The Essential Guide to Mastering Professional Research
Let's start with a truth almost anyone will recognize: We live in an age of information overload. Everywhere you look, there are more facts, data, reports and perspectives being pumped out across every channel than any human could possibly consume.
A research from analysts at ESRI UK has found that a third of us feel stressed due to the increasing amount of digital information we are expected to consume, make sense of, and act on, in our day to day lives.
In this sea of content, being able to effectively navigate information sources and extract meaningful insights is one of the most invaluable skills you can develop. Whether you're a student working on a thesis, an academic furthering research in your field, or a professional in any sort of analytical role, the ability to research a topic thoroughly and isolate what matters most is absolute gold.
So what exactly is professional research? It's the systematic process of exploring and investigating a particular subject in-depth to find credible information and insights to better understand it or solve a problem related to it. Sounds simple enough, but as we all know, truly mastering this skill is an art.
The Academic Blueprint for Research
Let's start by looking at the world of academic research, which has developed robust methodologies over centuries that we can apply more broadly. The typical academic research process involves:
- Defining your research question or thesis
- Conducting a literature review of existing sources
- Constructing a methodology and gathering new data
- Analyzing all inputs to surface insights and conclusions
- Documenting findings through a paper/publication
While the particulars get refined across disciplines, this overall framework is central to how academics across the board approach investigation and expanding knowledge.
Another name for this type of research is: Desk research.
Desk research
Desk research is a method of investigation that involves gathering information by consulting documentary sources. Documentary sources can be books, scientific articles, reports, archival documents, databases, websites, social media, etc. Desk research is an important step in understanding a topic and obtaining accurate and up-to-date information. It can be used to study a variety of subjects, such as history, politics, science, technology, sociology, economics, etc. Desk research is a valuable tool for researchers, journalists, students and professionals.
From Academia to the Professional World
That's all well and good, but how does this high-level process translate to the professional ranks outside of academia? While the motivations and environments differ, the core concepts remain extremely relevant.
Let's consider a few examples of common research needs for professionals across roles:
Marketing: Researching consumer behavior, market landscapes, trends, competition and more to develop strategies.
Business Strategy: Investigating industries, best practices, economic factors and more to advise on key decisions.
Finance: Researching companies, sectors, legislation and more to analyze investments or initiatives.
Product Management: Understanding users, usage patterns, new technologies and more to drive product roadmaps.
In each of these cases, the fundamentals of defining the research goals, gathering quality sources, analysis and synthesizing findings into insights are 100% applicable. A corporate marketing professional researching a new market opportunity is applying the same core process as a graduate student studying consumer behavior - just with different ultimate objectives.
The Steps to Professional Research Success
So while the domains may differ, effective professional research looks remarkably similar whether you're at a university, boutique consulting firm or Fortune 100 corporation:
- Identify the key questions/problems you need to understand through research
- Find credible, relevant sources across literature, data sources, expert perspectives etc.
- Organize and analyze all of these inputs to surface insights
- Synthesize your findings into a cohesive point of view or publication
The main difference is that in professional settings, these steps often need to be applied in more dynamic, iterative ways based on changing priorities, timelines and demands of a working environment.
Another key difference is that in the professional context - research is the backbone of decision making. The cost of an error is much higher in the business context.
But with practice and a thoughtful approach, developing professional-grade research skills can equip you with X-ray vision in our content-saturated world. You'll go from being overwhelmed by the noise to a ruthlessly efficient insight-mining machine. Whether it's making or breaking a key business decision or adding new clarity to an academic field of study, professional research prowess is what separates those who swim in data from those who truly understand it.
Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash
