Every Quirk’s Event agenda reflects the questions, priorities and concerns research teams are working through at a given point in time. At Quirk’s New York later this month, AI and data quality are still front and center, but our CEO and Founder, Lilah Raynor, is also looking forward to hearing from several financial services organizations. Their sessions touch on many of the issues financial research teams deal with every day, from designing better studies and communicating results to influencing business decisions and leading teams through change.

Insights teams are often asked to support product development, marketing, customer experience and strategy at the same time, making communication just as important as methodology when it comes to influencing business decisions. Research findings only create value when they shape the decisions that follow, whether that’s launching a new product, changing the customer experience or adjusting a marketing strategy. BECU’s session, “Evidence, not ego: The art of influencing without authority,” explores how researchers can build support for their recommendations, while Veterans United Home Loans takes a different approach with “On with the show: What Broadway can teach us about consumer insights,” examining how storytelling and presentation techniques help research connect with stakeholders. Insights teams need to be able to communicate findings in ways that lead to action!

Financial services companies spend a lot of time researching business customers, and buying decisions rarely come down to one person. Research has to account for committees, influencers and multiple decision-makers, all of whom may view the same purchase differently. At Quirk’s New York this year, the panel discussion “Beyond demographics: Understanding and marketing to today’s B2B decision maker,” will have leaders from PayPal, RBC, Visa, HP and The Harris Poll sharing how they’re approaching B2B research today. Bloomberg also joins the program in “Turning real research into living audiences: How digital twins are opening new ways to unlock insight,” exploring how digital twins can extend the value of existing research and create new opportunities for ongoing learning. The sessions show how financial organizations are thinking about both the people they research and the ways that research can continue delivering value over time.

Research design also shows up in several sessions this year. Lilah is especially interested in Prudential’s “Stop paying for bad data: Rethinking incentives in survey research,” which examines how participation incentives influence respondent behavior and data quality. Rather than focusing only on detecting fraud after the fact, the session explores how participation can be designed to encourage more thoughtful engagement from the start. That conversation pairs well with PayPal’s “Creative in, creative out: Designing research that inspires better outputs,” which looks at how decisions made before fieldwork begins shape the quality of the data collected and how findings are received across the business. PayPal is also joining Buzzback and Kenvue for “Beyond stereotypes: How brands are understanding and engaging Gen Z,” a session exploring how researchers can move beyond broad assumptions to better understand one of today’s most closely studied consumer groups. These sessions highlight the many decisions researchers make before analysis even begins, from designing studies and recruiting participants to asking better questions.

Leadership is on the agenda too. New York Life joins Colgate-Palmolive for “From resilience to impact: Leading insights teams through change and driving value,” a discussion about leading research teams while introducing new technology, responding to changing business priorities and supporting the broader organization. It’s a topic that comes up in just about every conversation with research leaders these days.

Working with banks, investment firms and fintech companies gives us a front-row seat to many of these kinds of conversations throughout the year. Quirk’s New York is bringing some important topics together in one place. Let us know if you’ll be there!