How do we make quant more engaging?

Can you imagine spending weeks, even months, cracking a difficult business challenge, and then on the day of the debrief you feel the need to start with the apology “we have a lot to get through today; I hope you haven’t had a big lunch”, knowing full well that you are about to blind them with more slides than a flip-flop factory?

The worst thing about this all-too-common scenario is that we do this to ourselves. We give in too easily to ‘the easy way’ and surrender our unique perspectives with vague excuses such as ‘this is what the client wants’ or ‘there wasn’t enough time’. We should be intentional with our work and push our discipline forwards and upwards.

Before I go any further, let me set my stall out – this isn’t a hack job on the industry which has kept me fed, clothed and inspired to come to work each day. This is a call to arms to do quant differently, better. To do good work the way we think it should be done, not the way we think others think it should be done. 

 Let’s unpack how this can play out through design, analysis and delivery.

Design
Quanties seem to think any challenge can be understood and solved while sat in the same wobbly office chair as the last 10 challenges. But this isn’t a science lab, where specimens arrive in sealed containers; quant research is tackling real world consumer challenges, that need to be seen to be understood. One dimensional perspectives lead to one dimensional outcomes.

For every brief that lands in our inbox, we need leave our desks to go experience the brand from a consumer perspective. We need do this because it’s too easy to race straight to the methodology without thinking really hard about the brief. We want to know what it feels like to be a consumer before we design the approach, how it feels to be a participant before we write the questionnaire.

Analysis
Hands up if you have ever said “I find it easier to create charts and then find the story afterwards”. Go on, put your hand up. This is madness. This is like an architect piling up steel and bricks and saying she will work out the building afterwards, or a painter throwing their paints onto a canvas and only deciding what they will paint once its dried. This is no way to tackle a creative task.

We should either get better at telling stories, or use frameworks and processes to help us arrive at them; ideally both. We should storytelling high on the priority list when we recruit in quant – getting the right people and the right culture for telling stories. We could then use an analysis pyramid, building up insights and evidence to an overarching strategic outcome. That happens in a word doc, on a white board, anywhere really, it just doesn’t happen in the debrief deck. Through this we could create clear, concise and engaging stories.

Delivery
The final phase in many ways is the most important. It’s here where the client’s investment in the project, and in you, is realised. I think we have a habit of underplaying the importance of debriefs, framing them as the last hurdle to jump, or the icing on the cake. This leads to underwhelming debriefs, that both the client and agency feel, but are too polite to say.

To overcome this I think it takes bravery and confidence to lean into your brand point of view and your brand values, intentionally delivering strategic recommendations in the way you think they should be told.

All too often I have heard my peers let the client drive how the report is designed and delivered, even when it conflicts with their storytelling experience. For me, this is like hiring an interior designer and then throwing them a furniture catalogue with your chosen furniture ringed. Neither of you will be happy with the outcome.

So lets be brave. Let’s win clients over with our thinking from the start and gain their trust to allow you to tell the story how it should be told. Embrace white space, be concise, be engaging, tell them what they need to hear, not what you needed to ask, and let your brand and POV shine through. They commissioned you and your agency, so give them you and your agency.

Dave Power is head of quant at D+M