# Wes Patterson

Research and insights leader based in Boston, MA. 20+ years turning data into decisions.

I turn messy data into decisions people act on. I build AI into every stage of the research, and I still get a little too excited about a well-designed chart.

- Website: https://wes.is/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wespatterson/
- Email: jwpatter@gmail.com

## About

I help organizations understand what their audiences and customers need, then turn that into stories that move the business.

I've spent 20+ years at the intersection of rigorous research and clear communication, on the belief that a finding only matters if someone acts on it. I've run studies of every size and shape, from tight qualitative sprints to large quantitative tracking, across media, tech, healthcare, CPG, finance, and more.

I've built deep experience on both sides of research: agency and in-house. Agency work taught me to move fast, learn new categories quickly, and solve a wide range of problems. In-house work taught me how to make research matter inside an organization, from shaping decisions to pushing change forward.

## AI in research

AI is a big part of how I work now, backed by human review and judgment. Some of the tools I use, by phase of a research project:

- **Plan:** pricing and proposal scoping tool; research repository that answers questions in plain English
- **Design:** questionnaire and discussion guide drafter; questionnaire reviewer; survey length estimator
- **Field:** Word doc to ready-to-field survey converter; invitation email drafter; AI interview moderator; bad-respondent spotter
- **Analyze:** interview summarizer; open-end coder; statistical significance calculator
- **Results:** story and structure builder for decks; takeaway writer for charts; deck critiquer; automated builder for recurring reports; results reformatter for interactive, audio and chatbot versions; findings packager that makes results easy to share and spread

## Building research functions

I build research functions from scratch. In every role, I hire and develop the people, set up how the work gets done, and turn research into something leadership counts on.

- **Departments from zero:** set up research and insights functions from the ground up, agency-side and in-house, including processes, best practices, vendor relationships and hiring.
- **Research as a revenue line:** launched a custom research business, from selling the work to delivering it.
- **Teams that grow and stay:** designed the hiring and onboarding program that grew a team more than fourfold, with 95% annual retention.
- **Systems that scale:** built project workflows, research repositories and a newsletter that got far more people reading the research, along with the budgets, vendor deals and training behind them.

## By the numbers

- 20+ years in research, agency and in-house
- 500+ research projects led end to end (about 75% quantitative)
- 200+ people trained to use data and research better
- Thousands of stakeholders who've put the work to use

## Data visualization

The way you show data is part of the finding. Visualization is how I make sense of the data, and it's how I get everyone else to see what I see. I've trained hundreds of people to make better charts.

## What people say

> "He is more than the head of research. He is a business partner who takes the time to understand the business need and work with people to ensure research helps make decisions. He does not just deliver research. He is invested in the follow-up and in making the next one better. He has changed the way many teams make decisions." (Chief Marketing Officer)

> "Your session on making better visualizations has been such a game changer. Every single time I'm making charts I'm cleaning up things I never did before. It was one of the most valuable teaching sessions I've ever had." (Director of Analytics)

> "I've been paging through the report and am stunned by the presentation of results and the overall visual impact." (Director of Marketing)

> "We know so much more about our audience intent based on the crucial research that Wes is doing for us." (Executive Leader)

> "He truly is a subject matter expert when it comes to building research studies and presenting the data in an impactful and consumable way." (Head of Marketing)

> "Your research has saved us SO MUCH time by keeping us from going down a dead-end road." (Audience Manager)

## Expertise

Market research, consumer insights, audience research, qualitative and quantitative research, survey design, data visualization, data storytelling, AI in market research, research operations, building research teams, custom research, research training.