We’re going to hold your hand when we say this, but fieldwork isn’t just about getting the numbers. Although we are nerds for a tidy spreadsheet. It’s about people, and not just the people paying for the research, but the people actually taking part in it.
Here’s the bit that you might forget. Every research session, every single survey, every “just one last question” is a brand interaction. Which means, that your fieldwork is working two jobs, it’s data collection as well as a PR exercise. Crazy, huh?
You’re not just collecting data. You’re creating an impression.
When participants walk away thinking “that was alright actually” it’s a win win. The first win is for the quality of the data (we’ll talk about that more in a sec), and the other is for the halo effect around your brand. Because people talk. Whether it’s on WhatsApp to their friends or TikTok to the whole wide world, it all adds up, and it all matters.
If someone is bored to tears or feels ignored during your study, they’re not going to give you thoughtful answers, they’ll rush, guess and mentally check out. And that’s not just bad news for your data, it’s bad news for the people trying to make sense of it later!
But on the flipside, when participants have a great time and feel valued and the process is almost enjoyable(!) they engage with the study. They open up and tell you what they really think, and that’s the gold dust.
Most of the time fieldwork is the first time someone will engage with your brand in a meaningful way. So why should it be treated as a formality? It’s like turning up to your first date late, in yesterday’s joggers, and then forgetting their name.
When we take on projects, we treat our participants like they’re the client, because then that participant walks away feeling seen, heard and maybe even a bit flattered, and that good feeling reflects right back on you.
At Acumen, we treat every project like the participant is the client. Because if we do our job right, that participant walks away feeling seen, heard, and maybe even a little bit flattered. And that good feeling? It reflects right back on you.
So what does the Acumen experience look like?
Funnily enough, it all starts with being human. Communicating in a way that participants know what they’re signing up for, and most importantly why! We don’t send robotic emails, or cryptic invites, we’re straight forward and straight talking. Must be the Northerners in us!
We always remember that participants are the ones doing us a favour, not the other way round. So we make sure that we keep things snappy. We don’t want our participants to feel like they’ve gone back to school and are in a slow, boring exam.
Another thing we try to make sure of during any study is that the tech works seamlessly. Noone wants to be downloading 18 plugins, restart their laptop 4 times, go through 7 different authenticators then get stuck in waiting room purgatory.
We bang on about the next thing a lot, but one of the key elements to our success is our team. Skilled moderators make people feel comfortable, not like lab rats. It’s about real warmth, curiosity and knowing when to dig deeper without making it weird. We give them bonus points for humour and knowing how to use Gen-Z slang. What does “rizz” even mean anyway?
When people think incentives, they just think of the cash. Although that definitely helps, there’s also a peace of work to do around clarity, speed and fairness. Participants should never have to release their inner Liam Neeson to chase down a voucher.
The takeaway from all the above, is that participants remember how you made them feel, were they listened to? Were they treated with care? Importantly, did they leave thinking “Yep, I’d definitely do that again.” When we get this right, we build goodwill, which in turn builds good PR, and that’s powerful stuff.
Let’s wrap it up.
Fieldwork isn’t just research, it’s PR wrapped in a lab coat. Every interaction with participants are brushstrokes in the bigger picture of how your brand is thought of. Whether it’s the slick sign up, or the warm conversation, or at it’s most transactional, the quick payment with zero fuss, it all adds up. People remember how you made them feel, and it sticks,
Great fieldwork means great data, that’s a given. But it also means people walk away thinking “I like this brand” and in today’s noisy, cynical consumer-led world that kind of impression is worth its weight in gold.
So if you want your research to feel as good as it functions, you know who to call. Acumen’s fieldwork is designed to make participants smile, and make your brand look quietly brilliant whilst we’re at it.
We’re so proud to announce that a project we supported has been named Best Business Impact Winner at the 2025 BOBI Awards!
Led by Perrigo and RedLeaf Research, “Changing the Conversation” tackled a complex and critical challenge, namely, understanding the real conversations happening in pharmacies around pain relief and sleep aids, particularly those containing codeine and diphenhydramine.
The insights uncovered were powerful, highlighting clear gaps in knowledge and confidence. These findings then directly shaped two training programmes and influenced a shift in how healthcare professionals are educated.
The result? Better support for pharmacists, more informed recommendations, and a measurable uplift in sales.
Acumen Fieldwork was proud to play a supporting role in this project, working alongside M3 Global and Wills Data. Our focus was on delivering high quality, real-world fieldwork to help uncover the insights that made all the difference.
This award is a fantastic example of how collaboration, research, and fieldwork come together to create meaningful business outcomes.
Huge congratulations to the teams at Perrigo and RedLeaf, we’re proud to have been part of it.
Some exciting news to start our day!
This morning, we received exciting news that Rachel Pound, Senior Recruitment Specialist at our sister company, Research Opinions, had been shortlisted for the AQR Parker Prize for Emerging Talent 2025 🎉
This special award is sponsored by the family, friends and colleagues of the late Ken Parker, a true legend in the market research world.
We’re so proud of Rachel, it’s such a well-deserved recognition for someone who puts so much heart, care and absolute brilliance into her work.
The finalists will be announced after 3rd June, and the winner will be revealed at the AQR’s AGM and Summer Party on 25th June.
It’s a wonderful achievement just to be shortlisted… but we’ve got everything crossed for you, Rachel!
At Acumen, we don’t think the best healthcare research starts with a clipboard or a questionnaire. It starts with a conversation.
It starts at a kitchen table, where a carer opens up to us about the daily challenges of managing a loved one’s chronic condition.
It starts on a video call, where a patient, with their camera slightly askew, talks candidly about what living with their diagnosis really feels like.
For over 20 years, we’ve been privileged to hear these stories. And it’s these authentic, human experiences that drive every piece of healthcare research we deliver.
When you work in healthcare research, you quickly realise: it’s never just about data. It’s about people. Real people, living real lives, often facing incredible challenges.
That’s why Acumen’s healthcare team approach every project with sensitivity, empathy and the highest professional standards. All our recruiters are BHBIA accredited, trained in adverse event reporting and legal and ethical guidelines, but more than that, they genuinely care about the individuals they’re speaking to.
We understand that building trust isn’t optional. It’s essential. Whether we’re organising an in hospital usability study, an at home interview, or a health economics survey, we ensure every participant feels heard, respected, and valued.
Our panel of 250,000 healthcare professionals and users is a fantastic resource, if we do say so ourselves.
But what really sets Acumen apart is our community-first approach. We’ve spent two decades building trusted partnerships with charities, organisations and local networks, meaning we can reach the audiences others can’t, and reach them in the right way.
When you need a consultant cardiologist for a cutting-edge device study, or a group of carers managing rare conditions for an in-depth diary project, you need more than just a list of names.
You need a partner who knows how to listen, engage, and deliver.
Every story we hear, every insight we gather, feeds into something bigger. It helps healthcare innovators create better products. It informs policy. It shapes the future of care.
At Acumen, we’re proud to be the bridge between these human stories and the organisations striving to make healthcare better for everyone.
You know we love a challenge, so we’re absolutely buzzing to announce that we’re finalists for Creative Fieldwork Team of the Year for BHBIA’S Best of Business Intelligence (BOBI) Awards 2025!
For this year’s challenge, the BHBIA provided a fictional, yet highly realistic client brief focusing on patients living with glaucoma and the specialists managing their care.
The task was to design a robust quantitative or qualitative fieldwork approach that met detailed recruitment targets across the UK. Submissions were also expected to demonstrate the creativity, rigour and practical know-how that underpin successful fieldwork and recruitment while advising on logistics, incentives, screener design, and compliance.
No biggie (!)
Meet our fantastic team behind it all:
Our response was a true team effort, built on creativity, rigour, and our deep understanding of what makes recruitment strategies work in complex healthcare landscapes.
Building a plan that actually delivers the right people, on time, in niche audiences, with the right support and care throughout takes more than just know how. It takes heart. And a bit of hustle.
We’re so proud of what we submitted, and even more proud to be recognised for the kind of fieldwork we do every day. The thoughtful, collaborative, we’ve-got-you kind of work that we know makes a difference.
Winners will be announced in the evening of the BHBIA Annual Conference on Monday 12 May 2025.
Our very own Becki Pickering and Alan Shirley will be there on the night, so if you’re attending, do say hello.
Best of luck to everyone nominated!
It was the year of baking banana bread, clapping and bashing pots and pans on doorsteps and “you’re on mute” became the national catchphrase. It feels like a bit of a fever dream, now we come to think of it.
It also changed the way the industry did fieldwork. Almost overnight, we swapped clipboards for Zoom links, focus groups for Teams calls and our researchers became part time IT support. Virtual methodologies that were once a niche, were now mainstream.
And to be fair, it wasn’t all bad! Virtual fieldwork opened doors. It made research faster to organise, broadened geographical reach and definitely cut down the mileage on our poor cars who were glad of the chance to sit on the driveway.
But now the dust has settled 5 years later it’s clear: something crucial got left behind.
Yeah, we can talk to people through a screen. We can get good insights by asking the right questions, but what we can’t do – not properly anyway – is really feel the room. In person, we pick up on the things our participants don’t say.
It could be the nervous shuffle. The eye roll when someone’s trying to be polite. The frisson when something is mentioned, or the energy shift when a difficult topic comes up. These are the moments that turn data into meaningful insights. Sadly, they’re also the moments that tend to fade into the distance when everyone is fiddling with the mute button, keeping an eye on the stove or sneakily catching up on MAFS in the background.
And if we’re being super honest? Participant engagement can take a nosedive when they’re slumped on the sofa refreshing their Just Eat app and swiping through their Tinder.
To tell you the truth, dear Reader, we never really bought into the idea that all fieldwork could be permanently digitised. Virtual has it’s place, and we’re bloody good at it when it’s right, but there’s no tech in the world that can replace good old fashioned, in person conversation.
That’s why we’ve doubled down on our face to face fieldwork. We’re still out there, in homes, on shop floors, in communities, really getting into the thick of it. Our researchers know how to spot the tiny cues that reveal the whole story. They know when to lean in, when to let the silence do the heavy lifting, and when a raised eyebrow says more than a ten minute monologue.
Post-pandemic, we’re sharper, nimbler, and even more people savvy.
We’ve adapted, updated our safety protocols, and fine-tuned our fieldwork techniques to suit a world that’s a little more cautious but still just as curious.
We’re not complete luddites. When online makes sense, we love it.
Need to reach people in five completely different time zones? Working on one of those realllly tight deadlines? Budget constraints? Virtual is a brilliant tool when used properly.
But for the meaty stuff, you know, the stuff where you need to get under the skin of human behaviour, there’s no contest.
Face to face wins every time.
In a nutshell?
If you want real insight, the messy, brilliant, surprising kind, you need boots on the ground, eyes on the room, and proper human connection.
That’s where Acumen comes in.
Fieldwork has evolved, and so have we.
We’ve kept the good bits of virtual, ditched the bits that weren’t so great, and rebuilt our face to face offer to be sharper than ever.
Real people.
Real conversations.
Real insight.
Real biscuits (the good ones, too).
We’re dead chuffed to announce that the first three episodes of Acumen and Friends are now live!
Hosted by our very own, and very wonderful Abi Fuller, this podcast is a big hearted, slightly chaotic look at the world of market research, and the people powering it.
Let’s be honest: the world doesn’t need another overly polished corporate podcast.
So, we didn’t make one.
In Episode 1, we dive headfirst into gender, and how we navigate the big ticket issues of identity, pronouns, and we look at how we can do better in research than creating a gender box marked “other.” We ask the big questions, like: does knowing someone’s gender change how they buy biscuits? And more importantly, how do we make our research more human, more inclusive, and way less robotic?
Then in Episode 2, we tackle the challenge of keeping people in the industry, and no, free pizza Fridays aren’t cutting it. We talk about what researchers really want (spoiler: it’s not beanbags and beer fridges), and how we can retain talent without relying on gimmicks.
Episode 3 is where we really get into it, and we talk about the amazing work “Girls Out Loud” are doing,
“We wanted to create a space where we could have honest conversations about the stuff that really matters, not just in research, but in the world,” says host Abi Fuller. “It’s a bit messy and totally unscripted, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. If you’re looking for corporate and polished, you’re in the wrong place, but if you’re looking for real conversations, pull up a chair.”
With fascinating guests, big laughs, and a good bit of Northern charm, Acumen and Friends is here to make research feel more human… and a lot more fun!
🎧 Episodes 1, 2 and 3 are out now! Follow us on Spotify! & If you like your insights with a side of chaos, you’re in the right place.
It’s International Women’s History month, so we’re taking a short break from our usual scheduled fieldwork related blogs to talk about being women in business, being female leaders and how there’s still a long way to go.
There’s a stereotypical image when we think of a female CEO. Towering Louboutin’s, a fresh blow dry, red lippy that somehow never transfers to a glass, juggling investor meetings, whilst holding a Starbucks and a Birkin. We’ve all seen it, the Insta-worthy version of leaderships that makes it all look effortless. Glamourous. Easy.
Want to know the truth? Being a female on the C-Suite isn’t Insta-worthy. It’s not Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, striding through a boardroom with unwavering confidence. It’s late nights, it’s being the only woman at the table (again), it’s proving yourself twice, to get half the recognition. It’s navigating the unspoken biases, the patronising “sweetheart” in meetings and of course, balancing on that impossible tightrope of being strong, but never aggressive, assertive, but never bossy. It’s being told to “smile!” when you’re just trying to get your job done.
We’re not there yet
It’s undeniable that we’ve made some progress. But when you look at the numbers, it paints a sobering picture. Women still only get 2% of venture capital funding worldwide. Female-led businesses are less likely to secure the larger investments, despite some studies showing that the returns are often stronger!
Women in leadership often face microaggressions that chip away at confidence. They’re interrupted more in meetings, presumed to be the assistant, not the CEO, judged on their tone, their appearance and their work-life balance just to mention a few. Female leaders are way more likely to be asked about their family plans than their financial projections. When they do succeed, they’re ‘lucky’ not skilled.
Whilst social media campaigns celebrate the rise of the “She-E-O” and the “Mumtreupeneurs,” the stark reality is that the climb is still steeper for women than for men.
Standing on the shoulders of giants
But let’s be clear: we didn’t get here alone. Every woman forging a path today walks in the footsteps of those who fought before her. Women who broke barriers, challenged norms, and refused to be silenced. The suffragettes who demanded the vote. The women who battled for workplace rights, for equal pay, for maternity leave. Those who shattered glass ceilings in industries where we were never meant to have a seat at the table.
Gratitude isn’t just a nice sentiment, it’s fuel. It’s knowing that every hard-won battle has paved the way for another woman to go further, to dream bigger. And just as we stand on the shoulders of those who came before, including our Mum, Julie, we owe it to the next generation to keep pushing. To ensure that in 20, 30, 50 years, women in business won’t be writing these same words and our daughters won’t face what we’re facing.
The real power of women in business
So, what does real female leadership look like? It’s resilience. It’s fighting for a seat at the table and then making sure more women get to sit beside you. It’s pushing through the exhaustion, the doubt, the endless juggling act of professional ambition and personal responsibilities.
It’s also about building differently. Creating businesses that value people as much as profit. Redefining leadership, not as dominance, but as collaboration. Supporting other women, not seeing them as competition.
It’s knowing that success isn’t just about personal achievement, it’s about lifting others up along the way. It’s about mentoring, about advocating, about creating workplaces that don’t just accommodate women, but empower them.
The work isn’t over
International Women’s Month is a celebration, but it should also be a wake-up call. Progress has been made, but the playing field is still uneven. Women still have to work harder for the same opportunities. We’re still navigating spaces that weren’t designed for us.
Here’s to the female founders doing the work, rewriting the rules, and refusing to accept the status quo. And here’s to the women who came before us, who fought, who sacrificed, who paved the way. The best way we can honour them? Keep going. Keep fighting. Keep making space for the next generation.
Because the goal isn’t just to succeed in spite of the barriers, it’s to break them down completely.
Doctor, doctor, I think I’m a market researcher
Well, just ask yourself this question.
How easy is healthcare market research? Surely it’s very easy, because the hospital has already done the hard work for you. Find a ward for the medical condition you want to know about, sit down with a patient and make a start on your questions. Simple.
In case we didn’t make it obvious, this isn’t how to do market research. Try this method and you’ll end up in court faster than you can say ‘completely unethical practice’ or ‘call the police – we have a strange person with a clipboard’.
In fact, healthcare market research is the best way there is of promoting our services, since there’s lots of things here that other companies just can’t do.
And just why is that?
We have a roster of about 150,000 people who we can ask to take part in our research activities. Their backgrounds have all been checked really thoroughly. We’re sure that they’d be super reliable people for whatever project they’re asked to work on.
Since our database is huge, it means that we can select people for each task. Want to talk to fleet managers? We’ve got loads of them. Need to ask about whether ASDA is better than Sainsbury’s? No problem. Intstagram versus TikTok? So, so easy.
And that also includes healthcare professionals, from nursing assistants to hugely experienced surgeons. If you want a paediatric nurse to tell you how many children use their inhalers properly, we can find them. And if you need a hepatologist to talk about Hepatatis C, we know loads.
It gets more complicated when it comes to patients. We don’t come with handy labels that tell people what’s wrong with us. Nobody is called Beth Godfrey: Mild Asthma or Will Hancock: Broken Leg. But we can find loads of them with the conditions that your research wants to target.
And when it comes to more serious, life-limiting conditions, our researchers are all experienced people with high professional standards who are sensitive to the job they’re doing. They can get the information you need without ever losing sight of the fact they’re talking to real, live humans.
That’s great. But why would I want to spend money on this?
Simple. You wouldn’t design a product or a service without talking to the end user first, or at least finding out what they think. Unless, of course, you wanted to launch the medical equivalent of New Coke or Cheeto-flavoured lip balm.
By involving human factors – that’s people, to you and me – early in the process, you make sure that medical devices can be used by the people that they’re designed for. Even the most useful knee support or arthritis-friendly can opener will fail if nobody apart from your designers know how to use it.
And it’s the same with what the industry calls ‘healthcare experiences’. A really useful app designed to remind people when their clinic is taking place, and where, won’t be any use to seniors who don’t have smartphones or people who are visually impaired and navigate around the different functions – or even open it.
It’s only when you get in-person feedback that problems like this become obvious. We know that you’ve been told a million times how people live on their phones and your mum might have told you that nobody talks to each other anymore, but we do live in a very, very digital world. Don’t tell your mum, but sometimes having in-person feedback or listening to first-hand experiences can be useful.
When you’ve built that prototype knee support or can opener, there’s no substitute for having people in a room, using them. Somewhere between the noise of Velcro ripping off or cans of baked beans falling on the floor, there will be useful, usable information that makes your product or service better.
Is that all I get – some people in a room?
No. We work with healthcare professionals and healthcare users from every area. That helps us give you insights into every disease area and the impact of treatments or those healthcare experiences we talked about. And that means much deeper insights.
Focus groups and interviews are part of it. But we also do participant diaries, so you can see, in real-time, what impact you’re having. We do fieldwork as well, taking to experts, users, patients and carers to see what they think. And we do more involved research into the economics of particular solutions or outcomes to see whether they’re working.
This is all led by you. We aren’t healthcare professionals. As great as we are at doing what we do, we know that we’re not doctors. So we start by discussing what you need and look at ways to deliver it.
Then we draw up a screening questionnaire and using our database – as well as contacts across the industry – to find the people you want. And then we draw up a plan of how we’re going to get the information and share the participant profiles, so you know what’s going on.
Give me some examples, then
We can do that. There are two in particular. In the first one, we worked alongside a pharmaceutical company who were looking at people who were recovering from Hepatitis C – and who also inject drugs.
We set up a specialist panel with GPs and prison GPs, hepatologists and nurses, as well as pharmacists and outreach workers. Alongside participants on our own database, they gradually found new ones. We also spoke to various companies and experts, as well as using community forums, to find them.
It’s a sensitive subject, so we’re proud that we were able to put the company in touch with the people they needed to speak to – even though it was in a relatively confined geographic area and in a particular window of time.
The second one saw us working with a pharmaceutical company that was developing a new app for people with respiratory problems. It had a function that monitored how people were using their inhalers.
We had to find people with asthma and other breathing problems that used a wide range of different inhalers. And we also had to find respiratory consultants, GPs and respiratory nurses.
Yet again, we called on the in-house database to help, as well as using our reach on social media to find people who met the criteria. In the end, social media turned out to be a really useful tool, since it spoke pretty directly to people who had smartphones and who were comfortable using technology.
And in conclusion…
Those are two examples among loads. The most important thing is that you’re getting the expertise of a company you can trust. This means that alongside our experience, we always do the right thing.
For a start, we’re members of BHBIA, the British Healthcare Business Intelligence Association who have a set of strict ethical standards that govern what we do and how we approach it. And we do regular training – and by that, we mean regular, not just once a year when we’re quiet. It keeps us up-to-date with best practice.
So, if you want to research a healthcare device, a healthcare product or a healthcare service, Acumen are ready when you are. And we can solemnly promise that we won’t tell any more dad jokes.
✔️ We don’t just rely on the internet. We blend digital, personal, and on the ground strategies for high-quality recruitment.
✔️ We won’t just accept anyone. We ensure every participant is engaged, qualified and ready, willing and able to provide valuable insights.
✔️ We don’t forget that we’re dealing with people. Behind every data point, is a real person sharing their story.
✔️ Our database of healthcare users and professionals, as well as our contacts and social media presence, makes it easy to reach the people you need.
