A quarterly learning agenda is more than just a research calendar – it’s a strategic tool that aligns your insights work with business goals. In a fast-paced market, where needs change rapidly and attention is often split across channels, having a structured learning plan helps teams focus their efforts and make data-backed decisions when it matters most.

Connecting Insights to Strategy

A learning agenda ensures that every research study serves a clear purpose – helping to answer key business questions and inform product, brand, or marketing strategies effectively. Instead of conducting isolated research activities, teams organize their work around a bigger picture: what we need to know this quarter to move the business forward.

Making Research More Actionable

One common challenge in market research is that findings often end up in static decks, rarely acted upon. A well-crafted learning agenda can change that by forcing teams to prioritize the questions that are tied to decisions or upcoming milestones – such as product launches, campaign developments, or strategic planning sessions.

Benefits of a Research Learning Agenda

• Focus: Helps clarify the top business questions you need answered now
• Efficiency: Reduces duplication by mapping what’s already known vs. what’s still unclear
• Timeliness: Ensures insights are generated just in time to influence decisions
• Alignment: Brings stakeholders together around shared learning objectives

Turning Ad Hoc Research into a Roadmap

Many research teams are still operating reactively, responding to questions as they come in. But this reactive model limits strategic impact and often leads to redundant or misaligned efforts. By contrast, a quarterly research plan gives teams and stakeholders a roadmap for what insights will be explored, when, and why. It enables better forecasting, more thoughtful budgets, and stronger collaboration across departments.

Where On Demand Talent Fits In

Building an impactful research agenda requires both strategic thinking and execution power. That’s where SIVO’s On Demand Talent can help. These seasoned consumer insights professionals can help craft or refine your quarterly learning agenda, ensure studies stay on strategy, and bring consistency to your research outputs. Whether you're running lean or just need temporary support, On Demand Talent can fill critical gaps without the long-term commitment of hiring – helping your team operate efficiently and at a high level.

Once you’ve established your learning agenda, the next step is turning that framework into action. Structuring and sequencing your market research is critical to ensure each study builds upon the last and supports better decision-making. With agile research tools like Toluna, you can test ideas quickly, make iterative improvements, and uncover insights that are both timely and relevant – but only if used strategically.

Start with Your Business Questions

The foundation of any quarterly research plan lies in identifying the right business questions. Start by listing out what your organization needs to learn this quarter. These could include:

• What are the unmet needs of our customers?
• Which product ideas resonate most with our target audience?
• How well is our messaging connecting with consumers?
• What pricing strategies will be most effective in Q2?

Toluna testing makes it easy to design studies for different types of questions – from concept validation to attitude and usage tracking. Once you’ve identified your questions, match them to the appropriate type of test and timeframe.

Sequence Your Studies Thoughtfully

Proper sequencing prevents bottlenecks and ensures learnings build logically. For example, you don’t want to validate a marketing message before you’ve confirmed which product concept works best. Consider structuring your research path in phases:

Phase 1 – Exploration:

Understand the landscape and customer pain points (e.g. Toluna surveys, behavioral analysis)

Phase 2 – Validation:

Test product, communication, or pricing concepts (e.g. A/B tests, monadic testing)

Phase 3 – Optimization:

Fine-tune your launch strategy or creative assets based on findings

Leverage Built-In Agility

One of the biggest advantages of Toluna is its ability to deliver rapid, real-time insights without going through a traditional research agency process. This makes it ideal for iterative testing throughout your quarter. For example, you might run a quick concept screen early in the quarter, then refine select ideas through deeper monadic testing in the weeks that follow.

Don’t Go It Alone: The Role of Expert Support

While platforms like Toluna make research more accessible, interpreting the results and ensuring studies tie back to business goals still requires expertise. This is where On Demand Talent provides meaningful value. These experienced insights professionals can guide your team on how to create the right study designs, how to avoid common pitfalls in DIY market research, and how to connect insights across touchpoints into a cohesive narrative.

Whether you’re expanding your use of agile research tools or just starting out, combining platforms like Toluna with strategic talent ensures your research supports growth – not guesswork.

A strong quarterly research plan starts with clear priorities. Without direction, even the best tools – including agile platforms like Toluna testing – can result in scattered efforts and missed insights. Setting research priorities helps ensure every study answers strategic business questions and fuels momentum across teams.

Start With Business Goals

Before diving into tactical research questions, step back and align with your company’s broader objectives. Is the focus this quarter on innovation, market expansion, or improving customer retention? These goals shape the types of insights your teams will need most. For example, if the business is testing a new product line, concept validation through platforms like Toluna becomes a top priority.

Identify Knowledge Gaps

Next, evaluate what you currently know about your customers, brand, and market – and where the knowledge gaps are. These gaps become the foundation for a strong learning agenda. Do you need to better understand a new target audience segment? Are you unsure how your messaging performs in different regions? Each of these needs can be scoped as a research study.

Ask the Right Questions First

To determine what questions to answer first, consider:

• Which questions will unlock the most decision-making power?
• What insights are needed before moving on to the next phase (e.g., product development, campaign launch)?
• Which studies can be conducted quickly with agile research tools like Toluna, and which require longer lead times?

For example, a fictional consumer brand going through packaging updates may prioritize rapid Toluna testing to compare new concepts within a week – ensuring materials go to production on schedule. Meanwhile, exploratory studies on evolving consumer behavior can run in parallel, feeding into future quarters.

Balance Quick Wins with Long-Term Learning

Not all research has to result in immediate action. A complete insight strategy balances urgent needs with foundational studies that improve long-term understanding, like audience segmentation or brand positioning. Mixing fast-turn DIY market research with deeper, strategic work helps build a well-rounded agenda that serves short-term needs while strengthening long-term vision.

This is where structured market research planning pays off. Prioritizing the right questions at the start of your quarterly plan ensures time and resources flow toward impact – not just activity.

While agile platforms like Toluna allow teams to move fast, speed alone isn’t enough. Every quarterly research plan needs to stay on course – focused on the right questions, designed for real-world action, and integrated with your company’s decision-making rhythms. This is where On Demand Talent can lead to a lasting difference.

Expertise That Keeps Research on Strategy

On Demand Talent from SIVO are not freelancers or generic consultants. They’re experienced consumer insights professionals who understand how to design effective learning agendas, integrate with internal teams, and extract actionable value from DIY market research platforms. They work alongside your team to:

• Clarify and prioritize business objectives
• Design strategically aligned research roadmaps
• Ensure Toluna testing and other agile tools are used effectively
• Translate data into decisions that teams can act on

For example, many businesses jump into a survey on Toluna with a general question, only to regret missing key follow-ups or neglecting to segment the responses. An On Demand Talent expert can structure that same research for clarity and focus, often avoiding the need to redo or supplement the study later.

Flexible Support That Builds Capabilities

One of the biggest benefits of working with On Demand Talent is flexibility. Whether you're launching five concept tests next quarter or preparing for a brand strategy refresh, these experts can be scaled up or down as your needs evolve. They also support knowledge transfer – helping upskill your team and instilling best practices for ongoing agile research planning.

Rather than adding full-time headcount or overspending on large agency retainers, On Demand Talent allows you to bring in the exact skillset you need, when you need it – often in days, not months. This is especially valuable during high-volume research quarters or when internal teams are stretched thin.

Drive Better Outcomes with DIY Tools

DIY platforms like Toluna make it easier to conduct rapid studies, but they don’t replace the need for human research expertise. On Demand Talent fills this critical gap – helping businesses maximize their investment in agile research tools while ensuring quality, focus, and value from every study in the learning agenda.

When market research is done in isolation – one study at a time – it can be difficult to see the full picture. But a good quarterly research plan is more than a set of individual projects. It’s a connected system designed to build on itself over time, helping teams make smarter decisions and deliver bigger business impact.

From Data Points to a Cohesive Narrative

Each study within your quarterly learning agenda is a puzzle piece. One might explore early-stage concept appeal, another might assess brand equity, and yet another might profile evolving consumer needs. Alone, each offers a snapshot. Together, they reveal the larger story of what's driving behavior and where future opportunities lie.

For instance, a fictional food company may use Toluna testing to explore new snack flavors, conduct a separate segmentation study to define high-opportunity consumers, and then run a follow-up test on messaging strategy. By linking these insights, the company identifies not just the most popular flavors, but which ideas resonate with strategic segments and what language drives trial.

Build a Research Roadmap that Grows Over Time

Linked insights help teams:

• Create continuity across quarters – knowledge doesn’t reset every 90 days
• Spot trends and behavior shifts earlier
• Act faster, with more confidence and less duplication

Agile platforms like Toluna make it easy to move quickly, but without a clear insight strategy to connect the dots, value can be left on the table. Revisiting and referencing past studies – even just three or six months prior – can spark new questions and strengthen upcoming projects.

Don’t Let Insights Sit in Silos

To avoid siloed research, assign clear ownership for insight integration. On Demand Talent can play a key role here too – curating findings across projects, creating digestible summaries, and aligning insights with internal planning calendars. These experts help ensure that your learning agenda doesn’t just generate data, but delivers accumulated intelligence that compounds in value.

Ultimately, the goal isn’t just to “do research.” It’s to drive growth. By linking insights across studies and aligning them to strategy, your quarterly research plan becomes a powerful engine – not just for answers, but for action.