Small businesses can turn into industry leaders due to sparks, or the ideas that can lead to significant innovations and move a category. Apple Inc. can be the best example for this after the company figured out that plenty of people would want to have their PC fit into their pocket.
Conducting compelling research can help make sparks turn into reality. In today’s economy, the “eureka” moments can be extremely rare even if the latest revolutionary inventions like PayPal and iPhone succeeded from a spark. Anyone can have a moving idea. However, all big successes come out after endless hours of doing market research and never-ending AB testing, among others.
But due to the unexpected halt in most industries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, conducting research had to be limited online. The companies that learned how to maximize remote research will most likely discover success and lucrative profits faster than those who continue to struggle to do it. And by the looks of it, remote research will continue to rule even after the worst effects of the pandemic end since everybody’s lives will remain unsettled for months or years to come.
Those who opted to invest in tech startups or major technology companies will discover that the emerging remote research capabilities are an essential yet undervalued asset. They will also figure out that it can become a stealth symbol of the company’s health.
The pandemic caused a major challenge for traditional corporate research. Most of the existing researches used to rely on face-to-face, real-life interactions with potential and current customers. But in 2021, the burden lies on the organizations to analyze how they solve a remote research problem. They had at least ten months to solve their research issue during the previous year.
Everyone in the company, including the investors, executives, and the staff from the bottom of the hierarchy up to the top, must look and demand to have the research done right. Billions of dollars will depend on it since inaccurate research may cause any company to lose a significant amount of money.
There are several ways to conduct effective research techniques in the digital world. The company leaders must ask for the kind of tools used by their researchers. They also need to understand the kind of hacks that the company developed to provide for their needs in new and innovative ways.
The leaders must also ensure that the company is adding research into the design process despite the collaboration challenges imposed by the pandemic.
In all circumstances, the research must be a major dimension of reliable product decisions. If it is not the case, the company must make the necessary changes this year. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic pans out, the companies that will thrive and survive will be those that managed to keep up with the digitalization and the online world. So to ensure that a company will manage to turn a spark into a brilliant, lucrative idea, its researchers must start to go online.