Insight commerciality

Successful Insight teams build a commercial foundation for all their work, using core stats and valuation techniques to prioritise and contextualise their work. Some go even further and estimate Insight's return on investment

Click on the tiles below to access all of our best practice guides, summaries and videos.

Many of these topics are also discussed in Season 7 & 8 of the Transforming Insight podcast (see episodes 51-52, 55, 57-58).

Return to the online library homepage for information about online access, or to view all topics.

Insight commerciality guides and videos

An introduction to Insight commerciality - guide

IMP801: Does your Insight team get criticised sometimes for not being sufficiently commercial? If so, you're not alone. But it's time we reframed Insight teams' approach to commerciality, and put it right at the centre of our daily work so that we can guide our organisations

How to build a commercial foundation for Insight - guide

IMP802: Insight teams need a commercial foundation in order to help improve their organisation’s performance. This guide explores the 4 corner stones crucial to establishing a solid commercial foundation for all the work the Insight function does.

How to identify commercial value - guide

IMP803: If Insight is to have the influence it should with decision-makers, Insight teams need to become “fluent in finance” – even in not-for-profit and public sector organisations. This guide lays out simple valuation techniques to help Insight teams to analyse and think in commercial terms.

How to apply commercial thinking in Insight - guide

IMP804: To really make an ongoing difference, an Insight team has to adopt a commercial mindset in its everyday activities, applying the understanding it has developed to the way it operates. This guide lays out the 3 key ways in which Insight teams make this business as usual.

An introduction to Insight return on investment - guide

IMP805: Putting a value to Insight has been a kind of Holy Grail for the industry for a long time, with the view that it can’t really be done. However, the IMA strongly believes that you can, and this guide will show you why the IMA believes so, as well as how to go about it.

The value of Insight - guide

IMP806: Early in 2021 the IMA launched the Value of Insight challenge, inviting members to put a value on their Insight. We provided workshops to share the best practice principles followed by tutorials to provide help and support along the way. This guide shares the journey that we went on

Helping our teams to think commercially - summary

IMS801 (July 2024 Insight forum). Commercial thinking is vital if an Insight team is to drive value in an organisation, but all too often teams struggle to adopt it. In this 1-page summary we provide tips on how to encourage our team members to develop a commercial mindset.

Value of Insight 2022 - summary

IMS807: (October 2022 Insight forum topic). In this 1-page summary, Jane Woolley reminds us of the essential steps for thinking commercially, and shares 5 key learnings for estimating the value of Insight

Measuring Insight success - summary

IMS808: (June 2023 Insight forum topic). This 1-page summary explains the importance of measuring our Insight teams' success and highlights 5 common steps to team measurement that Insight leaders could be taking.

Making the case for investing in Insight - summary

IMS809 (February 2025 Insight forum). Have you ever wished for more Insight budget or headcount? In this summary, we highlight 5 key ways for making the case for investing more in Insight.

An introduction to Insight commerciality - video

IMV801: Commercial thinking is vital if an Insight team is to drive value in an organisation, but all too often teams struggle to adopt it - in this video, James Wycherley offers some advice on how to do this successfully .

Value of Insight 2021 - video

IMV806: IMA adviser Julia Joskey discusses the 2021 Value of Insight project and shares some of the key learnings from our participants, including examples from two of our IMA members - Dow Jones and Talk Talk.

Value of Insight 2022 - video

IMV807: (October 2022 Insight forum topic). In this video, Jane Woolley reminds us of the essential steps for thinking commercially, and shares 5 key learnings for estimating the value of Insight

Measuring Insight success - video

IMV808: (June 2023 Insight forum topic). In this video James Wycherley explains the importance of measuring our Insight teams' success and highlights 5 common steps to team measurement that Insight leaders could be taking.

Making the case for investing in Insight- video

IMV809, February 2025 Insight forum: Have you ever wished for more Insight budget or headcount? In this video, Jane Woolley describes 5 key ways for making the case for investing more in Insight.