The document outlines six steps to create insights for marketing: 1. Flood yourself with information by reading widely on your category, customers, competitors and observing stores. 2. Get to know your data thoroughly by immersing yourself in all available data. 3. Stop and reflect on the information and data by letting your mind process it before trying to form insights. 4. Write out hypotheses and ideas that come to mind and consider alternative perspectives. 5. Return to the data to validate or invalidate your hypotheses. 6. Determine the potential value and actionability of any insights by considering what could be done to implement them.

1. How do you actually create an insight?
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2. Insights are the heart, the lifeblood of marketing
Creating insights is one of those things that make marketing so
interesting – a blend of magic and science that somehow
enables people to be able to conjure simple brilliance from
apparently nowhere.
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3. Really. How do you do it?
I wrote this deck because someone asked how I create
insights.
There may be lots of ways.
This just happens to work for me!
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4. Don’t go looking for them; wait for them to find you!
For this to work, you need to be always open to them
Anytime, anyplace
Keep a notepad with you always
Follow the key steps in the next few charts
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5. Six steps to insight
Flood
yourself in
information
Get to
know the
data
Stop and
reflect
Size the
Prize
Back to the
data
Write out
hypotheses

6. Information flood
Flood yourself in information. Read lots. Be always interested and aware of everything.
Read everything you can find on your category, customer, market, competitors.
Read unrelated stuff.
Follow Twitter curators (@shopperexperts for example).
Go to stores and just send time observing.
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7. Dig into the data
Get to know the data.
When you need to find
insights, immersion is the
name of the game
Not just the latest report,
but ANYTHING YOU CAN
GET YOUR HANDS ON.
Read. Know it backwards,
forwards, upside down and
back to front.
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8. Stop.
Once you’ve eye-balled all the
data – Wait. Go and do
something else.
Think about
something else.
Stop and reflect.
Allow the neurons in your head to
fizz over this for a while. If a
thought pops into your head, play
with it and then let it go (but do
write it down).
Insights don’t always enter the
world fully formed with a big
flashing label on them.
Insights can be subtle at first –
they sometimes need time to
mature like a fine wine
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9. Hypotheses
Write out all of your
ideas and hypotheses
and thoughts.
Turn them upside
down. Look at the data
in a different way? Ask
“what ifs”. Invert the
answer (if your first
thought is “20 percent
of shoppers do x” –
consider what the 80%
are doing.
Then go back to the data
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10. Size the prize
An insight isn’t really
interesting unless it is
valuable and
actionable. How much
might it be worth?
What needs to be
done to implement it?
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