A roundup of strategy & innovation leaders’ most-saved resources
With June behind us and July 4th just hours away:
We’re officially halfway through 2024 😱
It’s a perfect moment to reflect on all you’ve accomplished, and see where you can work smarter (not harder) the rest of the year 💡
To help you take stock, here are the top articles, research, and frameworks strategy and innovation leaders have been tapping over the past few months to answer their biggest questions and accelerate their team’s efforts.
Let’s jump in! 🚀
The latest academic research on AI & strategy work
Q: Is AI “more human than humans”?
A: A Turing test of whether AI chatbots are behaviorally similar to humans found that AI and human behavior are remarkably similar.
Scan the summary of this paper and other recent findings from academia here.
What your strategy & innovation peers are prioritizing
Q: What are leading strategy and innovation teams’ top priorities and worries right now? Are most companies reactive, or proactive? Future-forward, or short-term focused? Risk averse, or opportunity prone?
A: We rounded up what they said on all this and more.
Check out how you compare and grab some time if you’d like to walk through the data together.
The future of doing more (research) with less time, energy, and budget
99% of professionals say desk research is somewhat or very important to their work, but less than half of them are satisfied with Google, LLMs, and other desk research solutions available.
This large but “messy middle” presents a goldmine of opportunity for us to do our jobs MUCH more efficiently and effectively.
Q: How can we benefit from technology's tailwinds to improve both parts of the productivity equation when it comes to research – doing more, better, faster?
A: We broke down the answer here.
How to pick the right research methodology
We can all agree on the 2 fundamental truths about the strongest business decisions, bets, and strategies.
They require good insights and data
The research required to get those insights / data is often a real pain to do
Q: How should we approach designing an effective research effort and choosing the best approach / solution for our needs?
A: This decision tree will ensure your research has a purpose / fulfills a real need, gives you the right level of fidelity and actionability, and closes the right knowledge gaps.
Download and save it, or bookmark these 7 questions next time you need to kick off some research.
The anatomy of a modern market research engine
Every strategist worth their salt knows you’re only as good as the information you have.
No matter the time, money, or effort you throw at the situation, you’ll only get so far, but AI could change everything.
Q: How are winning companies adapting their teams, processes, methodologies, and technology stacks to better execute research in this new post-AI era?
A: Skim the 5 key highlights, or listen to the full 32-minute conversation (great at 2x!).
3 pillars of world class research
200+ conversations with leading strategy and innovation functions across FAANG and Fortune 500 companies made one thing clear: there’s no one size fits all approach to best-in-class research.
Q: What ARE core ingredients that make up a recipe for success, no matter the company, category, team size, or any other factor?
A: Non-negotiable fundamentals which keep you relevant, always-on insights to monitor which keep you sharp, and interim requests, ideas, and explorations which need to be vetted.
Here's the crash course on nailing all 3.
What no one taught us about the 5 Cs
Turns out, the order in which you tackle the age-old “5 Cs” can make or break your success.
Most companies start with “how to win.”
Good companies are thoughtful about “where to play” – picking the right ocean, to borrow the famous thinking.
But Winning companies? They:
start with the end-user, including the reality that surrounds them, and
don’t chase product-market fit – they arrive at it by starting with problem-solution fit.
Q: So what’s the right order!?
A: Read more about the RIGHT way to approach the 5 Cs here.
The crawl, walk, run of strategic insights
Q: In this age of endless data and an ever-growing burden of knowledge, what does a “good” (let alone “better” or “best”) agile insights engine look like?
A: Four main components play a role in growth-driving strategy and innovation efforts. Today’s rocket ships not only have a pretty-full bingo card, they're making significant strides in optimizing how everything mentioned here gets done better, faster, and cheaper.
Learn more.
Here’s to even smarter, faster, more accurate information powering even better decisions in H2!
Victoria
P.S. Interested in chatting through any of these findings or frameworks, or kicking off faster, more cost-effective, more accurate research for your team’s strategy / innovation efforts?
Grab some time with me here or Guy, our CEO, here.