Insights, in flesh
I’ve seen enough conversations and debates about what insights are.
What I’ve rarely seen are real insights or examples showing what they’re like. So far, it seems like we decided to believe in different definitions in our heads and yet agreed to move forward on loose common ground.
I’m in the same boat, too, but I’d also like to see some benchmarks being set or ideas being shared openly so that we know what to look for.
This post is my rough attempt at sharing what I believe insights are. I can be right or wrong but as somebody interested in understanding what moves us and making what moves us interesting — discovering newer insights and documenting them for better work seems worth pursuing.
Let me clarify one thing: I’m not obsessed with insights as such. I think a good piece of work can come from an equally potential starting point such as a burning problem, a feature presented charmingly, or a novel execution technique.
With that disclaimer aside, let’s talk about insights.
This thing is called insight — what does it look like?
Lots of theories out there, but I like this one: An insight is a revelation of an unnoticed truth of sorts.
It usually astounds first and then invites agreement. An insight is a potential launchpad for phenomenal work, and in this specific context, advertising.
It’s something everyone knows yet somehow fails to recognize and point at. It’s what makes people say ‘That’s so true!’ ‘Why didn’t I think of that!’ or ‘God, that’s so relatable!’ — with the exclamatory responses being a clear giveaway.
It’s certainly what comedians use to make people chuckle, what content creators are churning out quite well nowadays, and what emerges as a laudable observation hidden in plain sight.
Now again, although this vague theory seems interesting for a conversation, what helps better are some concrete examples that bring the above explanation to life.
That’s what I’m attempting here.
Let’s go insight-seeing
So here’s what lies ahead (since I’m writing this article to clear my thoughts as much as I’m doing to share some insights) — shared below is the gist of what you’re going to see as you scroll down further.
A belief
Insights are everywhere, just like inspiration for any form of creativity is.Source of insights
Knowing fertile places where you’re more likely to stumble upon insights helps.An act
The easier the process, the more the likely you’ll collect insights when busy.
The charm of insights
The word ‘insight’ is up there in the list of advertising jargon and keeps popping up on absolutely random occasions (and usually sparks an unnecessary debate out of nowhere).
My introduction to the phrase happened through passionate teachings in my classroom.
- During my first internship, I saw three planners debate ‘what is an insight’ for a tire brand around a desk.
- During my early interviews, someone asked me on a phone interview what I thought an insight meant. With an example.
- As a junior planner, I saw my creative briefs get violently evaluated the moment I threw in the term ‘insight’ (after which I slyly replaced ‘insight’ with ‘context’ to get things to happen faster).
After I experienced a bunch of such instances, it became quite clear how the term is an omnipresent part of advertising and refuses to fade any time soon.
But an encounter with the word in those moments left me with both a sense of inadequacy and the hunger to learn.
Since then, I’ve wanted to create my armory of insights. To me, what makes the term ‘insight’ attractive is its mysterious charm.
Inisghts present a chance to peel off layers of obliviousness and dig into the deeper truths about us, creating a sense of collective self-awareness.
Even better, every insight creates a fertile space to unlock possibilities or make businesses thrive, proving its worth in a world that appreciates tangible outcomes more than intellectual whispers.
Are our insights, insights?
Considering that we now live in a world where people are overstimulated, billions of content pieces are gulped every day, and anything that you can think of is likely already done — the search for insights seems like aiming for disappointment.
“What new can you possibly say?” or “Everything interesting has been done” are phrases that I wouldn’t disagree with much.
At most, you can still present unique perspectives, or mashed thoughts that are new-seeming — but can you claim that that thought in your head is ‘insightful’ when you walk into a room? Questionable.
But also, how does it matter much if you’re ultimately aiming to create the best work that you can?
Insights are everywhere
We know that insights are great rubberbands for launching meaningful ideas, creating distinction for brands, and getting remembered. But before we can put them to use, we also need to know where to find them.
To me, insight-hunting seems like any other creative exercise. You aim to seek and devour inspiration no matter where you get it from.
Where to look for insights
Although not an expert, today I’m in a better state of identifying insights than I was four years ago. What helped, in a nutshell, was assessing the novelty of any thought, checking whether it had a narrative potential, and then articulating it well.
So far, I’ve found the following places brimming with rich insights and bountiful societal observations.
- Difficult social topics ⛔
Example: Indian families talk a lot yet communicate very little. - Overheard street conversations 🏙️
Example: ‘Seeing others get divorced makes me fear love.’ - Stand-up comedy 🎤
Example: “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?” — George Carlin - YouTube and Instagram comment sections 📱
Example: The bigger the city, the lesser the humanity. - Depths of Reddit 🧑🌾
Example: Getting married doesn't mean that you’re never going to feel lonely again. - Books and articles 🗞️
Example: “…relentless honking greases one’s path, with the horn being seen as the accelerator worn on the outside.” [Source: Mother Pious Lady] - Literary Quotes📔
Example: “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” — Oscar Wilde - Science and psychology blogs 🧠
Example: Graphic warnings on cigarette labels lead smokers to hide packs. [Source: Science Daily]
The best ones become more obvious when you’re receptive to the commonest of things and remain curious.
Over the past few months, I’ve collected several interesting examples and I’m sharing them below.
Examples of (what I think are) insights
I’ve added the screenshots of the actual comments I’ve collected (although I couldn’t find the source videos) — to show the original handles/usernames.
From YouTube
From Reddit
From Science Daily
Many positives with an obvious con
Although the above examples and methods are great for creating your kit of insights — they come with their drawbacks.
Just because you’ve found an insight doesn’t mean it’ll have an immediate implication for your client or briefs. Also, your findings will be equally prone to scrutiny and judgment — so the defending part and proving that they’re somehow useful is the actual struggle.
Perhaps you’ll find a way to use them at some point — but just like any creative process, you carry your findings in the loft of your head until an opportunity presents itself.
Nevertheless, even if you have, let’s say about 50 examples up for consideration, you’ll have at least 4–5 worthy contenders that you can truly and proudly call ‘insights’ and hope that they’re good for the work, too.
The good part is that at least you’ll know where to look for insights the next time. No harm in trying it as a side project, right?
Starting your insight-hunting journey
In conclusion, I would have liked to throw in a geometrical roadmap or framework here — but I don’t know if that would be fair.
That’s not really how I’ve gathered or attempted any of the examples in this post at least.
I’ve used certain intuition or hunch about ‘what works’ and applied the same. Again, here are two more findings — or insights — from my list.
- Parents want to feel wanted by their kids
They like it when their kids call first (as opposed to them calling first) when their kids miss their food, or show that they still care as much for them, although they might have moved to a new place or started their own families. - Home is a break from school but school is a break from home
The school is often better than home for many kids, especially for those with difficult families. The school is where friends are, where lunch breaks are, and where the playground awaits them.
Yet, to not leave you blank and give you some starting points, I believe you can refer to the checklist below. If your findings can somehow pass these filters, then you can say that you have an insight with you.
In all the bullet points below, by ‘it’ I’m simply referring to the finding you have in hand or the insight-to-be sentences.
- Is it surprising?
If it makes you go ‘wow!’ and puts a smile on your face then it may arouse the same emotion in others, too. - Is it (somewhat) new?
If it has already been talked about a lot in the mainstream, then it may appear lackluster. But if it’s surprising then it’s lively. - Is it truthful?
If you think that it is relatable for many, or is voicing a feeling on behalf of many, then you may have some potential there. - Is it simple?
If it’s not then you can craft it differently — because insights are usually simple enough to convey and to understand. - Is it relevant for business?
If you can connect it with a category, product, or audience segment then you’ve ticked an important box.
These are good initial checkboxes.
Once you have some ideas about where and how to look for insights, one thing you can aim for as a next step is choosing quantity over quality, at least initially.
If you can jot about a hundred sentences in the first place — then the latter part of critiquing, shortlisting, and crafting won’t be very difficult.
Collecting Insights
Let’s say over time you develop a knack for spotting insights — but you’ll also tend to become forgetful about them and lose them immediately.
So you must also document or write your insights. I’m sharing my experience with the same below.
In the past, I’ve tried keeping a pocket-sized notebook in which I’d imagined I’d write insights whenever I spotted some — but no, that didn’t work much.
So now I do two things:
1. Keeping a Bullet List in Google Keep: I’ve created a list called ‘Insights,’ and I keep adding to it whenever I think of something worthy of being there. Jotting is easy with minimum resistance or any chance of an excuse being made.
2. Mobile Screenshots: When picking nuggets from the internet, I’ll add them to a Google Photos album for later and add a description below them. That makes it easier for me to organize them and find them later.
That’s more like dumping my thoughts initially — but later on, I may refine the findings and also seek the best way to articulate them.
I don’t want to be too prescriptive here, though, do what works for you. The idea is to reduce the effort it takes to track what you think.
What’s next?
You can drop below an example of insight or you can start looking for some. That’s all though, thanks for reading and see you around!
