Mar 17, 2024 8 min read

Unleashing the Research Detective in You - Consulting Edition 🕵️‍♂️📚🔍

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina 🇺🇦 / Unsplash

Hi friends 👋,

After weeks of sharing my Egyptian adventures, it's time to swap pyramids for pie charts, camels for clients, and sandy beaches for spreadsheets. This mid-year reflection brings some exciting insights from my second year in consulting, where I've discovered my research skills are a potent tool. The thrill of crafting a brilliant hypothesis, diving into data to validate it, and then presenting it to clients in a dazzling PowerPoint deck is unbeatable.

In this week's digest, we're exchanging travel stories for the rigors of research. Be warned, today's guide is a bit lengthy, but incredibly beneficial, especially if you're in the business field or consulting roles. So buckle up, and let's dive in!

Step 1: Setting the Stage 🎯

Think of your research as an epic quest. What's your mission? Are you seeking to reveal hidden market trends, unlocking secrets of competitors, or assessing a company's profitability? Be clear about your objectives and assign limits to your research. This strategy will keep you from deviating from your core aim.

In the consulting industry, we often use the term "Don't boil the ocean." This jargon is repeatedly used to remind us not to make our research so extensive that it becomes unmanageable, especially when time is extremely limited. Concentrate on gathering the most pertinent information corresponding to your defined objective.

Step 2: Making Initial Hypothesis 💭

Think of starting your research with a hypothesis as setting your GPS before a road trip. It gives you a clear path to follow and helps you stay focused. It's like flipping open a book with a question already buzzing in your head - your eyes naturally catch the details that answer your question. With a hypothesis in hand, it's like you've got a filter, a lens through which you can sift and sort, zeroing in on the nuggets of info that either prop up or knock down your initial idea.

If you're new to an industry and can't form a solid hypothesis, AI can be a game-changer. Tools like ChatGPT can quickly familiarize you with key industry terms. As Feng Tang, ex-McKinsey partner, suggests, knowing the top 100 terms of an industry can really boost your research, helping you form better hypotheses and enhance your research effectiveness. (refer to my first newsletter article for reference - 25-Feb-23 Climbing the Learning Curve at the Speed of Light! (shermans-weekly-digest.ghost.io))

Step 3: Doing the Research 🕵️‍♀️

This is the meat of the process. Roll up your sleeves and get ready to dive in!

3.1 Leverage the Power of AI

People often begin their research with a Google search. However, we can now leverage the power of AI for initial scanning, which can make the research process more efficient and exciting.

AI tools like Perplexity and Bing AI Co-pilot can provide specific answers to complex queries and offer more contextual results, respectively. For instance, asking Perplexity, "What were the sales of Company XYZ in 2020?", can yield precise results. Similarly, typing "Company XYZ annual report 2020" into Bing AI will not only provide the report but also highlight relevant sections.

Consider AI as an effective tool for quick scanning. It can provide preliminary results based on well-crafted prompts, although it may not always have the most up-to-date or accurate information. Therefore, cross-check AI-provided information with other reliable sources like Google.

AI also enables quick browsing, allowing you to scan through a report, article, or data swiftly to gauge its relevance before deciding to read it in detail. This approach saves time by identifying high-value information before a detailed read.

3.2 Use Google as the second layer and google it right 🔍

You can utilize Google as a second layer of information search. Here are a few techniques to make your search more effective:

Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase. For instance, "Company XYZ annual report 2020".
Use a minus sign to exclude certain words. For example, "AI in insurance -underwriting" would exclude results related to underwriting.
Use the "filetype:pdf" command to find specific types of files, such as "Company XYZ annual report filetype:pdf". This is especially useful when looking for reports.

Two particularly effective research techniques are 'secondary search' and 'snowballing':

Secondary Search: Often, search engine results provide incomplete reports. If a data report website requires payment for a complete report, a workaround is to copy the report's title and search again with the search engine. This often allows you to piece together the same report referenced by different websites, or directly find a complete report that does not require payment.
Snowballing: Imagine you're building a snowball: you start with a small, manageable piece and gradually add more snow to it, making it larger and more substantial. This is similar to how you should approach searching for information. Begin with broad keywords like "Artificial Intelligence" or "Insurance automation." Then, slowly add more specific phrases to your search like "AI in car insurance" or "AI in car insurance claims processing." This method, known as 'snowballing', lets you dive deeper into a topic, uncovering more detailed and relevant information.
Building on the 'snowballing' technique, it's also useful to follow relevant links within the articles or sources you find. This allows you to uncover even more detailed and specific information. As you dive deeper into a topic, these linked resources can lead to valuable insights that might not be found through a basic search. This method of tracing links from one source to another is akin to following a trail of breadcrumbs, leading you to a wealth of knowledge on your topic.

Strategically using your keywords and incorporating efficient scanning techniques can greatly enhance your research efficiency.

3.3 Look for the Right Source

Sometimes, a simple Google search may not unearth the rich insights you're after, particularly when your research scope is well-defined in terms of industry or function. Think of it as a treasure hunt. You can only find the treasure if it's already buried out there. Likewise, you need to dig into the right sources to uncover the priceless information gems. Allow me to map out your expedition to these treasure troves of knowledge!

Thought leadership from top tier consulting firms/ investment banks/ VC firms
- Consulting firms (industry insights/ business strategy) : McKinsey Global Institute (McKinsey Global Institute | McKinsey & Company), BCG(Featured Insights and Perspectives | BCG), Bain (Bain Publications: Insights, Ideas that generate results | Bain & Company); for tech innovation - Innovative Thought Leadership & Trends Research | Accenture), etc.
- Investment Banks Reports (for macro finance/ company financial analysis): JP Morgan (Global Research Reports (jpmorgan.com)); Goldman Goldman Sachs | Intelligence - Goldman Sachs Research, etc.
- Global Institution: World Bank; IMF - Their data are more like a census. It's generally applicable, and is introduced by official government statistics and research. It's relatively authoritative, and is used as background information for research.
- Venture Capital (for new tech trends and startup): Cornerstone Ventures (cornerstonevc.tw); a16z; YC Startup Library
- Top Business Schools: Knowledge at Wharton (upenn.edu), Harvard Business Review
- For China Market - 36氪 (for tech trends), 得到APP (especially those 藍皮書), 艾瑞咨询 (iresearch.com.cn), CBNData-第一财经商业数据中心, 京东大数据研究院, 华丽志 (for retail)
LinkedIn:
- Check posts from sales or marketing teams of the firm you're researching.
- Analyze job descriptions for insights into the firm's strategic focus. Say, if Meta is hiring VR experts on Linkedin, it could signal plans for new VR products or a shift towards their 'metaverse' vision, indicating the future direction of the company.
- Use filters to find current employees of the firm using specific keywords like "web3".
- Look for professional updates for their CEOs/ management - A CEO/ senior management's background can indicate a company's future direction. For example, a CEO with a marketing background may emphasize marketing initiatives, while a CEO with a supply chain background may focus on improving supply chain management.
Twitter:
- Best for recent announcements from companies
- Retweet and comments can be effective indicator of how their consumer (and general public) think about the compan

3.4 One step further - learn basic coding to query data in desired view 💻

Unlock the power of Python or SQL to supercharge your research capabilities! Imagine extracting tweets directly from Twitter's API for sentiment analysis or tracking information. Or access financial data right from databases like Alpha Vantage using their APIs.

With SQL, you can query databases directly, saving time and computational resources, and the best part? You can extract raw data in the view you desire! It's like walking into a data supermarket and picking out exactly what you need.

Want to get started? Online resources like Codecademy and Coursera offer courses to set you on your coding journey.

Step 4: Managing and Storing Information 💾

Become a Data Hoarder: Keep everything! PDFs, articles, audio files - hoard them all. But remember, your collection is useless if you can't find what you need. So, organize it well! Record everything - the name, source, URL of the material, key viewpoints, and data. Tools like OneNote/ Notion can assist you in this process. This approach will ensure you have a well-organized and comprehensive detective notebook for your research.
Bibliography - Your Personal Library Card Catalog: Make it detailed and searchable. Remember those old-school library card catalogs? That's what your bibliography should be like. Include links, authors, dates, and titles. It's like your own personal Dewey Decimal System.
Summarize Like a Sixth Grader: Remember when you had to summarize a story in sixth grade? Do that for your articles. It might seem tedious, but trust me, it's worth it. Plus, it's practice for your next cocktail party small talk.

Step 5: Generating Insight 🧠

Interpreting findings and transforming them into insights is a comprehensive process. It involves detecting patterns, understanding the data narrative, relating findings to your hypothesis, and determining implications for your company or industry. This crucial step is extensive and deserves a thorough exploration in a separate article. For the purpose of this article, we'll keep the discussion brief.

Ciao,

Sherman

Attached below with some of my personal reference when writing this article: