As our next installment in our Emerging Roles Profile series, here is an interview with our Production Manager, Cathy Parker-Sauer. Though not on Job’s original list of Five Emerging Roles that Are Changing the Face of Market Research, production in market research is also rapidly changing and we felt it deserved a closer look. In this interview with Cathy, we’ll get to peek into the engine that keeps Face, and other similar agencies, running.
How would you describe your role?
We are at the heart of what Face does, every day. From project kick-off, I manage the logistics around ensuring fieldwork is set up, and that the necessary processes have been thought through in order for the project to run smoothly.
The production team oversees:
- drafting screeners
- recruiting either directly or through global and local field partners
- booking workshop venues
- making travel arrangements
- providing relevant equipment
- managing budgets
- and coordinating amongst all teams
How did you become a production manager? What’s your background?
I studied Event Management whilst working at an events company in South Africa. I then moved to London and found a job managing a world-class viewing facility, which sounded perfect because the research element interested me and it was like coordinating mini-events all day, every day. This was my first step into the marketing research world.
I joined Face in January 2011 as Production Manager and have loved working on a different range of methodologies, mainly co-creation, as it was something that was new to me coming from a traditional qualitative background. At Face I am surrounded by a team who are inspiring and who absolutely live up to their respective roles.
Any tips for how to stand out from the competition when you’re trying to get a job in co-creation?
From project kick off, I manage the logistics around ensuring fieldwork is set up, and that the necessary processes have been thought through in order for the project to run smoothly. You need to have good knowledge of research methodologies and have good relationships with fieldwork partners and recruiters alike. It is essential to have good delegation, time management and communication skills in order to deliver projects smoothly and on time. As I oversee budgets to make sure projects are profitable, it is key that I work alongside the commercial team when costing for projects and evaluate the budget continually throughout the project. This is a role where flexibility is key and giving up is not an option!
What are the top rules you have to follow as a production manager in market research?
- Get a good brief from the commercial team / researchers in order to brief in field correctly and limit changes. A good brief should include the approach and methodology, the sample criteria and quotas, timings, locations, and logistics information, like accommodations and catering.
- Negotiate costs with suppliers – however never compromise quality for cost.
- Take risks and push yourself with more creative approaches
- Remain flexible but not at the expense of the research. For example, make changes to the screener – however if this eats in to recruitment time this may jeopardize your research, e.g. having to shift the timings or to decrease your sample if necessary.
What’s the biggest mistake you most often see in production management? What’s so bad about it, when it does go wrong?
If the screener is not perfect this will affect the sample and sometimes can totally affect the research. It is one of the most important documents in the project set-up and sign-off phase.
The problems that can come up with screener writing can be:
- When there are too many opinions involved in sign-off. This tends to make the screener complex and too long. Keeping it simple, compact with a good flow is important.
- If there are specific segments that are required and an algorithm is not supplied to the research agency, participants might fall into more than one segment affecting the sample and the research. Where segments are required, algorithms should always exist.
- Making multiple changes to the screener or details during fieldwork. This confuses the recruiter / partner and although one change is usually fine, multiple changes have bigger chances of impacting the project negatively if not tracked and followed up throughout fieldwork.
Where do you see your role going in the next five years? What’s the future for marketing research production?
The way the industry is evolving, I think co-creation will be done less face-to-face and more online (online chat groups, online communities etc) so it is key to ensure our online platforms are able to accommodate this. They need to be user-friendly and faultless.
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