ICN Perspectives
Building Community is the Real Insight.
Denver-based ICN Contributor Charles Framularo is the Founder and Principal of Eiger Insights, a research consultancy providing expert-guided, accessible research services to mission-driven organizations and socially minded enterprises.
Like many of the peers and colleagues I have met over the past 20 years, I fell into my career as a market researcher. As part of my graduate studies, I’d been introduced to the field of social science research, but after ditching the academy and piecing together non-profit jobs and museum education work for a few years (neither of which paid especially well), I landed in New York City working as a junior researcher for a big firm, Harris Interactive.
Over the next 10 years, I held a series of supplier and client-side jobs in New York and Los Angeles, learning and making connections, eventually moving up to the director level. Back in the aughts and early 2010s, in the heart of the Market Research and Insights industry and surrounded by countless professionals like me, I never envisioned a future where I wanted for community.
Fast forward to today. With the rise of Zoom and remote workplaces accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, I find myself having just spent the second decade of my career largely working remotely in a city (Denver) on the outskirts of our industry, with a network scattered across the country.
The Realization: Beyond the Data
As I took my most significant career turn – founding my own consultancy – since accepting that job at Harris, I found myself reflecting on what has been most meaningful in my career; what has kept me striving in an industry I never even knew existed as a graduate student.
What I discovered, beyond the nerdy aspects many of us gravitate toward (the problem solving, the interactions with consumers, generating insights from data), is that what has meant the most to me, and what has truly catalyzed my own learning and growth (and, yes, enjoyment), is the community of researchers I’ve had the good fortune of being a part of for 20+ years.
The Mission: Reconnecting the Denver Insights Scene
Striking out on my own, I began to tap back into that community for advice, to catch up, to solicit new business, and it was so energizing and so essential to my early business wins that I began to take another look at my local community. What I found was that, outside of a few connections, I had kept my head down for so long that I really didn’t know many researchers in the Denver area.
So I got to work. I began a concerted effort to find and reach out to the local firms and the local companies with Insights teams. I joined organizations like the Insights Career Network and the Insights Association. I participated in events sponsored by Colorado Startups and Social Venture Partners. I met with people through colleagues of colleagues. And I spearheaded, alongside Chelsey Popejoy, an ICN-sponsored meet-up in the Denver area for market researchers and insights professionals this past fall. Seeing researchers from disparate fields laugh and make new connections over drinks (and share a pithy story or two) reignited my enthusiasm for my profession.
The Future: Why Local Community Still Matters
In an age where it’s easy to disappear into your remote work life, where ChatGPT is your go-to collaborator, where younger professionals entering our field find themselves less visible and, therefore, less likely to be mentored, grow, and advance, I really believe it’s essential to the future of our industry for us to make the time to gather as local communities and share knowledge and advice in an informal, low stakes environment.
If you’re in Denver, I hope to see you at our next event. If you’re in Detroit or Kansas City, I encourage you to put the data aside and find your local peers.