by david allan van nostrand | Mar 15, 2021 | Focus Groups, Misinformation traps, Research
Apple has been doing lots of consumer research for a long time. Wait a minute, you say, that’s not true! You read the Fortune magazine interview where he was supposed to have said Apple never used consumer research. You might even remember his quip, “It isn’t the...
by david allan van nostrand | Nov 16, 2020 | Agile, Research
When people ask me if I’ve ever done agile research, they say “AGILE” as if it should be capitalized, underlined, and in italics. Their emphasis implies it is something quite new and mysterious. My response is to say I’ve been recommending agile...
by david allan van nostrand | Jul 20, 2020 | Organizational Behavior, Research, Surveys, The Myopia of Experts
A guild was an association of craftsmen or merchants formed for the furtherance of their professional interests. Guilds began in ancient Rome and came to prominence in the Middle Ages. Operating at the city level, they were organized by profession, such as carpenter...
by david allan van nostrand | Jan 13, 2020 | Gatekeepers, How to tell good research from bad, Items in the News, Research
With hundreds of thousands of employee training options to choose from, companies are struggling to figure out how to tell the worthwhile programs from those that are a waste of money. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Home Depot’s Lesley Leiserson, who manages...
by david allan van nostrand | Dec 2, 2019 | Gatekeepers, Misinformation traps, Research
The department chairman said to be fair to all students, he would start our postgraduate statistics course from the very beginning, as if none of us had any prior knowledge at all. With my heavy quant background, I figured this course would be a breeze. Forty-five...
by david allan van nostrand | Nov 18, 2019 | Gatekeepers, Organizational Behavior, Research
Here’s my behind-the-scenes look at what happens to your organization’s research when gatekeepers pass your instructions down the information ladder and later, when they pass your results back up. Sure it’s funny – except it’s not. Every...
