View from Silicon Valley

x Sponsored content on Research Live and in Impact magazine is editorially independent.
Find out more about advertising and sponsorship.

Talk to different insight teams in Silicon Valley and you’ll find that researchers are increasingly faced with a million ‘whats’ and very few ‘whys’. It’s great to have data describing what’s happening within your product but – without context or explanation – then you’re dealing with Blind Data and not Big Data; it’s the ‘whys’ that are golden.

Sifting through the ‘whats’ to find the ‘why’ is a problem that’s sharply felt in Silicon Valley, but it’s also a problem that will continue to be felt by more insight teams as brands invest in expanding the data they collect and use every day to help make decisions. 

Clearly this is not a new trend but it’s one that continues to pressure the relationship between agencies, research teams and stakeholders who are increasingly self-sufficient when it comes to information. Here, I’ve seen in-house researchers and agencies alike respond rapidly, and become focused on being their stakeholders’ ...