A Permanent Pivot or Temporary Transition? A Post-Pandemic Review of the Insights Industry

While the insights and analytics industry is surely no stranger to sudden curveballs, it faced a doozy of one with the global pandemic. Thrown into a topsy-turvy world, buyers zeroed in on something tangible – data. What insights could be gleaned from existing data sets? What methodological advances could be used to extract something vital? How could they push suppliers to add more offerings in terms of data analysis?

This demand has fueled both an expansion and repositioning on the supplier side. Technology has facilitated the option to diversify service offerings, and, bringing more specialized roles onto the team has allowed for greater flexibility and competitiveness.

Buyer perspective: Tell me about the data

The buyer -side of the insights industry has undergone a discernible shift in focus. Pre-pandemic, insights professionals primarily dealt with strategic insights consulting. Since the onset of the pandemic, there has been a marked increase in data analysis as the primary role of insights and analytics firms. However, this does not necessarily represent a back-to-basics shift though so much as a desire to ground and refocus analytics on the substantive data.

Supplier perspective: Squeezing more out the data

Of course, the supplier and the buyer perspectives closely mirror one another. The pandemic brought new challenges with data collection – piling pressure upon companies to extract more insights from existing data sets and learn how to repurpose data. This was made evident by companies strengthening their in-house research teams or increasing their reliance on outsourcing research. For those with in-house teams, this also involved integrating methodological advances into their data analysis processes.

Buyer perspective: Keeping roles fluid and dynamic

Those who adjusted best to the pandemic are those who quickly adapted roles to meet changing demands. The Voice of the Customer (VoC) role plummeted during the pandemic but has bounced back. Meanwhile, the role of in-house researcher surged to greater prominence as companies found it more effective to conduct their own research, often utilizing DIY tools. These adaptations signify a fluidity within businesses, illustrating their capacity to pivot roles based on current challenges and requirements.

Industry perspective: Pivoting to the niche or merely a natural evolution?

Our industry seems to be undergoing a significant repositioning phase. We see a marked shift away from generic positions like “full service” toward specialized niches. Attempts to reposition core services - like “qualitative research” as “CX/UX consulting” – better align them with what end clients need. Suppliers realize they need to refine their positioning to stand out, and technology that facilitates deeper and more granular analysis provides a natural evolution for them. 

Businesses are now more inclined to dig deeper into their data in search of actionable insights, and this  reverberates throughout the supplier side. Suppliers that acknowledge the need to offer specialized services as well as to remain fluid are more likely to thrive in a saturated market. 

Some changes brought on by the pandemic seem permanent, such as the strengthening of the in-house research and the increased buyer-side focus on data analysis. Other adaptations, like repositioning certain services in a way that resonates more with the end client may or may not stay the course. However, what remains clear is the industry’s resilience and capacity to adapt to new challenges and seize fresh opportunities.