ASK Consulting
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At ASK Consulting, we think of research as the process of climbing large steps towards a landing. The landing is the finished product* and each step is a stopping point. Thinking of research in terms of steps helps in two main ways. First, steps are the same as mini-goals and setting mini-goals can help prevent a staff researcher from becoming overwhelmed with the amount of work required for the entire task of completing a profile. Second, it allows the researcher to take rests. Rests are actually a key part of research! A prospect researcher's career can in part be characterized as the continual accumulation of new knowledge; a non-stop crash course on the entire world! As in any academic course, taking rests is essential for the processing of information, both consciously about the research findings, and, to a degree, unconscious thinking or absorption of knowledge. There could be few steps or many steps (stopping points) when doing research and the number of steps is dependent on many factors, such as the rarity of information available about the prospect or the goal of the research and accordingly the amount of time and energy allotted to the research effort.
Defining steps is usually easy - we define a step as the point where the researcher discovers one or more pieces of information that can be construed as a milestone in the research effort. A step could be arrived upon finding a 'motherload' of information, such as a very detailed Who's Who listing, or a recent transcribed interview that discloses pertinent wealth and philanthropic details. A step could also be reached upon the discovery of information that transforms your understanding of the prospect - this could include the discovery of a family foundation, a very wealthy relative, a large philanthropic donation, or the learning of the as-of-yet-unknown career or business activities of the prospect. When returning to the research effort to transcend the next step, the researcher begins to apply his or her discoveries learned from the previous milestone (step) by trying to find more information and put this into understandable prose in the profile. The next step/milestone may or may not stem from this secondary effort - there may be little more to learn about the newly discovered family foundation or wealthy relative and thus the researcher may be required to keep prospecting until the discovery of a new motherload of information or a piece of information that is 'transformative'. Sometimes there are no more new discoveries and the researcher is tasked with information gathering to 'flush out' all of the categories in his or her institution's profile template (spouse, children, education, real estate, stocks, etc...) Prospect research becomes more difficult at this juncture. One way to push towards the next milestone is to set up non-online tasks, which can include calling assessors, visiting a local or university library, etc... Although there will always be undiscovered information about your prospect on the 'hidden web,' there is oftentimes much more valuable information just a few phone calls away or a few miles to your local library that is well worth the effort. Arranging for these tasks requires a minimal amount of effort - such as determining which assessors to call and learning their phone numbers, or plugging your prospect's name into BGMI and finding out which libraries have the reference volumes and texts that you can't find online. Most times, library research and calling assessors unearths new, valuable information, and thus a new milestone and a step climbed. The homestretch of research is the last step or two before the 'landing.' When enough milestones have been reached to provide the researcher with a somewhat clear idea of the prospect's capacity and inclination, then the completion of the profile is the final task. A 'milestone' could be the completion of a first draft, or the 'flushing out' of all categories in the profile template. The final step is the finalization (proof reading, spell check, etc...) of the profile and the determination of a giving capacity, the task we leave for last. Although deadlines imposed from one's supervisors, or clients, may not allow for taking steps at one's leisure, it is best to not dive headfirst into research and only surface when the profile is complete. Breaking up the research effort into mini-steps will help improve efficiency and overall stamina and result in a better finished product. * Sometimes the finished product is a full profile, but it could also be a determination that little or no information was found.
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