Research heroes: Claire Emes
12 September 2016

Claire Emes is Chief Innovation Officer at Ipsos MORI. She is responsible for ensuring the company develops powerful capabilities in evolving research techniques.

She joined as a Graduate Research Executive in 2003 after gaining a BA (Hons) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University. She previously ran Ipsos MORI’s Trends & Futures unit and before that focused on helping organisations understand, grow and nurture customer loyalty. Claire enjoys public speaking and often comments on public opinion for BBC and Sky News, as well as The Today Programme.

I wish someone had told me at the beginning of my career that it is a marathon not a sprint. At times I was so desperate to move from RE to SRE etc. that I lost sense of where I was really headed.

I most admire my family. They’ve gone above and beyond, including once allowing me to turn our lives into a research study, so that I could explore/demonstrate a range of emerging digital observational tools and techniques. I would never ask a research participant to do anything I wouldn’t be prepared to do myself, but this means my husband and children have become guinea pigs for all our shiny new tools!

My favourite research project is usually the last one I've worked on, as we’re always finding new and better ways to understand people and create richer, more authentic and inspiring insights.

Any study where the results don’t make a difference is frustrating. Things are improving but too many research studies are undertaken for validation rather than inspiration.

The most amazing experience of my career was my first live TV interview. It was on public opinion towards the 2012 London Olympic Games. I’ve not felt more nervous before or since but it was such a thrill once I got through it!

I have a tendency to “overshare” so no untold stories for me!

As an industry, we should practice what we preach and I’d like to conduct more research into why people pursue a career in market research and what we could do to encourage greater diversity in skills and background. My six year old thinks I have an awesome job but I doubt there are many children who dream of being a pollster when they grow up!

If I wasn’t doing this, I would probably be a research user. I love what I do but occasionally I think it would be fun to be the one responsible for making the business or policy decisions our research informs. I used to want to be a politician but I don’t have thick enough skin!

We need to become better integrators – focusing less on data collection and more on integrating different sources of insight. I prefer to see this as an opportunity rather than a challenge!

My advice for young researchers at the start of their career is to remember that curiosity is probably what got you into research – don’t ever stop asking ‘why?’

Claire is joining the debate at the Technology and Data Summit on 13 October.