I want to accelerate your path to consulting maturity.
I'm on this journey as well, and so this essay is partly aspirational. It's for me to look back on to see how much further I have left to grow.
Evolving from researcher to consultant means changing the scope of the problem you're solving.
Researchers generate insights; consultants provide recommendations.
Good researchers are skilled at creatively solving research problems. They're able to combine their findings to make compelling insights.
But they hide behind their data.
Insights without recommendations won't help your client succeed in business.
Consultants don't solve research problems; they're there to solve their client's business problems.
They have to take a professional (and data-backed) leap of faith by claiming the direction their client needs to head in.
Researchers answer the "what." Consultants solve the "so what" and "now what."
Consultants use the analytical skills they've honed as researchers, but they know that research cannot provide all the answers.
This ability to provide actionable, relevant recommendations comes from years of experience. It means pulling together threads from data, expertise, and client needs.
And as you grow as a consultant, your research chops deepens as well.
It's a virtuous, self-fulfilling cycle.
To accelerate this growth process for you, I'll leave you with a set of questions:
- If I were in my client's shoes, how would I stake on my own recommendations?
- If I were to start this project from scratch, knowing what I know now, what is the real problem the client needs solved?
- What do I know about my clients and industry that a freshly minted researcher won't figure out until years from now? How can I leverage that to give my client a competitive advantage?