There’s no greater feeling than seeing your work eagerly consumed.

And there’s no worse pit in your stomach when good work goes nowhere. I’ve had a few of these and, happily, a few more of the first ones.

With proactive synthesis the problem is really tough because we need to guess the right topic – a report they didn’t ask for but deeply want. No problem – I have my Ouija board here somewhere (did you know it is a registered trademark of Hasbro Inc.?)

I’ve been talking with people who’ve hit the nail on the head in selecting synthesis topics (and a few who’ve learned from near misses). And I couldn’t agree more with this:

“I am increasingly of the view that very few people read anything… [therefore] you need to start off with a message that helps them do their job.”

-          Research Director, Johnson & Johnson

The complete answer is in Increasing the Effectiveness of Synthesis Efforts. Here’s a few highlights:

1. Be Strategically Tactical:

Synthesizers like Alticor find topics that are important to the company but immediately applicable to mid-level people. Often it is C-suite strategy making its way down to various parts of the business.

2. Don’t Be Obvious:

The best research refutes common misconceptions, resolve debates, or explains the inexplicable. So companies like Johnson and Johnson use an information inventory template to determine company-level known’s and unknowns and developed a work agenda around unknown topics.

3. When in Doubt – Ask:

Friendly business partners are a great source for feedback on proposed synthesis topics. Levi Strauss used a structured interview process to monitor stakeholder beliefs from a major segmentation project.

Additional information can be found in Increasing the Effectiveness of Synthesis Efforts and Internal Issue Partner Diagnosis