Brianna Sylver Publishes New Article at Core 77, Giving Insight Into How to Stretch Market Research Dollars in Tough Economic Times

Chicago, IL, May 08, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Brianna Sylver, president and founder of Sylver Consulting, an international research and innovation consulting firm, has written an article for Core 77, an online design resource, called “Spend It Wisely: A Market Research Primer for Designers.” In it, she addresses a crucial concern in the minds of product managers today, “How do we best stretch the dollars available for market research?”

Brianna explains why she wrote this article, “My intentions in writing this article were two-fold. First, many people who need research to support their product development and marketing initiatives, don’t know all the ins and the outs of market research. I wanted to write a primer article to help guide these people in choosing the right types of research to answer the questions that they need in order to advance their offering to the next stage in its development. Second, when designers talk of research they tend to dismiss more traditional methods, like focus groups and surveys, believing that the results garnered from these forms of research are shallow in nature. In reality, market research isn’t this black and white. Every research method has a purpose. In this article I wanted to share what the purpose and value of four research methods were to the product development process.”

The article features four methodologies for soliciting customer insight- ethnography, listening labs, focus groups and surveys- providing information regarding their strength and value to the product development process, cost and time frame.

“I chose these four research methods to feature, as I find these methods are the ones that we most commonly leveraged across the product development cycle at Sylver Consulting. Are these methods the only ones out there? Of course not, but I do think one of the four can answer many of the product development and marketing questions that one might have. When used appropriately, these methods can help a company mitigate risk and reduce development costs, as decisions are based on the facts of what intended users need, as opposed to what developers perceive might be in the user’s best interest,” explains Brianna.

Allan Chochinov of Core 77.com sums up the impact that he feels the article will have on their audience, "We're very excited about publishing this article–it's an essential primer for designers around the different kinds of research practices available to them, and will help both demystify and clarify the terms."

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