Insights and Advice From Today’s Most Innovative Researchers

Today’s most innovative research teams are redefining what it means to deliver impactful insights. To understand what’s driving this shift, we interviewed leaders from SCA, Paramount, Morning Brew, and Aristocrat, four teams at the forefront of modern research. We asked them about the trends shaping their work, the technologies they’re leaning into, and the advice they’d offer other researchers aiming to spark innovation inside their organizations.

Across every conversation, three themes stood out.

1. Collaboration has become non-negotiable. The most effective researchers aren’t operating in isolation, they’re building deep partnerships across product, marketing, analytics, design, and beyond.
2. There’s a clear sense of optimism around AI. Rather than viewing it as a threat, these leaders see it as a tool that helps them spend more time on meaningful analysis and creative thinking, as long as the human voice stays at the center.
3. The strongest teams are investing in their research operations. High-quality systems, smooth processes, and the right technology create the structure that allows insights to move quickly, land clearly, and inspire action across the business.

Together, these themes paint a picture of a research landscape that’s more connected, tech-enabled, and operationally mature than ever. Here’s what these leaders shared in their own words:

What emerging technologies or research methodologies are you most excited about?

"I'm excited about the opportunities AI presents for researchers at all stages of a research project. For my team and I, we are leaning into AI to help connect our output to our end audience. Whether it be inspiration on a potential narrative, creating a heading that grabs attention or simply sense checking, AI is allowing us to spend time on the things that create value."

-Jasmine Beech, Head of Strategic Insights and Effectiveness at SCA

What do you think has been the most important research trend this year?

"AI may be a worn-out buzzword, but its impact on market research is an undeniable trend of the year. It’s reshaping the field by processing high-dimensional datasets at speed, uncovering hidden patterns, designing surveys that can personalize questions in real time, and much, much more. These advances elevate the quality of insights and make analysis sharper than ever. The challenge accompanying it, however, is ensuring those insights remain authentic and continue to reflect genuine human voices."

-Emily Fischer, Showtime & MTVE Consumer Insights Manager at Paramount 

What advice would you offer other researchers who aspire to drive innovation in their organizations?

"To drive innovation in an organisation, I believe it's about first understanding the challenges or opportunities that are present for the team or business. Once you understand those, it becomes easier to connect the project to business outcomes which helps drive the project forward and ensure the insights land with the audience. The research project doesn't start when you start formulating the brief, it starts when you are collaborating with people in the business- think of them like one on one interviews before you start!"

-Jasmine Beech, Head of Strategic Insights and Effectiveness at SCA

"Always look for ways your insights can serve multiple teams. It’s easy to have one goal in mind for a project to support one stakeholder group and forget that the findings could also benefit product, sales, marketing, events, even the executive team. Thinking cross-functionally has helped us engage teams that haven't historically leaned on research and spark their curiosity about what else we can do. It also drives innovation by showing them the answers to questions that they might not have even thought about asking. 

To cultivate this within our own team, we’ve started running monthly retros where each person deep dives into a recent project. Those conversations almost always lead to comments like “this team should see this” or “this would be so useful for them too.” These discussions have helped us see the connective tissue in our work, which overlaps more often than not."

-Mandy Snapp, Insights & Analytics Manager at Morning Brew & Mike Nallan, Senior Director of Insights & Analytics at Morning Brew

"Innovation doesn’t just happen, it’s something you build through curiosity, collaboration, and good operations. Our advice to other researchers who want to drive innovation is to stay curious - not just about the data, but about the users driving it. Ask why things happen, not just what’s happening. That’s where the real insight lives that can inspire bold ideas. Also, build partnerships and collaboration across disciplines - product, design, analytics, marketing - really anyone who helps shape the experience! Bring them into the process early so research isn’t just a checkpoint at the end, but a spark that drives new ideas from the start.

And honestly, one of the most underrated parts of driving innovation is research operations. Having good systems, clear processes, and the right tools makes everything run smoother. It lets teams move faster, stay organized, and spend more time actually thinking creatively instead of managing logistics. Investing in that foundation pays off in a big way!"

-Jeff Resnick, Senior Director of Consumer Insights at Aristocrat, Natalya Pogosova, Senior Manager of Consumer Insights at Aristocrat & Lisa Huang, Research Community Coordinator at Aristocrat

Where research innovation really starts…

What’s most striking across all these conversations is that, even with rapid advances in AI and technology, the heart of research innovation still comes down to people. The most forward-thinking teams are doubling down on collaboration, building stronger bridges across the business, and making insights accessible to everyone. When more people can use customer understanding in their day-to-day decisions, that’s when ideas multiply, questions get sharper, and innovation really begins to take off.

When teams are aligned, empowered, and connected to authentic customer voices, they don’t just answer questions, they uncover the ones no one thought to ask. And that’s where true innovation starts.