I have done every job in this industry at some point. That matters because I understand how research is actually made - not just how it is presented. I started my research career as a telephone interviewer in Manchester. Over the next twenty years I managed fieldwork and CATI operations, built statistical models, led a client-side insight function, designed and ran qualitative programmes, and most recently worked on the commercial side of a B2B research agency.
My MSc in Social Research Methods and Statistics gave me rigorous grounding in sampling, weighting, and statistical modelling. My first degree was in History. The two disciplines are more connected than they might seem: statistics gives you breadth, history gives you depth, and together they give you the ability to read data and know whether you can trust it. That combination is what I bring to every project.
I spent eight years at Moat Homes, and the work I did there is some of the most significant of my career. I joined as a Senior Insight Analyst in a team that colleagues called the spreadsheet police. I built forecasting models, developed customer segmentations, and worked with data representing the lives of 20,000 homes. I changed how the function worked, from the data infrastructure up. By the time I left as Insight Manager, it was a mature research operation.
Since then I have built a multi-source client listening platform for a major UK law firm, developed a digital community platform for the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, moderated senior stakeholder perception interviews for a major UK water utility, and designed and launched a national business research programme.