I wonder whether researchers are seeking a handful of jobs to be done.

1 ) Help me produce work I’m proud to put my name to

Most researchers I know care deeply about the quality of their work. They’ll rewrite a conclusion five times, rethink a chart or spend another hour refining a presentation – not because they’ve been asked to, but because they want to put their name to something they genuinely believe is excellent.

I liken this “crafting” to putting together a puzzle where every piece must be just right. Like it or not, a poorly framed headline can do lots of damage when presented to a large audience. That’s why researchers need to learn that the devil is very much in the detail.

2 ) Help me become someone whose judgement people trust

Early in your career, that might mean earning the confidence of your manager. Agency-side, it might mean becoming the person clients ask for by name. Client-side, it might mean senior leaders seeking your opinion before making an important decision. Regardless of the role, trust is the currency of our profession. So how do you earn it?

High quality work is the obvious first step, but interacting with people is also key; listening carefully, asking the right questions, knowing when to say you don’t know. Perhaps the most important skill is understanding organisations inside out. The best way to kill trust quickly is recommending something an organisation can’t or won’t deliver (unfortunately I’m speaking from experience).

3 ) Help me turn insight into action

Researchers don’t get excited by producing reports, they get excited when something happens because of them. For instance, a recommendation is adopted or a strategy changes.

This was one of the biggest shifts I noticed moving client-side. It’s not good enough to share a report with a colleague – you must ensure they change their behaviour as a result. All of a sudden, data analysis becomes less valuable than communication, perseverance and crucially, influence. Perhaps Dale Carnegie’s classic book How to win friends and influence people is a better resource than any market research manual?

4 ) Help me solve problems that matter

Brand trackers aren’t inherently exciting. They’re exciting because they help researchers solve interesting problems, such as why  customers are leaving, hw do we change behaviour, and which direction should the business take next. The bigger the problem, the less likely you’ll solve it by looking only at other research.

Data is brilliant at revealing patterns and barriers, but rarely provides the creative leap needed to solve complex challenges. That’s why the best researchers seem endlessly curious about the world outside research.

Rethinking the world of research

To summarise, I believe the most useful way to understand a researcher isn’t by where they work or how many years of experience they have, it’s by the job they’re trying to do,

If that’s true, the implications are surprisingly far-reaching: 

• Should conferences still be organised around methodologies?
• Should training still be designed around seniority?
• Should software still just compete on features?

I’m not so sure. Perhaps instead they should all start with the same question: “What job is this helping researchers to do?” 

Once you think about researchers through that lens, the traditional categories start to matter a little less. The conversation quickly moves away from methodology and towards impact. It focuses less on current role and more on enduring skills. In a world where AI is forcing us to question what our value is, why wouldn’t we adopt segmentation that does just that?

Sam Salama is insights lead at the Metropolitan Police Service and MRS board member