Walking Isn't Running How to Amp Up Your Research Writing

For many people in the Market Research & Insights profession, the fun part of our projects is delivering the results in written reports. This is where we really get to shine: we get to show that our methodology has resulted in useful and usable information. The challenge? We're under pressure to deliver these reports very quickly. How do we write reports that are going to ignite insights when we may have as little as five to seven business days to do so? In the quest for speed, many market researchers try to jump straight to synthesis: trying to find the golden nuggets in their results. But the brutal reality is that you have to walk before you can run. If you don't do a good job of (walking) summarizing your research results, you cannot do a thorough and objective job of (running)  synthesizing them into usable key findings, conclusions or even recommendations. Worse, this is a career damaging choice: if you skip the step of walking before running, you run the risk of somebody else noticing that your analysis was rushed and potentially even incorrect. In this Conversation for Research Rockstars, let's look at the steps involved that will help you to walk before you run, and end up saving you time.