All clients are wonderful. Of course, we’d say that. But do you know what type of insight client you are? And are you aware of the potential blind spots?

A major fault line among clients, we find, is a factual one: whether or not insight is the core focus of the role.

A secondary fault line is perhaps more subjective: whether or not you’re more drawn to the process and delivery of insight, or to driving business or organisational outcomes.

While insight professionals may need to perform across both process and outcomes, there is sometimes an innate preference for one or the other. If you’re a client who manages insight and feels unappreciated for it, there may be a mismatch between your focus and what your manager or organisation is expecting of you (or believes is possible).

Some might say teams should all strive to be activists or strategists, but the truth is that too much focus here can lead to myopia: seeking to prove a pet theory, or deploying inappropriate techniques because they’re the most familiar. Teams really need people or agency partners who can operate in both ways: the two mindsets don’t have to reside in the same person, but they should reside in the same client-side or agency team. And there should be absolute respect for each type of contribution, all whilst being aware of the potential blind spots.

What of all this? We think there are two implications:

1. We need to clarify organisational and personal expectations using the above language or similar thinking in order to bring transparency and clarity when hiring, goal-setting, and in performance reviews.

2. We must emphasise the value of both sides of the equation: organisations may desire activism and business results, but require education to appreciate the inputs involved.

What kind of insight client are YOU?