Jinfo for managing a research team
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Abstract

There are many "flavours" of research team in terms of organisation, core services and specialisms. Jinfo's director of research, Robin Neidorf, looks at the best way to optimise those essential resources and skills.

Item

What's the best way to optimise a research team? Should they spend time curating targeted newsletters or focusing on high-value, complex queries? Is an organisation better served with generalists or specialists? How does a geographically dispersed team collaborate effectively? What are the next-generation skills we need to cultivate across the team?

These are the questions facing anyone managing a team of researchers, whether it's a team of two or dozens of information professionals. The answers to these questions depend on a range of organisation-specific factors. What works in one organisation may be off the mark in another, despite similarities of industry, size and configuration.

Define what you need to know 

Jinfo can help define the questions you need to ask, to come up with the answers that work for your research team and your organisation. Our recent report, "The information team with the 'right stuff'" is a great starting point for thinking through current resources and what the future may hold for your research team.

You can also take an in-depth look at core services like responding to customer queries, to identify opportunities for improved management, service and reporting. The discussion and illustrations in "Getting more value from your query handling services" may open your eyes to changes you can make to core services to tighten up processes and improve results.

Keep updated & deepen expertise

As a minimum, support your team in maintaining up-to-date skills and knowledge around the myriad sources and tools available to them to do their jobs. While everyone's budget for training and development is under siege, Jinfo's content, including webinars and Community sessions, keeps new ideas and strategic thinking on everyone's workplan.

Or focus on development in a specific area, such as deepening source expertise: in addition to Jinfo's product reviews, our "market landscape" reports build awareness of the strengths, weaknesses and applications of different sources in a single category of content. 

Prepare for new opportunities

What's ahead? Our upcoming Research Focus, "Data analytics - ready your information service" addresses a concern expressed to us by so many information managers: how do I prepare my team for a "data first" world? What do we need to know, about ourselves, our skills and our unique contributions to business success? The Community session, "Skills crossover for current awareness and data analytics", in September, will go a long way to relieving your anxiety (and that of your research team).

Find out how Jinfo supports managers of research teams

For more hands-on assistance, Jinfo regularly provides on-site and teleconference training for research teams on such topics as:

• Customer-focused communications
• Project management and team optimisation
• Stakeholder management

...and more. Contact me to learn more about this service - there's nothing I enjoy more than inspiring and teaching research teams to think big and act strategically.

Jinfo resources support managers of research teams through original research, product reviews, market landscapes and more. If you have a Jinfo Subscription, you have access to all our Content. Click any link below to login to view, save or share any item, register for webinars, and download reports.

We publish research-based insights, facilitate peer-to-peer discussions on them, and offer consulting services to tailor those insights to your needs. Find the right Jinfo Subscription level to meet your needs.

Recent Subscription content of particular interest to our customers involved with managing teams of researchers: 

Articles

• Researching images and other copyright material online
• How to build capacity to ensure resilient information services
• What savings can you make by engaging information professionals?
• Information professionals need to know about big data
• Getting more value from your query handling services
• Being an industry specialist in a global management consultancy
• Design thinking - a useful way of co-creating 
• Insider knowledge - researching south africa (non-domestic sources)
• Where is social collaboration heading?
• Getting wired in the workplace

Reports

• Market landscape - company information sources
• Market landscape - open source products
• Market landscape - enquiry management and helpdesk systems
• Insights and actions report from the research focus "source expertise - what it means in a google world"
• Market landscape - reference management & citation tools
• Market landscape - patent products
• The information team with "the right stuff"
• Market landscape - news aggregators covering chinese sources

Webinars - recordings available to view for anyone with a Jinfo Subscription

• The state of the industry for content platforms
• Balancing "generalist" and "specialist" expertise
• Source expertise and your value to the business

Upcoming research and events

The Research Focus, "Content and technology for current awareness" runs from July-September and encompasses three months of research, reports, webinars and Community sessions examining the challenging area of comprehensive and effective current awareness provision.

Webinars:

• 13th September: Understanding the full scope of sources for current awareness

Community sessions:

• 21st September: Skills crossover for current awareness and data analytics, online teleconference

• 16th November: Staking your claim - the role of information services within data analytics, online teleconference

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