Next week, David Wiszniowski from the Georgian College Research Analyst Program in Canada will be joining Research Through Gaming as part of his 3 month internship, but I’m not writing about this to brag (because he is a great student)- but this is more about the significance of what this seemingly small role happening in a corner of the MR industry means for the future of Market Research and how this will shape future disruptive innovations and innovators.
We’ve worked with Game Design interns here before, and we had a Psychology student carry out her work placement here recently, but this is the first time we’re having a Research student and I will personally be teaching him how to design a ResearchGame. What does this mean for the future of Market Research?
Well, the more that companies introduce people into their research organizations who are from ‘outside’ MR circles (from the gaming industry is just one example) we will, over time, inevitably open ourselves to learn and apply teachings from different disciplines and merge these together with research, especially as new technology emerges. And with Research students already studying Gamification as a methodology (although I am pushing for people to just say ‘games’ instead), how many of those students will go on to incorporate these learnings in their future MR roles? Will every company in the future offer Gamification as a solution? Maybe not, but you can bet your bottom dollar that just as we see Linked In skill sets listing ‘Qual’, ‘Quant’ and ‘Ethnography’ etc, we’ll also see ‘Game Design’. And what’s more, as the years go by, we’ll ALL understand how this is relevant in the market research world when we see this on peoples profiles and CV’s.
David Wiszniowski is just the starting point. Let’s all be catalysts for future change with the people around us and the next generation.
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