My reflections on building a consumer curiosity practice

At the end of 2023, I was set a professional development challenge – to become more curious around the research industry, our clients’ world and/or their customers. This blog series is a reflection on the curiosity techniques I’ve found effective to date in helping me build a curiosity practice.

Throughout my career I’ve always wanted to keep on top of what is going on in my client’s world. I wanted to be knowledgeable about any news they shared and answer their questions thoughtfully. But with my role keeping me busy day-to-day, it was never obvious where I could start and it felt like pushing water uphill.

Since training, how to become a more curious professional has been demystified and it’s made me far more intentional in my curiosity practice. Some of the principles that have really helped me unlock my curiosity potential are:

1)      My curiosity practice is now a non-negotiable in my working week

I’ve blocked time in my diary to actively engage in my clients’ industries, check out the news and keep up with trends. Of course it helps to have colleagues who understand the importance of protecting that time. Yet ultimately, what has really helped is combining my time to do my curiosity practice into time that I regularly spend on another activity that is a non-negotiable like my daily walk – I try my hardest to protect that walk and so my curiosity practice gets protected too!

2)      My curiosity practice is chunked up so it’s manageable

I’m the type of person who can easily get lost down a rabbit hole reading articles, reports or listening to podcasts. Setting a 15-minute timer for each time I do my curiosity practice whets my curiosity appetite without overwhelming me. And knowing I only have to do a couple of 15-minute sessions makes it less daunting on top of the working day.

3)      I’m keeping track of my curiosity practice findings

Keeping a record of what trends I am seeing has made me realise that your curiosity practice is not about becoming an expert in an hour, a day, a week or even a year. It’s about taking small incremental steps that build over time to paint a much bigger picture. I can see how far I’ve progressed in my findings and it encourages me to keep going and building that picture.

The Customer Closeness Company have a specialist team delivering Customer Curiosity training to our clients. If any of the curiosity practice principles sound interesting to you, get in touch and we can discuss how we can use these principles to help you and your colleagues become more Customer Curious.