Quarter three may not be where strategy is finalized, but it’s where it begins. While Q4 often gets the spotlight for planning and goal setting, leading organizations know that the insights needed to inform those decisions must be collected and analyzed well before Q4 begins. That makes Q3 the most strategic time to build – or reinforce – your market research team.

Insights Are Needed Before Strategy, Not After

Building your research team during Q3 ensures that your team has the time and resources needed to gather critical consumer insights now, not after planning is underway. If you wait until Q4 to start hiring or executing research, decisions may be made without the full picture or be delayed while insights catch up.

Strategic planning with market research means your business questions are informed by timely, relevant data – whether it's consumer behavior shifts, usage patterns, competitor benchmarking, or innovation testing. All of these take time to explore, and starting too late can limit the depth or reliability of your insights.

Q3 Planning Supports Q4 Clarity

When companies hire market researchers or build teams in Q3, they set themselves up for smoother planning later in the year. With a solid Q3 research team structure, your business can:

• Identify unmet consumer needs that can shape future product innovations
• Uncover brand perception trends to guide Q4 marketing efforts
• Validate current strategies with up-to-date behavioral insights
• Strengthen stakeholder confidence in data-backed decisions

At this stage, having access to flexible insights support – such as On Demand Talent – allows you to accelerate research projects, fill temporary gaps, or bring in niche expertise without overburdening your internal team.

Get Ahead of Hiring and Capacity Challenges

Hiring market researchers and insights experts can take weeks or months, especially when going through traditional full-time hiring routes. By planning ahead in Q3, you avoid last-minute scrambles or resource shortages in Q4 when deadlines are tight.

If your in-house resources are already stretched, bringing in On Demand insights professionals can help you deliver on high-priority workstreams efficiently and without long onboarding cycles. This added agility is key to managing insight operations smoothly.

Preparing for Greater Impact

Think of Q3 as your opportunity to build a research foundation that supports strategic execution down the line. Investing in this phase can mean the difference between reactive planning and proactive, insight-driven decisions. Organizations that build their Q3 research team early are typically more confident in their annual roadmap – and better equipped to respond quickly as markets shift.

Every organization has unique research needs, talent structures, and operational realities – which makes building the right market research team a nuanced challenge. Should you rely on your internal insights team, bring in external experts, or combine both?

Assessing Your Internal Insights Capacity

Your internal research team likely knows your brand, processes, and business goals well. But internal teams can become overstretched – especially when multiple functions are requesting data or new projects are ramping up in Q3. It's important to ask:

• Do we have the right skills on our current team to answer key Q4 planning questions?
• Are we able to take on both foundational and exploratory research within Q3 timelines?
• Is our current team at capacity, or do we need flexible support?

If your team has both time and expertise to deliver the insights your stakeholders need, expanding internally might make sense. But if capacity is tight or niche expertise is missing, temporary support can help without a lengthy hiring process.

Exploring External Research Solutions

External partners offer scalability, access to specialized skills, and fresh perspectives. There are several paths to add support:

• Freelancers: Often fast to hire but vary widely in experience and reliability. They typically require more onboarding or oversight to align with your goals.
• Consulting firms: Offer expertise at a premium price, but can be less flexible for shorter, targeted work.
• Insights agencies: Deliver full-service support but may not be ideal for smaller or faster-turnaround projects.
• On Demand Talent: Experienced consumer insights professionals who integrate seamlessly with your team to deliver project-based or temporary support. These professionals are ready to contribute on day one – with minimal onboarding and high skill levels.

The Best of Both Worlds: A Hybrid Approach

Many organizations find that combining internal insights teams with external On Demand Talent offers the best balance. It allows your core team to remain focused on high-priority initiatives, while On Demand professionals fill temporary gaps, lead execution, or provide niche expertise like segmentation, UX research, or international data collection.

For example, a fictional food brand with a small but capable insights team might bring in an On Demand Talent lead to conduct shopper research in Q3. This short-term support enables the team to deliver insights in time for Q4 product positioning – without slowing down other deliverables.

Choosing the Right Fit for Your Needs

There’s no one-size-fits-all model. But if you're looking to move fast, stay flexible, and maintain quality, On Demand Talent offers an efficient option. You skip months-long hiring or overpaying for projects that don't require a full agency structure. Most importantly, you gain peace of mind that your research efforts are supporting strategic planning – right when it matters most.

Ultimately, your research structure should empower your teams to plan with confidence. Whether you're building from within or tapping outside support, having the right people in place during Q3 gives you a sharper lens on what’s ahead.

Why On Demand Talent Offers a Strategic Advantage

As Q3 ramps up, the pressure is on to gather the insights you need for strategic planning. But building a permanent market research team or going through the traditional hiring process often takes longer than your planning window allows. That’s where On Demand Talent becomes an invaluable asset.

Unlike freelancers or consultants, On Demand Talent refers to seasoned consumer insights professionals who are ready to integrate with your team at short notice. These experts bring years of category, brand, and research experience – helping your business unlock insights faster without compromising on quality.

Key Benefits of Using On Demand Talent in Planning Cycles

• Speed to activation: On Demand professionals can be onboarded in days or weeks – much faster than hiring full-time insights staff.
• Specialization: Whether you need support on quant studies, shopper insights, product testing or strategic frameworks, you can match talent to skillset instantly.
• Cost control: Tap into expert knowledge only when you need it. This gives you financial control over resourcing without sacrificing project momentum.
• No training required: These are not junior-level hires – On Demand Talent arrives ready to contribute from day one.
• Built-in flexibility: Scale your market research team up or down depending on planning stage, scope, or business changes.

For example, a fictional CPG company entering Q3 realized it lacked internal bandwidth for shopper behavior analysis before its Q4 innovation planning. Rather than overloading existing teams or rushing a hire, they brought in two On Demand Talent professionals with retail insights backgrounds. Within two weeks, they had actionable findings that fed directly into next-quarter decisions.

Strategic planning with market research doesn’t need to be bottlenecked by limited bandwidth or hiring timelines. With On Demand Talent, you gain flexible, high-impact insights support without long-term commitments – the ideal solution for fast-moving organizations.

Steps to Build a High-Performing Q3 Research Team – Fast

By Q3, it’s not just about collecting data – it’s about assembling a team that can uncover insights, synthesize learnings, and influence directional strategy in time for Q4. If you’re wondering how to build a research team for Q3, speed and flexibility should guide your approach.

Start with What You Have

Review your internal research resources: who’s available, what skills are in-house, and which business units will need insights over the next quarter. This audit helps clarify your current strengths and highlights the specific gaps that need to be filled.

Identify Gaps in Expertise or Capacity

Are you missing qualitative capabilities? Is your analytics person tied up with another project? Do you lack category knowledge in a new market? Identifying these needs early allows you to bring in the right external support before crunch time.

Augment With On Demand Talent

This is where hiring insights experts fast for planning becomes critical. Rather than recruiting from scratch or waiting in line with staffing agencies, request specialized On Demand Talent to move quickly. These professionals can be matched to your project within days, not months, and ramp up instantly to support your goals.

Your ideal Q3 research team might look like this:

• One internal insights lead managing workload prioritization
• A SIVO On Demand Talent pro supporting segmentation modeling
• Another On Demand Talent expert running foundational qual interviews
• Frequent alignment points between internal and external members

This hybrid model mixes internal context with proven research execution – creating a team that’s responsive and efficient.

Keep Communication Simple and Regular

Even flexible teams need structure. Ensure there are clear roles, reporting processes, and weekly check-ins so external talent stays tightly connected to deliverables and deadlines. With the right setup, you’ll experience fewer hiccups and stronger outcomes throughout the quarter.

Effective Q3 planning relies on proactive resourcing. By combining internal capabilities with scalable talent, you’ll avoid burnout, maintain quality, and feed executive planning with actionable data, not educated guesses.

Get Ahead by Finalizing Insights in Q3 – Not in Q4

If your insights are arriving just as strategic planning kicks off, they’re already too late to inform key decisions. The best way to avoid last-minute stress is to align your consumer insights before Q4 begins – allowing leadership to plan with confidence, not speculation.

Why Early Alignment Matters

When insight teams are still fielding studies or writing reports during Q4 conversations, the result is reactive, not strategic. Decisions get made on gut feel or historical data instead of fresh, consumer-backed evidence. This gap can lead to misaligned priorities, inefficient resource use, or missed growth opportunities.

One of the biggest challenges SIVO hears from clients: “We didn’t have the insights we needed when planning started.” The fix? Start Q3 with a roadmap that puts key learnings in place before strategic decks are drafted.

Steps to Stay Ahead of the Curve

• Create a Q3 research calendar aligned to planning milestones – Kick off critical studies early enough for analysis and distribution before Q4 discussions begin.
• Use On Demand Talent to execute faster – Fill bandwidth gaps and accelerate timelines by deploying trusted research experts who can get results quickly.
• Bring insights to the table proactively – Don’t just wait to be asked. Deliver timely, actionable findings that help shape the Q4 conversation from the start.

For instance, a fictional retail brand leveraged an On Demand Talent professional in July to conduct fast-turn qualitative studies on back-to-school consumer preferences. By late August, their insights team presented clear shopper behavior shifts to the executive group, influencing fall messaging and promotional focus before their planning slides were finalized.

Remember: strategic planning with market research only works if research arrives before strategic thinking is locked. By using Q3 wisely and aligning early, you avoid the fire drills and make your insight team indispensable to business planning.