Market Research: Foundations to Practice · Communicating Insights and Research Careers
From Findings to Recommendations
The gap between a technically correct finding and an actual business recommendation is where a large share of otherwise rigorous research fails to create any real impact. This chapter covers how to close it.
As established in Module 1, research exists to inform a decision, which means a report that stops at reporting findings, such as '62 percent of respondents preferred concept A over concept B,' without translating that finding into a specific, actionable recommendation for what the business should actually now do about it, has not yet completed its actual job, regardless of how statistically sound the underlying finding itself genuinely is.
Key Takeaways
- A report that stops at reporting findings without translating them into a specific, actionable recommendation hasn't completed research's actual job.
- Effective recommendations explicitly connect back to the original research objective, rather than leaving stakeholders to work out that connection themselves.
- Credible recommendations are honest about their own confidence level, distinguishing strong evidence-backed conclusions from more tentative, directional ones.
- Strong communication anticipates likely stakeholder follow-up questions and addresses them proactively within the report itself.