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Editor’s Note: The following interview features a GreenBook Future List honoree, Nathania Christy. The GreenBook Future List recognizes leadership, professional growth, personal integrity, passion, and excellence in the next generation of consumer insights and marketing professionals within the first 10 years of their careers.
Check out Nathania on the Greenbook Podcast as she discuses the difference between fleeting fads and profitable business opportunities here!
Introducing Nathania Christy of Quantum Consumer Solutions
Nathania’s done 100+ trend keynotes & innovation workshops in 20+ cities & launched an online trend methodology course & initiatives to build a global trend community. She’s working on a culture-based Trend Framework to reframe how trends are viewed.
Her biggest contribution to the industry lies in pushing the thinking/approach on consumer trends within the industry and raising awareness of trend insights/ methodology (what is it? why is it important?) to the general public (beyond marketers/ insights professionals) and the next generation (through university engagements).
She’s transformed her company (then TrendWatching) by building & leading an Academy Team, expanding the focus from trend content production to trend trainings as well, in order to expand our revenue stream and survive during COVID. She is motivated by seeing others learn, be inspired, and moved to action through trend insights. She believes it’s always exciting to help business professionals see innovation/ future possibilities beyond their day to day job, unlocking the ‘aha moment’ after sharing about trends/ future directions.
Outside of insights, what are your passions and interests?
Outside of insights, I’m deeply passionate about 2 things: education and public speaking. It all began when I was 15 years old and left Indonesia to study in Singapore under a full government scholarship. Looking back, the opportunity to access quality education forever changed my life and career trajectory. And because of that, I always wanted to give back however I can. One of the things I did was to write a book titled ‘Diamond in the Rough’ (published under Gramedia Publisher in Indonesia in 2014). It’s a reflection of my scholarship years in Singapore, with stories, anecdotes of my experiences and how I observe life – especially education – is like in Singapore, with the aim to inspire Indonesian youths (ethnographic research before I even know what that is!).
Through the book, I got many public speaking opportunities and began to fall in love with it. So when I got to TrendWatching, I tried to marry these 2 personal interests with Insights, and long story short, that’s kind of how TrendWatching Academy was born, along with the 100+ trend keynotes and workshops I was fortunate to deliver. I also consider these my greatest accomplishment since starting my career in MRX – not just for the achievement itself, but also because it’s deeply fulfilling for me personally to be able to blend my passions and innovate around them; I simply enjoy it
What are three skills you believe to be crucial to succeed in market research and why?
It’s hard to choose just 3, but here’s my shot, looking at the ‘before’, ‘during’ and ‘after’ of a market research project cycle. I believe these 3 skills are crucial to not just succeed, but stand out in market research, especially as we look to the future:
- Problem framing
- Sensemaking
- Storytelling
(Before) Problem framing – the way a problem/ opportunity is framed shapes the nature of the insights generated: which data we decide to gather, how we interpret them, the conclusions we draw. This is an important starting point in market research; we need to be able to take a step back, look at the problem with fresh lens, interrogate the business issue at hand and then sharply re-articulate (even challenge!) the brief. (During) Sensemaking – clients (and often we too!) are obsessed/ blinded with numbers and big data. But ‘thick’ data is equally important too. Big data tells us what’s happening at scale, but ‘thick’ data tells us why something is happening in context.
Sometimes, the answers lie in such thick data and therefore the ability to sense-make and connect the dots across various types of data becomes increasingly crucial as the world gets more complex. (After) Storytelling – Insights shouldn’t just be about data presentation, but a well-written, compelling story that moves and inspires clients and their stakeholders into action. Good storytelling skills are needed to turn findings into an organized journey of the ‘what’ (analysis), ‘so what’ (implications) and ‘now what’ (recommendations)
How do you advocate for others on your team or your customers?
Sometimes, as project leads, we naturally focus on creating the most cost/ process-efficient project design as the key objective. But for me, advocating for others in my team starts with consciously creating enough space for them in the project to be able to meaningfully contribute. Practically, it could look like building in more discussion time to hear their ideas, or delegating the more ‘key’ parts of the project.
From there, I’m able to better see where their unique strengths lie and it helps me to advocate for them accordingly. For example, I’d specifically mention their individual efforts to senior leaders, or recommend them for stretch assignments that shows I trust them, or if their contribution is domain-specific (e.g. introducing a new framework), encourage them to develop it further and externalize it to other teams and pitch to other clients.
Where do you see the future of insights heading in the next 10 years?
As the world become increasingly tech-driven, I think the future of insights will become more human-centric. From the consumer end, tech enables an array of new consumer experiences and to cut through the noise and deliver meaningful innovations, brands will need to go a step deeper, tap into human sciences to understand the ‘why’.
Similarly, from the industry side, tech also brings automation, improved access to data, and with such democratization, the focus will move from the ‘what’ to the ‘why’ and ‘how’. Digitalization also brings to light ‘new’ consumer types that brands are starting to pay attention to (e.g. emerging economies such as Tier 2 & 3 markets, previously marginalized consumers such as the LGBTQ+, disabled, indigenous communities).
Insights will be more diverse and inclusive and we’ll see a more representative sample and demand for deep culture work to better understand and serve these consumers. Problems of the future will also become more complex, multi-causal and subjective that solving it will require sensemaking and cultural-sensitivity viewed through human sciences lens to complement big data.
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