[...] 4, 2008          Part 1: Starting the Wave August 22, 2008   Part 2: Data Collection Process October 24, 2008 Part 3: The Analysis Process January 9, 2009   Part 4: Announcing the Wave, the [...]

[...] I’m a bit behind on where I need to be, and am putting in extra hours to get caught up on the wave report, take excellent care of my clients (I really love helping folks), being part of the conversation, [...]

[...] Related Resources Status Update 2: The Forrseter Wave Report [...]

[...] influencer group . The last seven business days have been intensive full day sessions with vendors for my upcoming Forrester Wave research on community platforms. I’m always energized by the fire in the eyes and the passion that comes through when talking to [...]

I have to primarily think about Forrester’s clients, who are Fortune 5000 companies.

[...] deep into the Wave research (read my latest status update) for nine community platforms (big list here), in fact, this week and next, I’m in 5 and a [...]

Sorry it took so long to respond –was in a Wave lab. I can only speak to my personal workstyle, within my team. As one would guess, the social computing team experiments as well as regularly uses a variety of tools, we’re having success with a wiki on the topics of social computing, keeping track of team efforts, and even discussion with folks outside of Forrester, collaboration tools are useful.

Regarding Forrester’s overall use of these tools, I don’t have broad visibility into this, but can put you in touch with research management to learn more.

Is the wiki you mentioned a Forrester-wide tool? I’m curious. Do *all* Forrester analysts consistently capture essential details about *all* vendor briefings in the wiki? Or is this something that only the team of social media analysts do?

Client inquiry is a critical source of information for advisory analysts like Forrester and Gartner. When it comes to client inquiry, Forrester does a great job of capturing clients’ basic questions — which is the basis for the fabulous “Forrester Advantage” data service. The initial capture is done by inquiry client service folks. Is there a formal and enforced policy at Forrester that after the inquiry analysts consistently expand the originally captured question with context and additional detail learned during the inquiry? Then there is the additional issue of whether the analysts’ specific advice was captured as well. Does management ensure that *all* analysts are consistently putting in details about the information and advice they give clients?

I am also a little skeptical that published reports are an effective way to capture knowledge. First, published research represents only a fraction of what lies between the ears of the analyst. Second, reports because of space constraints have to boil down the subject to its essence eliminating much context and nuance. Even though Forrester reports tend to be longer and more detailed than other firms, this is still a constraint you face. For example, you have stated that the Wave you are working on contains only a fraction of the analysts in this market. While you have diligently created a vendor catalog, do all analysts have a similarly detailed catalog or is the published Wave the prime repository? Third, reports are often written for a generic audience, with inquiry encouraged to apply the research report to a client’s specific situation. In some – many? – cases, the applied recommendations can be subtly different from the basic recommendations in the published research. How are these subtle differences disseminated between analysts, especially if a replacement analyst comes in after his or her predecessor has already left?

Is team communication and team research meetings insights consistently captured in the wiki? Or is this an oral tradition? How is this base of information systematically communicated to new analysts?

Thanks as always for your blog and your wiliness to discuss your research methodology.

Cheers, -carter j

[...] more about this Wave Research project: Part 1: Starting the Wave Part 2: Data Collection Process Part 3: The Analysis Process (coming soon) Part 4: Announcing the Wave (coming [...]