Interview with Bianca Prommer, GrowFact, and Heiner Junker, Produkt + Markt "Agility reduces waste"

Talking to users instead of talking about them - a key aspect in agile market research. What else is behind that field of research that advertises efficiency and seems to be on everyone's lips? What exactly makes agile market research so attractive?

Interview with Bianca Prommer, GrowFact, and Heiner Junker, Produkt + Markt

"Agility reduces waste"

Talking to users instead of talking about them - a key aspect in agile market research. What else is behind that field of research that advertises efficiency and seems to be on everyone's lips? What exactly makes agile market research so attractive?

 

"Agile Market Research - How to get more out of your new role!" is the title of your WoM event on May, 9th. What constitutes agile market research in the first place? How do you define the term agility in this context?

Bianca Pommer: As an agile coach and trainer, I don't distinguish between agile project management and agile research. For me, user research is part of an agile project. Research and development are closely intertwined. An example: a team develops a solution and immediately talks about it with the target group to get feedback. On the same day, the solution is improved and observed again or asked how the users deal with a prototype. In this way, the solution continues to develop, always with the customer in mind.

Heiner Junker: Agile market research is less about applying agile methods to the practice of market research. We understand it to mean that research is meaningfully integrated into agile projects. Market research in an agile context is: integrated instead of exposed, empathy instead of just insight, pragmatic instead of dogmatic, talking more to users than about them, iterative instead of planned through.

Sign up for this WoM session on agility (May 9, at 11h CET, in German)

Why is the topic of agile market research so important? In what way is it more effective/better than classic market research?

Heiner Junker: Market research in an agile context is not better per se than so-called classic market research. Apart from the fact that agile principles and methods have always had their place in classic market research as well. From my point of view, the biggest advantage of agile projects is that the development teams no longer only talk about the users but with the users. The target groups are present in every development step, ensuring that all decisions are made on the premise: "What's in it for the customer?"

Bianca Pommer: And that's what makes it so efficient. Agility reduces waste. Things that are not important right now are not talked to pieces, but end up in the backlog, in the idea car park or in the landfill. Iterative customer feedback keeps development on a customer-oriented course and identifies undesirable developments early on - before time and money are spent on developments that no customer wants to pay for.

 

What conditions must be met in institutes or companies to make agile market research possible? Is it ultimately just a question of attitude?

Heiner Junker: I would like to pick out just one aspect that I consider important. It helps us a lot that we have trained quite a few researchers in our institute to become Agile Coaches and Design Thinking Facilitators. Besides attitude and agile principles, it is also important to master techniques and methods in order to be able to participate and shape the agile process.

Bianca Pommer: The same applies to agile teams, which are increasingly relying on DIY market research. Here, there is a need for training and coaching on the basics of market research. It's great and helpful to get user feedback early and often. However, technical errors in sampling, questionnaire and guideline design, as well as in the analysis and interpretation of the data, can easily lead to solutions not being developed for the actual target group.

 

In your presentation, you introduce the Agile Research Mastery training programme. What can interested parties expect from the training programme?

Heiner Junker: Our programme is about research in an agile context. In doing so, we take up the topics that our customers are concerned with. In addition to an Orientation Course, in which we teach the basics of agile research and make it tangible, there are various in-depth courses in the Mastery for participants with different market research skills.

Particularly important topics for researchers are, for example: How do we ensure research quality when each team conducts research independently? What are the roles of market researchers in agile projects and what are the requirements? Or "Which agile research methods and tools are particularly suitable and how do they work?" At the same time, it is also about breaking down agile silos and building cross-functional teams.

Bianca Pommer: For the participants who already work agile but want to learn more about research, the topics include: Which research tools should I use and when? At what point do we need research professionals in the team? What researcher biases are there and how do I deal with them? How do I recognise the insights that lie in the depth of the data? How do I react to feedback and separate the important from the unimportant?

 

What standard tools do you teach in the Agile Research Mastery?

Heiner Junker: On the one hand, there are the Agile techniques for project management such as stage and sprint plans, Kanban or task boards, daily stand-ups, retrospectives, etc. On the other hand, there are the tools for user-centred solution development. Here, the spectrum is huge and different tools take effect depending on the phase of the agile process. We present our favourite tools to the participants in the Agile Research Mastery and let them try out. Among them are some self-developed techniques that are sometimes a bit out of the ordinary, but lead to particularly exciting insights and solutions.

Bianca Pommer: The tools are important. But our programme goes even further. Our goal is that participants and companies are empowered to develop their own working agile research concept. A one size fits it all concept does not exist and does not work. And because this is so important to us, in addition to the training and an online platform with tools, templates and videos, the Mastery also includes live coaching to support implementation and sustainable anchoring in the company.

 

Why should nobody miss your web seminar at Week of Market Research?

Bianca Pommer: We report as practically as possible on what agile research is all about, why it works and what it fails at. In doing so, we take a look at different perspectives. That of the research professionals and the perspective of the agile teams, product owners and agile coaches.

Heiner Junker: We promise that our talk won't start with generalities like, "The world has become VUCA", or "Customer Centricity is the prerequisite for success." Our customers have set the content. They described to us the challenges and opportunities they see in agile research. To use a phrase after all: "From practice for practice".

 

 

ABOUT

Bianca Prommer, Innovation Enabler and Agile Coach, combines her experience as an intrapreneur in the automotive industry and as a coach and mentor for start-ups. She therefore knows the critical success factors of both - the continuity and operational excellence of traditional companies and the agility and creativity of young companies. With diverse methods and approaches, Bianca enables innovation and agility in teams and organisations.

From the beginning, Heiner Junker has integrated methods and techniques for creative idea development into the research in order to extract the creative impulses of consumers in addition to insights. As a coach and facilitator, he has enormous experience along the innovation roadmap. Heiner is also a sparring partner for managers and for people in change processes. With research-based meticulousness, professional preparation and his unconventionally creative facilitation, he navigates people, teams and organisations to peak performance.

 

Interview in German was published on marktforschung.de - here

 
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