88 — QRCA's Leap into AI-Driven Research with Lauren Isaacson

Karen: 00:00:00

Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Greenbook Podcast. I’m your host today, Karen Lynch, and I’m really excited to be here talking to Lauren Isaacson. And, if you don’t know Lauren, let me tell you a little bit about her and why I’m so excited to talk to her. Lauren has a research company. She’s a qualitative researcher. It’s called Curio Research. I’m going to let her tell you a little bit more about Curio Research and her background in just a moment, but she is also the current president of the QRCA, the Qualitative Research Consultants Association, of which I have been a member for the majority of my career. You know, the first time I went to a QRCA event was in the early ‘90s—aging myself quite a bit. So I’m excited to have you here in both capacities and happy that you’ve decided to join us on the show, Lauren.

Lauren: 00:01:00

Happy to be here. So, yeah, thank you for the intro. I really appreciate it. All those things are correct. I do both qualitative and some minor quantitative research as an individual. I am a business of one, and so usually that means that I’m subcontracting for other agencies, but occasionally I do work directly with clients. And most of what I do is related to the field of technology. And, so, while I work on a lot of different things, whether that B2B in different sectors such as finance or even, like—God, right now I’m doing something that is—it’s for the trades so homebuilding and heat pump installing and things like that, and so I’m working on a project for that—so a lot of variety and social media, wearables, all kinds of things, but there’s usually a tech element involved. So that’s typically what I do.

Karen: 00:01:50

Very cool. And it’s funny. [laugh] As you were saying, you know, my work, when I was executing qualitive research before I joined Greenbook, a lot of my work was in the CPG space, personal care products or food and beverage. I really often said to people like, “I really do live in the grocery store.” And, yet, there was, like, one project that came my way that was, like, chainsaws, and the work was with lumberjacks, like, in Northern Canada. And I’m like, “Oh... well, you know, this is a thing.” And it was so, [laugh] so fun to be able to step into a different world which was not my usual in the shopper insights category. So I love that you have that breath of experience. And, of course, you are located—for those of you who are listening, Lauren is based in Vancouver and has one of those dual citizenships, which I think some of us in the US really covet that dual Canadian/American citizenship-ness. [laugh]

Lauren: 00:02:41

[laugh] It was hard earned. It took a long time to get that. [laugh]

Karen: 00:02:44

So it did take a long time? You know what? And I think that we—yeah, we don’t always think about the length of time it takes to get it, you know, and the work and the studying. You know, you probably know more about kind of the history of this country and of that country than most people. So kudos to you, though. Anyway, kudos to you. You know, one of the things that stuck out to me too, Lauren, with your background was—you know, in your bio you talk about UX and if you’re in the tech space and you’re doing user research. And you’ve also been doing it for 15 years or so. So you remember when that type of research first hit the scene, and qualitative researches were often like, “Wait a minute. Aren’t there overlaps? Wait. Isn’t that sort of what I do, but we don’t call it that?” So have you been in that the entirety of your career?

Lauren: 00:03:27

No. Well, I mean, I started out doing market research. And so I was an account planner with different digital advertising agencies in Los Angeles. It wasn’t—the account planning side, being in advertising, it got old. It’s a lot of instability. And the account planning as a job—it really wasn’t for me. That’s a popular kid’s table job. I’ve never been the popular kid, but I did really like doing research. And, so, when I moved to Canada, it was an opportunity for me to leave advertising behind and start working in research. And so my first job as a researcher was in-house. It was for a local company, but it was national. It was a subdivision of a multi-national US company, and they hired me as a researcher. And so that was my first job, and it was going from luxury cars and financial products to working with a heavy industrial supplier that was ball bearings and gaskets and conveyor belts and things like that. And so it was very different, and they were just looking for someone who was good at Excel. And I’m just like, “Yes. Yes, I’m good at Excel”—

Karen: 00:04:35

I got you. [laugh]

Lauren: 00:04:36

—“but there’s a lot of other things I can do too.” So I kind of found ways for me to bring my research skills to the company. Even though that’s not what they hired me to do, I found ways to increase my value in different ways—I mean, also even qualitative in-house. So that was a good job for a while, and then I got laid off after five years and with a really good severance. And so I was just trying to find another job. And then I started contracting, and then it got to the point where, all of a sudden, I was getting enough contracts that I didn’t need a job. And so, yeah, I’ve been doing that ever since.

Karen: 00:05:11

Yeah. You know what? Having also spanned kind of self-employment and employment for others, I was never on the client side or kind of the, you know, end buyer’s side as you were. I was always on the supplier side of things, but I think that there are silver linings to that moment in your life when you were like, “Well, people keep calling me. So, therefore, I’m going to keep doing this.” And it all turns out okay. So I’m glad that it turned out okay for you in the end there. And I also love—thank you for sharing a bit about your career journey. I love that conversation just about how different people come to where they are as qualitative researchers in particular or just researchers in general because we all have unique paths, and we all get there in different ways. And a lot of people ask me, “How did you get into this field?” Or, “How did you get into this field?” And I imagine, you as well, especially now that you’re leading the QRCA is people ask you, “How did you get your start here?” And it’s great to share those journeys. They’re all different. They’re all unique. So, question I have for you. Speaking of the QRCA—I really do want to go there because that’s one of the reasons we wanted to have you on the show was—a little bit about the QRCA, for those people who are, you know, not necessarily as intrenched in it as you and I are, tell them a little bit about the QRCA, maybe the—kind the organization’s mission and kind of its significance in the industry.

Lauren: 00:06:28

Yeah. Absolutely. So QRCA, I’ve been a member since 2017. Throughout my career, when I decided I wanted to be a researcher, I have been following QRCA. As a non-member, I would attend their webinars. If I was able to go to an in-person event, I did that, but always as a non-member. In 2017, I was finally able to become a member, and it’s been great ever since. And let’s see. So the reason to join the QRCA, its mission, its vision, it’s primarily a professional development organization. So, if you are there to better your practice, to increase your skillset, to understand what’s coming down, what trends are happening, how are people meeting those trends, there is no better place to be than the QRCA when it comes to qualitative research. If that is something that you want to better your practice in, if that’s something you want to have more focus in, it is one of the best places to be for that. So that is the primary thing. That is what is delivered on a regular basis. The other benefits you get from being a member of the QRCA is you get a really strong community. So, not only do you get professional development, everybody is very willing to share. There is this culture of abundance where no one feels like there are trade secrets to be had. People are very willing to share what they do because there is a feeling that, when we are all better as a qualitative research community, there will be more work for us to do. And so that I have always been very appreciative of, and that extends to the community as well. So, when you establish your friend circles within the QRCA, when you get known, when you get respect, you get what I consider to be stronger than mentoring relationships. You get friendships based on mutual respect. And that is so powerful. Because when you come to people in a professionally vulnerable position where you’re just like, “I have this opportunity. I’m not sure what to do about it,” there are people there who will be more than willing to help you. And that is fantastic. And that respect is earned. And part of how that is earned is by volunteering. And so volunteering is a big part of the QRCA culture. And that—you know, it’s a feature, not a bug. There is work to be done. But when you do that work, when you meet people where they are, when you are able to contribute and you pull through for people in a context that isn’t professionally consequential, people trust you, and people respect you. And that gets you—it’s good word of mouth. That gets you opportunities because people will refer things to you because they trust you. And that also gives you the ability to get that help when you need it and not be diminished in anybody’s eyes because people know that you’re a bad-ass no matter what because you pull through for them on a regular basis.

Karen: 00:09:17

That’s true. I just want to sit here and say, “Damn straight.” It’s so—everything you just said I’m like, “Yes.” If you all could see me, you know, I’m nodding. I can’t agree more. Currently I am—full disclosure, I’m on one of the volunteer committees. I am actually one of the managing editors at QRCA VIEWS. I’ve been a Special Interest Group leader before, you know, not as involved in Chapters because I’m kind of on the fringe of New York City. You know, hard for me to get to the New York Chapter. At one point earlier in my career, we were having some great meetings here in the Connecticut area. But, you know, that—New Englanders, we are hard to come by, right, because the Chapters here are a little bit—anyway, that’s not important to the story. My point is I have [laugh] been a volunteer, and I know what that means. People really do want to help also. I think one of the greatest things to see at the QRCA events are when people are like, “Hey... these are all the committees that we have, and we need volunteers.” People are actively looking. “How can I help?” And I think it’s that spirit of giving back because you do gain so much, right? Some of the professional development you’re talking about—you gain so much from the QRCA that you start to feel like it’s—you want to give back because it’s a win-win, and it becomes kind of this ‘the more I get, the more I want to give. And then guess what? I start to get a little bit more.’ It’s a really magical place.

Lauren: 00:10:34

It’s very special. I have been a part of other professional organizations, and I would say the culture of the QRCA is incredibly unique. And you can’t find it anywhere else.

Karen: 00:10:46

Yeah. And, also, to that point—and if there are listeners—you know, because I volunteer for the QRCA, like, I have no problem saying “shameless plug for the QRCA.” I have met qualitative researchers who were not a part of this organization, and they had no idea what they were missing out on. And I think that, to your point, there was business that came out of it for me. One of my very first jobs in—you know, going back to when I first started my own business towards the end of the 1990s, if you will, and then I started my own business in 2000. But it was a QRCA friend who couldn’t do a job, asked me if I would step in, a New York City gig, and I stepped. In the end—it was a packaging job, and the end-client was Kellogg. And it was, like, the next thing you know, Kellogg’s is calling me all of the time. And it became just a very lucrative career step for me to launch my own business with such a large, again, consumer product as a client, consumer product company. But it was because of one person that I knew, you know, from the QRCA event, so a colleague, a trusted colleague, who some might have called a competitor, but brought me in to do some work. And the next thing you know, there was no competition there. It was just, “Oh... excellent. I’m so glad I could boost your career,” while her career was also being boosted in a different direction. So it’s very generous in that regard. I really do—I can’t say enough about it. What are some of things that you think happened within the QRCA ecosystem that helps support that? Like, how do they—what do they do, some best practices or ways they make this happen for people?

Lauren: 00:12:26

God, how do we do that? Can I just say “magic”? It’s just magic. I’m not sure. There is something—like, the in-person conference is a big part of, like, promoting the internal culture. People come, and then, all of a sudden, they get us, and they’re just like, “Oh... now I understand what this is about. And this is so fun. You guys are so great. And what a wonderful experience this is.” That’s a big part of it. I think it’s also not being afraid to ask. I think the—probably our most successful Chapters and Special Interest Groups and committees, especially Pro. Dev., our Professional Development Committee, and, of course, VIEWS, things that require a lot of input. People speaking. People writing. People contributing. I think the leaders of those—in order to be successful, they have to not be afraid to as. And, so, being able to reach out to people and go, “Can you do this? Can you teach a—your talk proposal was great. Can you write an article on it? Can you teach a webinar on it? Can you do a paid class on it?” Not being afraid to ask and always kind of, like, having your finger on, like, what people are doing and how people are trying to differentiate themselves and what people are experimenting with, that definitely helps. And so I think that’s a big thing. People have ideas. They want to try something, and they have complete freedom to try it.

Karen: 00:13:57

I think there’s also something about—as you’re talking and I’m taking it in. I’m thinking. There’s something about trusting the conversations you’re having are meaningful in the moment. And, if they’re meant to lead somewhere else, they will. I think about relationships that I formed. One of the strong friendships I formed at the QRCA—there is the one I mentioned already, but another one was with a woman who was client-side. At one point, when I had first talked to her, she came to the QRCA as a client-side qualitative researcher, and we just decided to become friends. And, ultimately, yes, she had hired me. But I hired her when I worked a the full-service company. And another individual that I met for the first time on the exhibit floor at the QRCA actually now works on our team here at Greenbook. So I think you have to just be opened to ‘I don’t know where my career is going. I don’t know where my clients are going to be coming from. I don’t know who I’m going to hire or who might hire me, but I am here to just get to know people.’ And I think there’s trust of what happens at the conference that is greater than all of us. I don’t know if that makes any sense. It does— [laugh] it feels a little like magic.

Lauren: 00:15:06

Yeah. I’m not sure how else to describe it. There is something about being there and being among the people. You just kind of—you get it. You know, I was a speaker mentor to some people who were not familiar with the QRCA before. And one of the things I told them—just like, “If you want to deliver a successful talk here, you have to share your recipe. You cannot have trade secrets. You know, you’re presenting a new concept. You need to tell people how to do this successfully. And, if you don’t do that, you’re not going to have—your talk will not be rated well.” So that’s something I said off—it’s just like you have to be willing to share.

Karen: 00:15:44

Yes. And I think—and I am a speaker mentor this year as well. And I think that what’s—what I think is another commonality of all of this conversation—and I’ll move this along to the next topic. But it’s this idea that everybody in the QRCA community seems to genuinely want everybody else to be successful. And they want that because it elevates the corner of the industry that qualitative researchers operate in. Like, the more successful everybody is collectively, the more the entire qual. industry is elevated. And we all seem to understand that and understand the significance of that cheerleading that we do for one another, so, yeah, people who genuinely want the speakers to do better and to be well received. And, you know, we generally want the people that do some of the other great features at the event, you know, whether it’s the Quality Award--we definitely want to see those people win and really do some kick-ass presentations to get to that next level. And I think there’s just this spirit of mutual support that carries the whole industry. So let me ask you this. Speaking of carrying the industry, the industry is in a really interesting place right now because we are hearing so much about AI. And we’ve said on the Greenbook Podcast and other forums as well that the need for qual. has never been greater, the need for, you know, human conversations to balance some of the technology. What are your thoughts on that? Have you heard simmerings about ‘boy... it’s so important right now that qual. just takes the forefront or takes the lead in some industry conversations’? What’s the pulse of the Association and the rise of AI?

Lauren: 00:17:28

No, we’re nervous. I think everybody is a little nervous because we don’t—like, this went from being a pipe dream to active application very fast. So that kind of speed we’re still processing. We’re still grappling with it. I think everybody is, whether you’re quant. or qual. And so it’s trying to figure out like, “Okay, where is our place in this?” Is this a tool? How to do utilize this tool? Because, you know, the saying goes ‘new technology isn’t going to take your job, but people using that new technology will.’ So we need to be there. This is here. It’s happening. We can’t ignore it. What can we do with it? So we need to recognize what it is good for and what it is not good for. And where do we come in on that? It is good for pattern recognition. So what does that do for us? Okay. Well, there are qualitative AI analysis tools out there. They have varying capabilities, but those are things we can use. Because transcript analysis is basically pattern recognition. So, if it’s good at identifying patterns, we can use it for that. And that is going to save me time. I still need to provide my judgement, and that is where our value comes in. That has always been our value is judgment. Is that a worthwhile pattern? Is that true? Is that a mistake? What can we ignore? What can we not ignore? What are the things that the client really needs to dig in on? I don’t think that’s going away, and I don’t think our judgement in the moment during a conversation is also going away. I don’t know if a computer is going to be able to have that little tickle that goes, “I think there’s more here, and I need to dig in. That answer seemed incomplete, and we need more.” And AI can do that, and there are AI-assisted platforms that will help you deliver qual. at scale or help suggest questions. And that can be helpful too. That can take off some of the mental lift, and that is also helpful. But, as far as, like, writing the guide, great starter, we need to also come in and bump—and punch it up. It could be helpful in online discussions that aren’t recorded, that aren’t video or anything like that. It can be helpful there suggesting new questions, helping to get people to kind of elaborate on their answers. There are platforms that do that. For me and my practice, I’m really excited about being able to just feed videos into a platform, being able to still get the highlight reels that I like to make. But having all that time that I would spend, like, hours and hours and hours of work highlighting and tagging and highlighting and tagging all kinds of key phrases and not having to do that anymore, pretty cool. I can deliver insights faster, or I can take on more work.

Karen: 00:20:25

Yeah. And I think that the important thing—you know, when you talk about that little tickle, you know, and I remember kind of back in the day when—I have been RIVA trained, as so many qualitative researchers are, and Naomi Henderson used to talk about kind of, you know, going for those gold nuggets. I don’t know that AI can go after ‘the thing,’ when you get that feeling, when you get that tickle, as you were saying, that says, “Oh... this is a path that we need to go down for a while.” That’s, I think, the unique skill of a qualitative researcher is being able to identify the moment that something can shift in the conversation. And you’re like, “Yep. We’re going down this path now.” And I think that is a limitation of the AI. That is how a qualitative consultant can really deliver some stellar work for organizations because they had that moment. They’ve had that tickle. Then they chase that golden nugget. And it can be, you know, brand changing or strategy changing and really guide that decision making. Anyway, that’s the beauty of qualitative, so I think that’s a really astute thing to have pointed out. Thank you. So do you think, when you say people are nervous—and, by people, you know, we’re talking collectively about the membership. Are they nervous about what it’s doing in the uncertainty? Or are they nervous that it will take away their jobs and their positions? Because everything that I’m hearing on the side of the larger industry is that the need for qual. is bumping up, and people should be getting even more business as companies are trying to balance what they’re getting from potentially synthetic respondents or, you know, large scale surveys with AI assist. They are going to need to talk to people. What do you think?

Lauren: 00:22:08

I think it’s mostly the uncertainty. Like I said, this, all of a sudden, became—that became a viable technology very quickly [laugh] . And so we’re—like I said, we’re still processing. We’re still grappling. We’re trying to figure out where it’s going. So, yeah, I think it’s more the uncertainty than it is, like, fear that this might take our jobs. Occasionally, we do, like, see some things and just—like, these proposals. Like, “Here an AI platform that is going to be your researcher.” We see those. You want to run a qual. study? It can run a qual. study. You want it run a quant. study? It can run a quant. study. And you’re just kind of, “Okay.” And that, you know, I have had people kind of, like, email just going, “Hey... we should be aware of this.” And I’m like, “I’m—that, yeah. That’s super interesting.” Maybe, but I’m not confident that the industry is ready to do that, or that someone running it who doesn’t have the experience of doing this on a regular basis will be able to run it well. Even if it does have an AI-assist, you still—like I said, you’re paying for judgement. You’re paying for expertise. And that’s what we do.

Karen: 00:23:19

It’s what we do. I think it’s also—as you’re sharing that, it’s reminding me of when the DIY kind of platforms started to hit. And, the next thing you know, there was chatter at the QRCA about, “Wait a minute. Are these DIY tools going to make us irrelevant?” And there was this worry that, you know, brands and buyers of research services would kind of skip over the qualitative researchers and start to do their self. And, you know, to some degree, in-house researchers became much more proficient at that point, right? So there were, you know, researchers working for large corporations that are doing the work of what used to be, you know, a consultant doing it. But it didn’t destroy the whole field. [laugh] You know, it was just a dynamic to navigate. And...

Lauren: 00:24:01

It was a dynamic to navigate, but it also kind of drove demand because people were just like, “Oh... this was nice. Maybe we could do more.”

Karen: 00:24:08

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And then, also, what can—for the QRCA, that brought kind of a whole new segment of the audience to serve; right? Okay. Identification that, all right, now we have these professionals who have different professional development needs, but we sure want to make sure that the integrity of the research is up to some of the standards that the QRCA has put into place. So we had different standards that we developed as an association to help those people. And I bet that some of those things are in the works. I don’t know. Do you have any kind of spoiler alerts for things that you’re doing in leadership to help guide our membership into making some of these decisions? Or are you still in the gathering information stage?

Lauren: 00:24:50

We are developing guidelines around, like, proper standard practices for utilizing AI. And, of course, our digital privacy certification course definitely covers AI and how to kind of navigate privacy challenges there. So, yeah, we are doing that. But also, like, part of our culture is just coming together and talking about it. So we do have an AI Special Interest Group. And there are two people who are leading that who are really great, and they have— [laugh] they’re very busy people. They have every intention to, like, pull something together before the end of the year. But I’ve told them. I’m just like, “Keep it really simple.” Part of what we do—part of, like, the benefit is just coming together and talking something out. And there was an AI kind of, like, group discussion at our last conference, and it was electric. I could definitely see, like, having regular discussions just like that. Just what’s going on? What are people doing? How are people navigating the space? What are kind of, like, cautionary tales? What are the success stories that you want to share? That’s our bread and butter. That’s how we get better as a group is by coming together and talk about what we do.

Karen: 00:26:04

And the Special Interest Groups, I do love them. And I kind of want to give a shout-out to them in particular. And if there are QRCA members that are listening to this right now and you’re not involved in any of the SIGs or Special Interest Groups—you know, the one that I was involved in was the Creativity+Innovation on with some really close friends of mine. It’s a great one. And one of the things I loved about is, if we didn’t have a speaker or if we didn’t have a topic, we’d just all get online and share. “Hey... what are some cool things you’re doing? What are some creative approaches we can use?” And we would literally just talk thematically on creative methods or creative thinking or creative activities. And it was a very safe way to just say, “Yeah, there’s nothing really specific happening,” but we were coming together with a shared interest, right? And I think the Online SIG is another one that, you know, really had to step in and the leadership there kind of take a role when online started to really grow. And it was like [makes sound] ‘Special Interest Group.’ And, at first, it was, “Okay. What do we need to learn? What are the platforms we need to be aware of? How we do incorporate online qual. into our practices?” And so it was incredibly educational. So I’m sure this AI SIG is going to be something to watch and engage in. If you’re one of those people that’s nervous that Lauren was sort of hinting at, like, get involved in that because that’s how you’re going to overcome any of that uncertainty you have by learning from people who are actively talking about it. So they’re a great resource. They’re a great resource. So I want to just cross another gap to this big topic. Remember, I said I wanted to talk to you about UX. One of the conversations that I have had frequently are with some UX researchers that I’ve met at, like, some other—QUAL360 is the one that comes to mind. I had first met some at a QUAL360 event, which it’s like, “Right. Qualitative research and UX—those kind of overlap just a little bit.” You know, and there’s other UX events. And then, when you come to our events at Greenbook, IIEX events, I’ve had some UX people come and speak and, certainly, attend, and some qualitative researches come and speak and also attend. How do you see kind of the industry in the qualitative niche and the larger industry and some of these factions coming together? Like, are you seeing it change or evolve? Do you see it changing and evolving in the future? Talk to me about your thoughts on that.

Lauren: 00:28:30

Yeah. That’s a good question. So what I have seen—so I have been at this UX research since 2016. I kind of married into it. My husband is a user interface designer, and so I had—I was very familiar with the terminology. I was very familiar—I had been to a bunch of UX conferences. I knew how to talk the talk, and I also knew that what they were describing as UX research was basically parallel to qual. It was like a twin. And so what I needed to do in order to get in is I needed to be able to have some credibility there. I knew I could do it. I knew I could. I just didn’t have specifically UX research on my resume. And it wasn’t until I got that first gig with someone who—she was the head of wrangling up researchers for their jobs. And we just started talking, and we started geeking out about survey platforms. Out of all things, we started geeking out about survey platforms. And she was just like, “You know what? You may not have UX on your resume, but you are clearly a skilled researcher. You know what you’re talking about, and I need a researcher. I don’t need a designer.” Because that was what I was hearing a lot. They were like, “Yeah. And, you know, it’s a UX research job, but you don’t have design in your background.” I’m like, “I don’t know what you want then. Do you want a researcher, or do you want a designer? Because those are not the same things.” And at the time, like, back then, it was—that was all they needed was someone who was a designer that could also just sit in a room and ask people questions and produce a viable report. And so, as the industry matured, specialization started to happen, where they recognized that they needed people who were dedicated and skilled to this role. Now, as the industry is further matured—I mean, they just have seen their first, like, major layoff event, which happened earlier this year. I mean, there was a stat that said, like, 50 percent of UX researchers out there were affected by layoffs. That’s a sea change moment. That’s the first time they’ve ever seen that. And I was just like, “You should’ve seen that coming. Because if you paid any attention to have market research works, which is very mature, you should know your job is very much tracked and affected by the economy. And so, if there is an economic reason for you to be laid off, you will get laid off because you are not critical to producing a product. You are expendable.” And so I knew. I was just, like, that time between 2016 and this year, it was a fricking party. So I celebrated as much as I could. And so now it’s going to be a little bit more of a struggle because there are a lot—because first layoff. Now, hopefully we’ll see some comeback, a little bit of bounce, but there is going to be a lot people who are going to leave the industry because they’re just like—they were not prepared for that. And now they’re also getting burnt out because they’re asked to—they’re being asked to deliver the same—the people who are left are being asked to deliver the same level of work and the same amount of work but with less people and less resources. So we’ll see how this goes. And then, also, with that, we’re also seeing increased specialization. It used to be people who were dedicated in the profession of UX research. Now we’re seeing people who—they’re specialized quantitative UX researchers. They are specialized qualitative UX researchers. And that’s another sea change is seeing that starting to happen. Now, some companies are approaching this in different ways. There are some companies that are merging their research departments, both UX and market research, into a single capacity. There are others that—keeping them separate. I think probably the way to go, just for resource sharing and things like that, is to have a single practice of research. What I think market research can learn from UX research is their ability to be proactive. Their teams are embedded in product teams, so their researchers are there. They’re in all the meetings, and so they see what’s coming down the pipe, and they’re able to say, “Okay. Well, if this is happening, then we need to do this, this, this, and this from a research standpoint.” Or they’re able to, like, identify that there’s a research question floating around that needs to be answered. It’s hard to do that when you are not an embedded team, which is traditional for market research that they bring you a problem; you don’t find a problem. And so that’s where I think that there is—that market research is—I think this could be a really great moment for market research to become more embedded and essential to teams by becoming embedded and having a single kind of practice hub but being able to be part of teams and being able to integrate yourself. I think that that’s going to be really important for people moving forward.

Karen: 00:33:11

I love hearing all of this kind of very astute awareness of the dynamics between those different roles. So thank you for sharing some of those. Are there other things that you see coming down the pike kind of—before we wrap, coming down the pike, just larger dynamics in the, you know, market research ecosystem? Because you also, in your own practice, span both qual. and quant. Any other dynamics and sea change you see coming our way?

Lauren: 00:33:35

Oh, I don’t know. I mean, it’s really easy to see the UX stuff because it’s just—it’s following the same pattern as market research has. They just don’t know it, and they may not recognize it. For market research, they definitely were affected by the tech shrinkage as well. I mean, everybody kind of saw their budgets tighten a bit with that. So, yeah, I mean, the trends as far as economically are the same meaning it rises and falls with our economic fate. As far as other things, like what’s—I mean, AI, of course. I mean, disruptive tech is always going to come in and give us pause. But, yeah, what’s coming up with market research? Yeah. Not entirely sure. I am still riding the wave of it, so—and it’s harder to see what’s going to happen next. I think that AI—I mean, first it was blockchain. Now there’s also talk about, like, respondent data quality and things like that. I don’t think those conversations are going away anytime soon.

Karen: 00:34:44

Lauren, so, you know, with that in mind, we’re still navigating the current tides that we’re on. What is next on the horizon, though, for the QRCA? What is coming down the pipeline for all things QRCA? This is your time for a shameless plug. Anything you’d like to share with our audience?

Lauren: 00:35:01

Let’s see. I’d say the next big event is our annual conference in January in Denver. So we were talking about earlier and what an incredible conference it is, just the amount of notes that people walk away with. Like, I know. I go to conferences pretty regularly, and I sit there, and I watch the presentations, and they’re really great, but I don’t walk away with notes. QRCA, I very rarely don’t walk away with notes. Like, I usually walk away with pages and pages of notes that I have gathered from people’s presentations and the roundtable discussions that we have. And then all of the opportunities to get to know people—like, if you come to a QRCA conference and you don’t know anybody, that’s not going to last. You can take an ambassador program where people will kind of like—you’ll be paired with an experienced person, and they will guide you through, like, how to have a great conference. There is also Dine Arounds where you get to have dinner with a small group of people, and you get to know people that way. Then there’s also the discussions that you have. There is, like, all kinds of little breakouts and stuff like that and meeting new people. It’s so fun. One of my favorite places to meet new people is—honestly, it’s the buffet line. It’s just turn around in buffet line and asking the person behind me who they are, what they’re doing here. It’s their first time. Where are they from? What do they do? It’s a great place to get to know people—is just waiting in a buffet line.

Karen: 00:36:30

That’s great. I used to say to people, you know, I get to talk to people for a living. And, certainly, when you get hundreds of people who talk to people for a living, there is no—you know, no [laugh] fear of saying, “Hey... would you like to chat?” Because everybody is, like, pretty much, “Sure. Let’s chat. That’s what we do.” So I am with you. I think it’s a great event, and I wish you great success with it. Anything that else that you wish I had asked you, Lauren, before we wrap in terms of either what’s going on with the QRCA or your role as president? Anything else you’d like to share with our audience?

Lauren: 00:37:02

Oh, no, not really. I think you kind of hit it. Like, I was able to say what I think is important about the organization and what I love about it and why I said, “yes,” to being president. Because I want to see this organization grow and thrive. And I really hope that—because I know that, like, what I love about it, there is a lot of people out there that would totally love about it. And we just need to bring—make people more aware that this exists. And membership is—it’s a worthwhile investment for your career. It’s so great for your career but also just it’s a great social presence as well. Like, most of my, like, best friends are researchers and QRCA members. Like, when we hang, it’s like meeting with your besties all the time. It’s great.

Karen: 00:37:56

Yeah. It really is great. Some of my besties are there as well. I think one of the things that comes to mind is that it’s holistically well for you to be a QRCA member, right? You get your professional development, and you get your social connection all in one—all in one terrific package. Lauren, thank you so much for being here with us for this conversation, for joining us on our podcast. It was a pleasure to have you here.

Lauren: 00:38:20

Great to be here. Thank you very much.

Karen: 00:38:22

You’re very welcome. I also want to thank our producer, Natalie. Thanks so much. Our audio editing from Big Bad Audio, thank you so much for all you do. And, of course, our listeners, it is a pleasure to be able to bring you conversations that you can listen to regularly. Thank you for tuning in, and we’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.