DIY Research: The Nonsense of Trendy Ambiguity

Rampant in the market research and insights world for a few years now: widespread misuse of a popular piece of research lingo. And recently, I notice this misuse is getting even worse. As a profession, I think we would all agree that common market research jargon should be used precisely. But when it comes to the phrase "DIY Research," all bets are off. I commonly see the phrase used to mean 4 very different things: 1.Online surveys 2. Market research conducted by people without skills or training (a la home improvement) 3. Online surveys conducted using platforms such as Decipher, Qualtrics, SurveyGizmo, etc. 4. Market research conducted by corporate researchers Which of these definitions is correct? They can't all be! In this conversation, I share some context about how the term "DIY" Research is commonly used and abused, and share an example from a recent trade show promotion.