Is research the insight chicken or egg?

I was having lunch yesterday with an acquaintance from the research industry who raised an interesting question. In a future where insight will be a rich mixture of behavioural data and traditional research insights, is it best to be a researcher embracing data, or a data analyst embracing research?

My spontaneous view was that it probably was best to be a researcher first, with all the training and experience in understanding the nuances of consumer’s lives and contradictions before then embracing the rich seam of behavioural data. Behavioural analysis can sometimes tend towards a rather mechanistic process, partly driven by the vast amounts of data that need to be analysed.

That said, there is a speed and practicality to the analysis of behavioural data that can sometimes outshine the often slower and harder to apply insights that flow from traditional research; and in a world of accelerating business decisions and data overload these are powerful skills.

So on balance I’m not sure I can answer the question. There are benefits to starting analysis in either world, and to be honest the better we get at connecting the dots, the less it will matter. Of course, for the next generation of insight professionals, the distinction will be less important as they develop their skills with access to both types of data, hopefully operating with both the sensitivity of traditional researchers and the practical speed of data analysts.