This is how corporate market research remains indispensable

If corporate market research aims to be a true catalyst, data and insights must resonate throughout the organization and remain part of the ongoing conversation. Turn respondents into allies and give them new ways to express what genuinely moves them. Rather than skimming the surface with rating scales alone, use images, stories, and visual relationship maps to explore what lies beneath. When participants are given richer forms of expression, the insights they generate leave a stronger and more lasting impression on those responsible for driving change.

AI models are becoming increasingly adept at reflecting reality and making research more efficient. At the same time, the value of authentic research is growing. Ethnography is a prime example. It delivers what no simulation can: proximity and empathy.

Ethnography takes corporate researchers and internal teams out of the spectator seats and places them directly into people’s everyday lives. No AI can replace the experience of being welcomed into someone’s world and witnessing their routines, small pain points, workarounds, or personal quirks. Ethnography creates powerful moments, generates tangible and sometimes surprising artifacts, and opens the door to genuine empathetic understanding.

Bring your internal stakeholders close to the field. Turn them into co explorers. This not only leads to deeper insights but also strengthens enthusiasm for market research itself.

The quality of research and the data collected is critical to the success of any research project. Equally important, however, is how those data are shared and presented. Storytelling is a powerful approach to capturing attention, adding emotional resonance, and ensuring insights are remembered. It is a skill that can be trained and refined. Researchers are well advised to deliberately strengthen and continuously develop their capabilities in this area.

AI supported dialogues with data foster a stronger sense of ownership and engagement. When users immerse themselves in the data, pose their own questions, and uncover new perspectives, market research reveals its full potential. Inhouse researchers should therefore have a strong voice in selecting AI driven analytics tools and in defining how tools such as chatbots or dialog enabled personas are used in a meaningful way.

Results workshops represent the pinnacle of creating impact with research findings. They spark curiosity, ignite a spirit of exploration, and bring people together. When diverse perspectives converge, shared moments of insight emerge that resonate long after the session ends. Inhouse researchers have a clear opportunity to position themselves as effective facilitators in this setting.

Market research today is faster, more flexible, and more relevant than ever before. It was long considered too slow and cumbersome in agile teams. However, corporate insights units have transformed their approach. With DIY research, data science, insight communities, and AI solutions, in-house researchers now have access to high-quality insights at any time. This enables research to keep pace, respond flexibly, and allocate resources strategically. 

Still, agile projects can also stall. When users fall out of focus and perception biases or cognitive errors drive the process, solutions threaten to miss the mark of user needs. This is where enterprise market research demonstrates its effectiveness. It brings data competence, empathy, and a trained eye for biases into the process, keeping agile teams on track. 

For this to succeed, in-house researchers need clarity about their roles. The role model of agile user research describes how they can spark new ideas as incubators, structure team collaboration as facilitators, and consistently represent the user's perspective as user advocates. This way, corporate insights evolve from mere data providers to true partners in product development, ensuring that agile teams create solutions that users truly want. 
 

Sometimes the very data needed for a critical decision are missing. Traditional studies take time, data privacy constraints are tight, and yet the organization is pressing for answers. Synthetic data can bridge this gap. They simulate realistic scenarios, fill blind spots in the data landscape, and broaden the perspective.

This creates opportunities to test hypotheses, simulate trends in advance, and de risk decisions even when real world data are not yet available. For corporate researchers, synthetic data are a tool that combines speed with rigor. Used thoughtfully, they make market research significantly more agile.

Inhouse researchers, in particular, can leverage a distinct advantage here. They are skilled at identifying data and knowledge gaps with precision and have the judgment to determine when synthetic data add value and when only authentic research can truly move the needle.