Outdated strategy holding you back? 4 signs it's time to test in the wild

There are lots of ways to conduct market research, especially in today’s world. 

Unfortunately, that also means there’s plenty of ways to fall short or unknowingly cut some corners. 

Many research programs were designed for a slower, more predictable world: long timelines, static personas, and big, infrequent studies. Today, consumer behavior shifts faster than those cycles can keep up. Channels fragment, expectations evolve, and decisions are often made before traditional research delivers answers. 

Testing in the wild keeps up with consumer values in real-time. By going in-feed and gleaning insights “undercover”, we’re able to test with specific audiences without them realizing they’re even part of a test.  

When research reflects yesterday’s reality, brands lose momentum and potential breakthroughs. Outdated insights lead to slower decisions, misaligned products, and strategies optimized for a market that no longer exists. 

1. Your research can't keep up with trends

The modern market faces modern challenges. 

Research has to be razor-sharp if it’s going to cut through the noise to what people really care about.  

Many brands still rely on large, infrequent studies with long fieldwork and analysis timelines. While rigorous, these approaches struggle to inform real-time decisions around innovation and messaging, especially in noisier spaces with lots of competition. 

How does this happen? 

Trend cycles. By the time your survey-based marketing strategy makes it to the audience, they're already on to something else.

When we test in-feed, we’re able to turn around actionable reports without the time investment of conducting surveys, so businesses can develop go-to-market strategies backed by facts in a fraction of the time, before trend cycles turn over again. 

2. Your research doesn’t challenge your instincts

If research exists to confirm what teams already believe, growth will remain stagnant. 

Research is often commissioned late in the process, once direction is already set. At that point, findings tend to be framed as proof rather than discovery, reinforcing bias instead of bringing new opportunities to the surface.  

The strongest research functions are designed to disrupt certainty, not protect it. 

3. Your research doesn’t grow with your consumers

Personas that don’t evolve quickly can get glazed over. 

Economic pressure, cultural change, and platform shifts reshape consumer behavior constantly, yet many teams still rely on demographic-heavy personas built years ago, for another world entirely.  

Customer understanding should be a continuous process, one that’s refreshed, behaviorally grounded, and responsive to the change that’s happening to and around us all the time. 

In the wild testing happens where these discourses do too, so your brand can stay part of the conversation where it makes sense to.

4. Your insights come mostly from surveys

There’s too many ways for surveys to be skewed today. 

What with bots, bias, and questions around anonymity, surveys have more potential for problems than reliable results. Overly abstract findings create friction between research and execution, and when stakeholders have to interpret what to do next, insights lose their edge. 

Modern research should be conducted where modern consumers live: in-feed.  

Outdated research tends to move too slowly, reinforce bias, freeze customer understanding, and produce insights that are hard to act on. 

The most effective research organizations are building decision-ready feedback loops that stay close to where consumers are today.  

If your research function feels disconnected from how decisions are made, it may be time to rethink the model. Share how your team keeps insights relevant or explore what an in the wild research approach could unlock.