Your 2026 Insights Planner
It's here! Just what you ordered: a polished, strategic, ready-for-sign-off Insights Planner for 2026. Here's what could be on your research agenda for 2026, if only you had 10 minutes to make a plan...
January is for strategic planning and reviewing last year's research. Wait - you still haven't debriefed that last-minute project you commissioned to use up 2025 budget? Schedule a workshop and get your team across it, before those insights get filed away in '2025 stuff'...
Feb & March are ideal for capturing early pain points, assuming most of your students are starting now. Get some interviews done and catch students before they forget what was so hard about being new to uni.
April is a great month for 'decliners' research - considered by many, but carried out by so few. Dig up the data, contact those who said 'no thanks' and brace yourself for some of the most useful insights you've heard.
Nearly mid-year - time for a comms & publications review! Gather some key target groups and sense check what you're putting out there. Does it resonate? Is it aligned with your positioning? Is it helping?
June: don't forget to review QILT - you've got the data, so get into it. Do you need a handful of interviews to flesh out the detail on the broader findings? Students are waiting to be asked…
July: it's halfway through the school year and time to check in with high schools - students, parents, careers advisors.... what are they thinking? Are you on their radar? What do they need to know before committing?
August: Open Day season! Do something different this year and set up your staff for structured observations and on-the-spot (guerrilla) interviewing. What questions do prospects have? Is your information and comms helping?
Sept: Don't forget to support QILT survey completion in your institution - it's great longitudinal data that is part of your insights armoury. Whilst you're here, why not tackle the ongoing theme of retention with some new approaches? Digital diaries and 1:1 interviews can fill in gaps your numbers are missing.
Oct & Nov: It's conference season! Get out to AIEC for international updates and TEQSA for key sector insights. Set challenges for your team to bring back the juiciest data and key learnings.
Dec: What - it's Christmas already? PANIC SPEND*! Pick your favourite, reliable researcher who absolutely doesn't have 3 other projects to wrap up before Christmas Eve, and set her a challenge: can we really get student insights that fast? Will we ever get budget approved for research again?
This insights calendar is brought to you by me, a qualitative research specialist who has genuinely loved working on all your thoughtful research projects this year.
*Any resemblance to client projects past, present or future is absolutely coincidental. I don't know anyone who has approached me with a brief at this time of year, honestly... 🤭