The Agile Research Cycle

Implementing agile research in your organization sounds daunting, but it’s a cycle, not a one-and-done task. Take it step by step, iteration by iteration.

Those steps are simple:

First, conduct an assessment on your current research process. This allows you to best understand where agile research can help and where you might meet resistance. Here’s that assessment tool we mentioned before.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll be better equipped to demonstrate to your leadership how agile research offers greater efficiencies in your process, which is step two.

The third step in your agile transformation is to invest in technology. This requires that you understand not only the key features you need, but also the key technology users. As you explore your options, book a demo with our team and we’ll help you understand exactly what you need to succeed.

The right research technology makes step four, shifting your culture toward agile research, much easier. Remember to identify your agile champions and show your team how agile research improves the day-to-day lives of those who use it.

The fifth step in implementing agile research is to monitor and optimize your process. Agility requires regular check-ins and adjustments – that same principle applies to evaluating your agile research on an ongoing basis. We don’t call it a last step because agility itself is an iterative process. You will reassess your processes, technology, champions, and more along the way.

sago Wherever you are at today, start at the first step and work your way through. Wash, rinse, repeat. Each time, you will make more progress than you expect, and you’ll see the benefits before you know it.

If you go through all five steps and enjoy the results, look for opportunities to expand the use of agile research in your organization. Introduce new team members or departments to the technology or create new repeatable methods for them.

Businesses thrive when they know how their customers use products and services, how they want products and services to behave in the future, and if advertising resonates with them, says Sago’s Executive Chairman Steve Schlesinger.

“Market research doesn’t have to be incredibly costly,” he explains. “It can be something you use daily. That’s the difference from where our world was a decade or two ago. The world’s moving so fast that your technology and decision making must be faster overall if you want to be competitive.”