"What is 'it'? The old fashioned word for 'it' was study. You go alone . . . onobserved private study is the backbone of any fine actor or actress."
- Peter O'Toole
I recently worked on two projects, with two separate research partners. One of them was what I'll call a networked-intelligence arrangement. Three interviewers concurrently gathered learnings and all fed their notes to a single report writer. The other project involved a single researcher doing the interviewing and report writing. The first approach came up a bit short.
Through this experience I learned the importance of a single brain across a whole project. One person who is there from the start. There for the interviews and writing a deliverable first hand. The group that forwarded their notes to a report writer lost a lot in the process. If the project is strategic in nature - even if there was one interviewer - I really believe the practice of outsourcing analysis is highly flawed.
Now I'm not suggesting planners never work with outside people for help on strategic thinking. All I mean is that there needs to be intellectual continuity built into the process, which I believe is quite a familiar value to planners. But in my experience, not always so with market researchers.
That's why I like that quote from Peter O'Toole (heard it during a Charlie Rose interview). He says he can't truly nail an acting role by sitting around with a bunch of actors and working it out in the open. Like any pro whose output is a craft of the mind, he has to seal himself off and sweat it out. Just like any copywriter will tell you, sometimes you have to isolate yourself a bit to find the space necessary for good thinking.