research and creativity
If I’m not mistaken, Dan has a POV paper in the making on the subject of pre-testing. I’ve got a problem with a lot of research because it’s so inhibited by tradition, norms and a general lack of creativity.
Research is obviously there to see how our work, whatever the work is, has worked, with tracking studies on attitudes, intentions, associations etc, sales numbers and usage patterns and what not. And then it’s there to help us inform our work, add inspiration and possibilities to work with, dots to connect and figures to reshape. It’s this research that often been lacking creativity in my opinion.
Here’s a little extract that I quite liked (the whole article actually, click link below).
This is from an interview with Rebecca Wynberg, founder of Buff Snacks (and co-founder of Sadek-Wynberg)
A long-time advocate of research, how much of it did she use for her startup? Well, some, but not much: “The instinct that Paula and I had…was based on quite a lot of observation and experience…it was about understanding where there was a gap in the market and understanding it well enough to feel we didn’t need to over-research it,” says Wynberg.
So, instinct played an important role. And yet, Wynberg believes, gut instinct is something organisations tend to discourage, to their disadvantage: “Research organisations and client companies have suppressed the gut instinct…What I think is the bigger issue is about the extent to which organisations know how to foster and nurture people who have instinctive feelings for brands and ideas.”
from the curious get creative in ResearchTalk.
Some research needs to rest on a stable foundation and be proven beyond reasonable (any?) doubt; granted. But there’s research that doesn’t. As a matter of fact I think it shouldn’t be. If it does - it’s basically proving/using prevailing orders as ass coverage.
We value (live off) creativity in order to move things; emotions, attitudes, behaviors and goods. That must be true for research too. Because research is not there for the sake of research. It’s there to help better the creativity, and the playing field within which creativity must play.
And about gut feeling… Gut feeling and instinct is, in a way, years and years of research. Because it’s based on heaps of experience, knowledge, prior mistakes and successes etc. As much as we want to, and try, it’s just very hard to prove. Business people (economists) often have a really hard time accepting the hermeneutic school, but this is the exciting one. It’s what changes things.
Yes, I just had a very positive research experience. There’s no other reason for this little post. It’s just a blog-yippie.
