I’ve done least two years of work each, for the different buckets of research for businesses:

• Quantitative Market Research (at a research agency),
• Qualitative Media and Market Research and Ratings Analysis (internal research agency at a media corporation),
• and Design / User Research (in a digital product development team, where I also got to apply my skills to Analytics).

And throughout all of those jobs, I’ve always wanted to get more young people into Research (for corporations).

Why? Because research is such an interesting job, and such a specific passion (that it’s almost a niche full-time job).

But, when I was in college, I didn’t know about it at all. Or how fun and significant it could actually be. (Yes, I’m blatantly using the word “fun”. Because research IS fun, IF you’re the type who likes it.)

Different “flavors” of research for corporate entities

So this is what I learned from having tried them all.

Across doing market, media or design research — you can use more or less the same principles — Interviewing, Facilitation, Sampling, Analysis methods. You can, for example, use ethnography, for any of the three.

But if you had to choose a career path, the difference lies, really, in what kind of problems you want to solve.

Different problem, different track

All three (3) help businesses improve and develop products, but in different ways.

Market Research

Market Research is about classic “brand development” — more “The 4 P’s of Marketing”. It helps businesses improve how they market and position their products.

Example: My favorite project was a shelf test, where we figured which packaging design was most effective for seeing Pillsbury Pancake Mix quickly.

Media Research

Media Research is great if you want to understand the value of content in people’s lives. It makes you part of the creation of culture, if you work with strong content creators.

Example: If you want to be involved in shaping the careers of public personalities (i.e. rebranding Yeng Constantino — a popular Filipino singer-songwriter, or helping decide Willie Revillame’s career — an infamous Filipino variety show host and comedian) backed by data, this will be so much fun.

Design Research

Design Research is about improving how a product or service works. So it’s for you if you want to improve how the product or service itself is designed.

My latest project is helping a global transaction platform optimize the design and features of their app, by interviewing and asking potential users to test it.

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Why did I move across the different types?

I’m a fangirl. Which means I’m the type of person who gets inspired by “pegs” to emulate. And that holds true for my work life.

While I was working in market research, I discovered three particular people, who gave me leads into what sort of work I wanted to do.

First, was Mimi Ito. I saw this report of hers on how Japanese teenagers used their mobile phones. Her expertise is youth and mobile technology. That research report I saw was done in 2005 — years before Facebook hit the Philippines.

Through Mimi Ito’s work, I also started reading about danah boyd. I even wrote her a (fan) e-mail, asking her for advice about how to do the work she does. Her work focuses on social media and society.

Lastly, I read about Jan Chipchase, in a Fortune magazine article. He was the lead design researcher for Nokia, and then moved to Frog Design. I didn’t even know that discipline existed — that you could use research skills, to co-create products with designers.

Because of the three of them, along with other people I idolize (like Steve Portigal, William Holly Whyte, and the Ideo founders who established User-Centered Design), I went through my jobs hoping that I’d get to work on the same problems and uncover how the results would be same or different in the Philippines. My objective became to learn and apply the level of work they did, but in my own country. For the people I’ve done so much research about — Filipinos.

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My selfish goal is that I want to create that kind of a (sub)culture here. Of people who want to solve engaging cultural problems and improve businesses through research. I want to have more people to talk to (and compete with, in a way. “You’re only as good as your closest competitor” has a nugget of truth.)

If you’re interested in research, what kind of puzzles do you want to solve?

If these are the things you want to do, don’t hesitate to message me. I’ve set up a LinkedIn group just to allow people who like these things to find each other. There’s also a local design research agency called Curiosity, who have already established themselves quite well and just organized #MNLUrbanDesign (it was a very inspiring event).

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In the next post, I’ll continue with the role and basic guidelines of usability testing.