Notes on finding the real question.
Short, opinionated pieces on research, strategy, and what founders actually need from both.
How do you measure organic social when the numbers do not tell the story?
Profitable and popular are two different things. Why engagement and follower counts keep failing brands, what to measure instead, and where the conversations that matter have moved.
Market research has a strategy problem
Most research answers the question it was handed. That is the whole problem. Why the industry keeps delivering data that never becomes a decision, and what to demand instead.
The question behind the question
Founders rarely arrive with the right question. They arrive with the symptom. Here is how to tell the difference, and the four prompts we use to get underneath it.
Little Bets for brands without a research budget
You do not need a panel, a platform, or thirty thousand dollars. Five small experiments any founder can run this month, and how to read what comes back.
What would we find in yours?
A. Sterling LLC, consumer insights and strategy. Washington, DC. info@asterlingllc.com