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Market Research Online Communities (MROCs) provide an agile, cost-effective way for brands to gather continuous insights from their target audiences. These private, branded communities enable researchers to engage participants in real-time discussions, test concepts, and explore behaviors in a natural digital setting. At Touchstone Research, we help brands design, recruit for, and manage online communities tailored to their strategic goals. A Market Research Online Community (MROC) is a dedicated digital space where selected participants engage with a brand or research team over time. Unlike one-off surveys or focus groups, MROCs foster ongoing dialogue, building deeper relationships with participants while capturing…

Recently, some colleagues and I released a paper about the experiences of neurodivergent PhD students. It’s a systematic review of the literature to date, which is currently under review, but available via pre-print here. Doing this paper was an exercise in mixed feelings. It was an absolute joy to work with my colleagues, who knew far more about this topic than me and taught me (finally!) how to do a proper systematic review using Covidence. Thanks Dr Diana Tan, Dr Chris Edwards, Associate Professor Kate Simpson, Associate Professor Amanda A. Webster and Professor Charlotte Brownlow (who got the band together…

👋 Our team is in the final stretch before we slow down in November: Lumos House – our flagship mansion takeover in New York, Owner’s Only – an epic party for founders and creators, and of course, Distilled Intelligence, our three-day summit in Virginia at a private 500-acre resort. Investor tickets are still available – apply below.Not long ago, someone I had just met (an acquaintance I barely knew) asked me to introduce them to someone important in my network.“Hey, can you introduce me to this person? I saw you’re connected on LinkedIn. Thanks!”It really irritated me. I wasn’t sure…

As a Commercial Manager for Maxemail at Xtremepush for almost 6 years, you can imagine I have built up some very good relationships over the years.  I am regularly in touch with our customers to understand their needs and work with them to put together a new agreement for their forthcoming contract term.   Whilst it goes without saying that our customers have a dedicated Account Manager who is in direct contact on a more regular basis than myself, my conversations with our customers are different to the ones that the Account Managers are having, which are more day-to-day and…

Google Tag Manager users received an email on March 11th, where Google announced a very cryptic update to Google Tag Manager: As is typical with Google’s email communications, the email raised more questions than it answered. Even though I tackled the email in a LinkedIn thread, there’s still a lot of misunderstanding (and misinformation) going about. In this short article, I’ll explain what Google is going to do on April 10th. X The Simmer Newsletter Subscribe to the Simmer newsletter to get the latest news and content from Simo Ahava into your email inbox! Google Tag is a prerequisite for…

Implications for Pure-Play BPO Players in the Age of AI The Capgemini–WNS merger highlights the existential challenge facing traditional pure-play BPO providers. Enterprises are accelerating the shift away from labor-intensive outsourcing toward AI-driven “Services-as-Software” models powered by Generative AI and Agentic AI. According to HFS Research in their April 2025 analysis, six out of ten enterprises expect to replace professional services with AI solutions within five years—a clear signal that the traditional “butts-in-seats” BPO model is becoming obsolete. The End of Labor-Intensive BPO Models For BPO specialists such as Genpact, EXL, and others, this market evolution creates a strategic dilemma.…

As technology is rapidly evolving, so is each sector related to it. The delivery management landscape is one such sector which is evolving at an astronomical pace. With technological advancements, shifting consumer expectations, and the global expansion of e-commerce acting as the fuel, delivery management software is destined to undergo significant transformations. In this blog, we’ll explore the massive shift towards autonomous deliveries and how the integration of drones and self-driving vehicles will reshape the logistics industry. Drone delivery, one such rapidly emerging area, is gaining a lot of market traction Introduction to Autonomous Deliveries Autonomous delivery refers to the…

You might read this post’s title and think, “Executive brain skills? What are you talking about?”  Helping your child grow their executive brain skills and capacities can be a valuable new awareness which, I believe, parents can easily adopt.  I see in my work with parents that they willingly give away the responsibility of a child’s brain development solely to the educational setting to develop these skills along with teaching the curriculum.  Those who do this are putting their child at a very large disadvantage.  I see both parents who are strong at this and also parents who are weak…

Note: if you’re a CPO looking for a new role and based in (or open to relocating to) Texas, drop me a note – I’m helping an investor friend with an executive search (here)As someone who recently went through interview loops for a variety of product leadership roles, I found it interesting how much the tone around PMs has changed. While there has always been a tension between executives (CxO’s, board) expecting PMs to answer the most strategic questions and cross-functional collaborators (EPD, GTM) expecting PMs to be on top of every detail, for the last couple of decades the…

[This post was originally published on 22nd October 2014. It has been updated on 28th April 2025] One of the most challenging things that email marketing managers have to deal with is unsubscribe messages. While the unsubscribe rate cannot be totally eliminated, you can still reduce it. So, what is a good email unsubscribe rate? According to the norms, the average unsubscribe rate stands at 0.1%. If your unsubscribe rate is higher than 0.1%, you must consider revisiting your email marketing strategy. However, the silver lining to the cloud of unsubscribe from emails is that it is better than getting…