Getting to know Logica Research’s Senior Research Manager, Brian Sheil

Brian understands that better insights drive better products and services for customers. He brings exceptional research management experience to his work with clients at Logica, including work in financial services, consumer durables and healthcare. Brian is focused on understanding each client’s business objectives and providing them actionable insights, while making their lives easier. Prior to joining Logica Research, Brian was at Applied Marketing Science where he conducted hundreds of conversations with consumers and B2B audiences to uncover unmet customer needs. He has extensive experience in consumer journey mapping, concept and product testing and brand tracking. Brian holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and is currently pursuing his MBA from Providence College.

How did you first enter the market research and insights field? 

BRIAN: I majored in Political Science at Providence College and was primarily interested in the idea that if you knew enough about a person or group, you could generally predict their behavior on things like who they would vote for or if they would vote. There is a lot of research that goes into this, both qual and quant, which I really enjoyed. After school, I had no desire to work in politics, but still had the same passion for research and understanding people. I found market research which lets me use this research to help answer questions businesses have!

What’s your favorite part of working in market research and insights, what has surprised you, what has delighted you?

BRIAN: I really enjoy working with our clients from the beginning of projects to let us fully understand what the insights they need are. It’s a rewarding process being able to report out to our clients the answers to the questions they originally had. The reporting and findings phase is the best part.

What’s your favorite research approach, or combination of approaches? 

BRIAN: I enjoy multi-phase projects that include both qualitative and quantitative research. I think research that incorporates both can deliver the most powerful results. Being able to use qual to inform surveys/questionnaires in quant gives us a better ability to write effective questions. Pulling in quotes and verbatims to give life to the data points in the quant is another favorite. It’s a powerful way to tell a story for internal and external stakeholders!

What has been your favorite research project during your career so far, and why did you like it?

BRIAN: We recently completed a study for a payments provider focused on the topic of money in the metaverse. I had never worked on a project used for this type of thought leadership that really felt on the cutting edge. The results were fascinating and in an area that’s likely only going to increase in importance in the next 3-5 years.

If someone outside the market research field asks what you do, what do you tell them?

What do you see going on in the field of market research that is highly innovative today and how do you see it impacting the future of insights?

BRIAN: The impact of AI is going to be really interesting in every industry, but especially in market research. I think we can leverage AI in areas on analysis and synthesizing large amounts of data in ways we haven’t been able to in the past. I think AI will be an augment to the work we do rather than replace it. At the center of our research is always going to be people and their opinions, and we need researchers like us to really help distill and communicate findings. AI is an exciting tool and we’re looking into how we can best use this and evolve with the changes in times.

Reach out to Brian here.