So What?

‘So what?’ is the question that researchers are increasingly encouraged to ask of every chart in a presentation.

It’s a way of forcing your mind to go beyond reportage, ie not just to report what people say but what it means for the business. It’s a way of isolating findings which may be interesting but have no application, finding the most relevant points which really make a difference.

‘So what’ thinking used to be incorporated into research presentation charts as an output. The research findings would typically be in the top part of the chart, then the ‘so what’ or the implications or conclusion would run along the bottom, as the ‘bottom line’.

The latest extension of ‘So what?’ thinking is to put the conclusion in the headline. So a busy executive looking through the presentation on a screen can just read the headlines, the bottom line - now at the top.

Can you spot the flaw in this process?

The problem is that the researcher might leave out the more interesting implications. We may sacrifice quality and texture in the drive for answers and simplicity.

The researcher is now serving up 'convenience food'  instead of a gourmet meal where you can taste the individual ingredients.

The risk is that the client pays lip service to ‘consulting the consumer’ instead of actually listening and taking the feedback into account.

‘So what?’ is also the name of one of the most famous jazz tracks ever recorded on the ‘Kind of Blue’ album by Miles Davis. It’s brilliant, atmospheric, and highly emotional. It has no bottom line.

I know what you’re thinking: ‘So What?’

Dominic

 

Comments

[Jan]

When I started an agency with Sid Simmons who was a research specialist with McKinsey he was very keen to call the agency 'So What' because that was what McKinsey called a research chart. I resisted because I could see the headline 'Sid and Jan start an agency, So What?' I eventually got him to accept the name Incite, which is still going