Ed @ Dubit

First few weeks

During my first couple of weeks, the job mostly consisted of familiarising myself with the data and the methods. This involved navigating my way through the filing systems and discovering the content of the data and how to interact with it. Many of the projects Dubit works on, begin with the same foundations of data. This is the Trends Tracker, a large collection of data compiled in a 130-page report on each country or discipline. The raw data is considerably large and provides insights into children’s tastes and trends. This could be what toys are currently popular, how much time children are spending on devices or the difference between what apps girls and boys are using.

A regular occurrence in the office is draft meetings where a few members of the team get together and create ideas about how to win contracts, bring in more business or to make changes to the current products. In my first few days I was involved in a project to try and win a contract from a major book firm. The contract wanted to explore children’s relationship with books and what drives book trends. Luckily the weather was hot so it took place outside in the park! The research team has morning meetings every day to gather thoughts and to keep track of everyone’s progress and this is where the team bonding happens. Everyone at Dubit is friendly and bubbly so it’s easy to fit in. The team is only small and half of them were interns but it didn’t take long to feel like part of the team.

During the third and fourth weeks I had become familiar with the format of the data and how the majority of research projects work. I had become quite efficient at data checking and was quite easily going through 100 slides of data a day. Data checking is the majority of the job at this point but it gets easy and quicker the more you do it.

Research projects

In my fourth week I was put in charge of two research projects, which meant conducting primary research and combining this with secondary data to produce investigative reports. These projects were; Research into the Children’s VR Market and An App Research report: examining the purchase journey of parents and children.

The first project, looking into the VR market began with some fun research, which involved testing out both the high-end and the low-end VR hardware. Working with another intern we tested out the HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift and the Google Cardboard. The research included testing the newest line of games and talking to the VR team and getting their insights into where there is potential for the VR market. The VR report was starting to take shape, at this point it was in the form of a written report rather than the end product; a blog post. I was producing graphs and tables to show the size and growth of the VR market. This initial research was time-consuming, as there are so many sources of information for the VR market.

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My experience of Dubit has been great from start to finish. The team were all great and easy to get on with"

Ed

Dubit intern

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The work still largely consisted of data checking. The team was preparing trend reports for a range of different countries including; Brazil, UK, US, Spain, Mexico and more. These reports are around 200 slides long and once the data is inputted there needs to be thorough checks to make sure everything is precise. During my last week we were finalising the reports for Spain and Mexico. 

The VR project was well on its way and nearly ready for hand in. There were two separate documents that had been created through this research project. A presentation with the basic information about the Virtual Reality market and a blog post. The blog post is around 1000 words long and will be published on Medium. The blog needed multiple tweaks to ensure that it was written in the right format and that all the details were correct. The final report gave a brief overview of the VR market, what things were up and coming and potential for investments.

Finishing the placement

During the fifth week, I was given the opportunity to run the online focus group. I had to contact a resource firm that specialised in hiring respondents. I oversaw the financial side of hiring the respondents. After I had prepared the script based on secondary research into the app market I was prepared for the focus group. After work in the final week, I ran the focus group. It gave me a great insight into the firm’s research methods but also the findings of the group gave me a new insight into the app market from a parent’s perspective.

My experience with Dubit has been great from start to finish. The team were all great and easy to get on with. There were also two other interns who were there at the same time and we were given multiple projects together. The ability to communicate well with everyone was essential and in the end, I have made some great friends who I will remain in contact with. The highlight of my experience was my last Friday team meeting. Everyone in the team was there and all in a great mood. Beers were brought out and it was a great way to finish my amazing internship.