A recent McKinsey report included this gem.
“CMOs have all these amazing customer metrics and everything’s measurable, and it’s almost overwhelming for the CEOs and the C-suite to be able to grasp it,” said McKinsey partner and report co-author Robert Tas. “Marketing is certainly trying to do the right things. And I think as we talk to CMOs, they all think they’re connecting the dots, but when it translates up top, it loses some of its applicability to the business metrics.”
If you haven't heard of Meaningful.app yet, get ready for a new tool that has some super solid analytical capabilities that will set you - the insights professional - up for success as the person who directly connects the data to the business metrics.
You're about to become the CMO's new best friend.
The tool started as a humble AI open-text moderator. As a researcher, you'd use the AI interface as you would many other AI survey writing aids: input your study goal with as much detail as possible, and it will generate some questions for you that you can then modify. The caveat here is that these are all open-ended text questions. There are no quantitative questions here, nor are there video questions.
You are then guided to include an introduction that people will see before being served any questions, and a thank you message that you can modify for when the survey is complete. You set up your screener, go through a quick setup of your audience and either use sample (they partner with providers to achieve your audience needs) or get a link to use on your own, either with your own sample providers or with your internal sample.
Respondents get the introduction, then are shown each question to which they enter their reply. The AI then probes a bit and moves to the next question until the survey is complete.
I know - it sounds familiar, right?
You can also upload existing transcripts under their "Ingest" function.
Quick note before we continue: the study you will see referenced here is a study I conducted using this tool about the difficulties buyers encounter when trying to buy market research technology. I was not paid to write this review, and the study was not done in exchange for writing this review. In fact, the kind folks at Meaningful.app won't know I'm writing this until it's published. Hi, guys!
But here is where the differentiation begins - the analysis.
From the very first response received, the analysis begins. This tool gives you the key findings, but it also generates recommendations based on the responses received. It also generates a sentiment analysis and emotions identified from the text inputs, alongside the themes and keywords.
But then comes the Answers section. You don't just get the question and a list of all the answers. You ALSO get:
- Commonalities: what were the common themes from the answers.
- Differences: what were the variations in the answers - what did some people focus on versus others?
- Unique insights: if there were responses that included something nobody else did, you'll find them here.
Next is the Deep Dive - a root cause analysis based on the answers!
Pain points are identified in the answers. These are then analyzed for root causes of those pain points. You are shown the root cause, evidence of the root cause, and then the Underlying Issues, Contributing Factors, and a handy quote from a response labeled, "User Perspective."
This is gold for the qualitative researcher who is looking for that deeper look into the data. Should you take it just at face value? No, but my own study output and review of the root cause analysis was accurate, though there was some overlap in the analysis among the Underlying Issues listed. However, the fact they were listed more than once, to me, emphasized the fact it was, indeed, an issue!
And now we come to the Impact Analysis. Your stakeholders would love this. My favorite? The Business Impact section, complete with customer satisfaction impact, revenue implications, and competitive position impact.
Take that to the boardroom table and watch your schedule fill up with return requests to keep bringing more!
Summary
In this age of AI, we can all agree the insights professional needs to be the strategic partner with the data-based recommendations. They need to have the information and the ability to tie it to the business bottom line. This tool helps you get there by giving it to you in the analysis itself by going beyond the themes and giving you the impacts to the business the findings indicate that business leaders are asking you to deliver.
Built by someone with a strong consulting background who knows exactly what business leaders need and constantly demand, the goal behind this tool is to help you be the strategy hero backed by data. You do the research; Meaningful.app's analysis capabilities help you tie insight to impact - literally.