Building Community, Shaping Insight, and Finding Relevance: A Conversation with Diane Hessan

Q&A with Diane Hessan, Entrepreneur, Board Director, and Founder of Communispace

On a recent episode of MRII’s Insights and Innovators podcast, we spoke with Diane Hessan - entrepreneur, longtime industry disruptor and founder of Communispace - about her career, the state of the insights industry, and the lessons she continues to carry forward. What follows is a lightly edited Q&A drawn from that conversation.

Where do you think the insights industry stands today?

I feel like the biggest challenge we face shows up as a triangle. We’re all trying to balance three things: speed of insights, depth of insights, and relevance to the business. Getting all three at the same time is incredibly difficult.

Speed has become the easiest corner of the triangle. With AI, the speed we’re able to deliver today, relatively inexpensively and in real time, is staggering compared to just a few years ago.

Depth is harder. Sometimes we get very fast information, but it doesn’t really tell us more than what we already know. There’s a lot of work happening now on methodologies that can answer bigger, more anticipatory questions instead of just reflecting back what already happened.

Relevance is the toughest. What we’re learning and communicating has to be connected to the priorities of the organization and to what’s happening in the boardroom. That has always been challenging, and it’s even harder now because the world is moving so fast.

Can you share how your early career shaped your interest in understanding consumers?

Right after business school, I joined General Foods as a brand marketer. They asked me what product I wanted to work on, and I said, “Just put me where you need me, but give me something I understand. Don’t give me decaffeinated coffee because I don’t really get that.”

Of course, they put me on Brim decaffeinated coffee. And that assignment ended up being transformative for me. It was the beginning of my love affair with trying to understand people who are different from me.

I became fascinated with the people who loved Brim, the problem it solved for them, and why it mattered in their lives. That curiosity of trying to understand someone who doesn’t think like you was the start of my connection to the research business.

What led you to start Communispace?

Communispace was born at the beginning of the Internet era, when everyone talked about the three Cs: content, commerce, and community. From the first day I logged on to America Online, I was captivated by community. I loved that you could connect with people from all over the world about issues and ideas you cared about.

Our team became convinced that online communities could be used for something bigger than hobby groups or message boards. We believed they could transform how companies get insight and inspiration from their customers.

The idea was controversial at the time. Building relationships with respondents was seen as a “no.” You weren’t supposed to ask someone one question one week and then ask a different question the next because of “bias, bias, bias.”

But we found the opposite. When you build trust with respondents, the speed, quality, and candor of their responses increase dramatically. Bias actually went down. We saw firsthand that people who have a relationship with you are more honest.

We had early clients who were willing to take the leap with us such as Hallmark, Colgate-Palmolive, Kraft, Unilever, Schwab. And we also faced a lot of skepticism. I went to conferences where I literally got booed from time to time. But we kept going, and it became a completely new way for companies to learn from consumers.

You’ve built a successful company. What advice do you share with entrepreneurs in insights?

The obvious must-do is listening to your customers. It’s so easy to fall in love with your product, but none of that matters if it isn’t helping a client accomplish something they’re trying to do.

The second must-do is all about the team. Business comes down to two things: finding and keeping great customers, and finding and keeping great people. Early hires are everything. When you make a wrong hire, especially on the leadership team, the consequences are huge. One benefit of starting Communispace in my 40s was that I knew great people I wanted to bring in. That made all the difference.

Another piece of advice is to expect that you’ll pivot. Your first idea probably won’t be the idea you end up with. Almost every entrepreneur I know starts in one arena and ends up finding the real opportunity somewhere else.

Raising money is its own job. It always takes twice as long as you think it will. And finally, if you’re building a company in this industry and you don’t come from market research, learn the space. Learn the language. Learn the issues. I didn’t know the industry when I started, and I had to learn quickly.

What does your career look like today?

I have a portfolio life now. I’m on four corporate boards and several nonprofits, I invest in and support startups, and I also brought my love of research into the political arena. I’ve been in conversation with a panel of 500 voters since 2016, and that work became the basis of my book, Our Common Ground. It did well when it came out, then sales went down, and since the 2024 presidential campaign people are buying it again because everyone wants to understand voters who don’t think the way they do.

Closing Thoughts

Hessan’s perspective blends the pragmatism of a seasoned entrepreneur with the curiosity of a lifelong researcher. Her career underscores the timeless importance of understanding people deeply, staying connected to the business, and being willing to challenge norms when the industry needs a new path forward.

Listen to the full episode of MRII’s Insights and Innovators podcast with Diane Hessan here.