The Challenge: Collecting all of Dyson’s research in one, accessible place
Dyson is a global technology giant and prolific innovator. Best known for its invention of the bagless vacuum cleaner, the firm also designs and manufactures household and commercial products ranging from air purifiers to hair dryers. In recent years, Dyson’s innovative ambitions expanded to solid-state battery cells, machine learning tech, and AI.
The firm’s operations are distributed across the globe, with engineering, research, development, and testing facilities in the UK, US, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Of Dyson’s 16,000 employees in 2019, 6,000 were engineers and scientists.
It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that Dyson’s insights team faces a significant challenge: synthesizing huge amounts of data, produced both in-house and out, across many categories and markets, to produce usable insights.
“There’s a massive amount of data we produce ourselves and from other teams around the business,” says Dyson’s Senior Insights Manager, “The real challenge is how we collate that, synthesize it, tell a story, and produce real insights that are useful and usable beyond just data capture.”
“Searchable”: Dyson’s data synthesizing, storytelling machine
“That’s where ‘Searchable’ comes in,” Dyson’s Senior Insights Manager says. “Searchable” is Dyson’s Market Logic powered insights platform. It’s more than just a place for storing different reports and pieces of data Tom says, “It’s an opportunity to turn research into useful summaries for our stakeholders to make better-informed decisions.”
Searchable has over 28 “knowledge zones,” channels where stakeholders can quickly access expertly curated data-driven stories on topics relevant to their projects. For the business to respond rapidly to COVID-19, the team says Searchable’s AI-assisted search and its clear-cut storytelling features became particularly relevant.
When the pandemic hit, it was vital for Dyson to understand the consumer landscape in their varying markets, all of which were in different and rapidly changing stages in terms of restrictions, lockdowns, and consumer behaviour. Dyson’s senior stakeholders needed as many insights as quickly as possible to make rapid decisions.
Using Searchable’s storytelling features, the insights team turned diverse sources of COVID-19 information into insights that enabled Dyson to make the right decisions in the right markets at the right time. “Understanding the retail landscape, the impact on digital, and being able to respond appropriately was vital.”
The bigger picture for faster decision making
Over 1,100 unique users collaborating across 10 markets and 3 categories, use Searchable to access a massive amount of information, all expertly curated into relevant zones and news feeds. With a knowledge asset comprising 1,500 past research projects, 2,100 claims and communications tests, and thousands of items from daily and weekly analysis, Searchable simply shares the bigger picture for better, faster decision-making at Dyson.