EyeSee 101: Growing in the face of challenges

This year has proven that in times of crisis, adaptability is the one strength and skill that is key to helping both businesses and individuals cope with the looming uncertainty. In 2020, we grew in the face of challenges while taking care of each other – all 101 of EyeSee team members.

As we enter the last quarter of the year, we see a rise of opportunities amidst challenges, thanks to a multitude of different perspectives, sophisticated online tools, and diverse and agile skillsets of our people. We spoke to some of EyeSee’s latest global hires about their onboarding experience.

EyeSee grew from a seed of innovation in the face of obstacles – it wanted to change the fact that a very small percent of research was based on behavioral methods, and instead depended on costly and unreliable central location testing. Right now, there is a similar climate and we face obstacles that further challenge our way of work. In a way, our roots were in turning hurdles into an opportunity for learning by using smart tech solutions that bypass our biases. This initial ethos of resilience is the key to our adaptability and managing the COVID-19 realities.

Aleksandar Velikic, EyeSee’s General Manager, shared his feelings on growing the team to over 100 employees during the crisis: “It brings a strong sense of pride – I am very glad our team grew and that we created a great and secure workplace for so many talents. However, working under the pressures of a pandemic is a whole new set of challenges that has to be acknowledged if you care for your team’s physical and psychological safety.”

Amongst the 20+ people that joined us since March is Alexandre de Jubecourt, who previously worked with Veylinx, MetrixLab, Nielsen, and leading the Unilever account at Millward Brown in South Africa.

Q: Why did you decide to change positions right now and how did you choose EyeSee to do that?

Alexandre de Jubecourt: After 15 years in the big companies of our Industry, I joined early 2020 a start-up. It was however not answering my needs, still, I wanted to stay out of traditional Market Research and stick within the behavioral world. I wanted to join the firm of the future, this is how I found out about EyeSee – I find it innovative, growing, dynamic, fun, and shaped for success.

Nikola Golubovic joined EyeSee as a Shopper Insights director and brings over 15 years of experience in the MR industry, to the table – 7 of which he spent in PepsiCo.

Q: How did you decide to move from the client-side to an agency right now, and what are your first impressions about EyeSee?

Nikola Golubovic: Two years ago, I had the opportunity to work with one of EyeSee’s excellent teams. By launching a pack redesign after EyeSee’s recommendations, we at Pepsico managed to reverse a negative category trend and gain market share. It was clear evidence of benefiting from skillful researchers who apply sound science. Once again, I concluded: “Knowledge belongs to the one who best knows how to ask (questions)” (Miroslav Antic). Our researcher community is very small, and when my long-standing colleagues invited me to join the Team, I could only accept it with pride and pleasure. I embraced the offer in order to learn how to pose questions even better. Regarding EyeSee, my first impression was that I need a lot of effort to keep up with the inexhaustible amount of energy, enthusiasm, and passion for research that the EyeSee team possesses. Now, it makes me feel younger and I appreciate the given opportunity to work with highly-intelligent experts who are novelty seekers and status quo challengers at the same time.

Another great addition to EyeSee’s US team is Jennifer L. Guerrette. Jennifer is very experienced in the industry, having worked for Millward Brown, Ipsos and Survey Sampling International with clients such as Amazon, Ab InBev, Nestle, Dannon, GSK, Godiva and many others.

Q: What does a career change and the onboarding process look like during the pandemic?

Jennifer L. Guerrette: Global and personal crises makes one reevaluate their life. Reflect on what you truly want. Career is no exception. Sometimes you need to take the risk & move forward even when you don’t have a sure outcome. When it comes to onboarding, I’m very used to onboarding virtually & working remotely. This feels no different to me. What is nice is the human touch. At larger companies, there is less face to face virtual training… many rely on 3rd parties to house pre-recorded trainings + quizzes. They are impersonal.

One of the people who joined EyeSee as the crisis started to develop was Jonathan Asher, EyeSee’s Executive Vice President. Jonathan spent 10 years as an Executive Vice President at PRS In Vivo, where, in addition to overseeing the client service group, Jonathan also established the e-commerce section.

Q: You’ve been with EyeSee for a couple of months now – how do you perceive the company, and what has shaped your opinion of it?

Jonathan Asher: I chose to make a change to a specialist in online shopper research just prior to the crisis hitting, and the timing was quite fortuitous as just after starting, clients could not conduct and in-person research and sought online providers they could trust. I found myself in the right place at the right time – and EyeSee was an ideal option to do that. I chose to pursue an opportunity here because, during my exploration of online shopper research Firms, it became very quickly that EyeSee was by far the best. This was due to several factors, including:

• A proven method that mirrored the in-person methods I knew worked well
• Technology that provides real eye tracking on respondent devices – rather than relying on proxies such as “click on what you saw”, mouse hover time or recall
• Broad-based experience with a range of top clients as well as across several types of testing such as packaging, shopper marketing, e-commerce, advertising and innovations
• A very talented and experienced staff of research experts with backgrounds from top tier research firms
• A high level of client satisfaction

Staying agile in a dynamic market

As we look back on the challenges surmounted and opportunities seized in the past few months, we are reassured that staying adaptable, embracing change headfirst, and caring for our people is the way to move forward in even the most unpredictable of circumstances. Whether it is by making sure that our insights are reliable during changed consumer sentiment, keeping track of the developing trends, or sharing our knowledge on consumer behavior in an ongoing webinar series – we are here, prepared to turn hurdles into stepping stones forward.

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