How did you get there? Claire Rainey
Great to hear from Claire Rainey, who has launched Claire Rainey Consulting after more than 20 years in client-side research. She spent eight years at Virgin Media O2, nine years at Sky and six years at Royal Mail Group. Claire has led B2B and B2C insight teams through major strategic, commercial and organisational change, combining research and analytics to turn customer understanding into practical action. She is passionate about embedding a shared customer language across organisations and developing team capabilities through emerging methodologies. A committed advocate for the insight profession, she also served on the MRS Senior Client Council for eight years.
Today Claire judges the MRS awards and Insight 250 nominations, presents regularly at Quirks, and loves celebrating the industry at the MRS and AURA awards.
Thinking back to your first five years in the profession, what do you know now that you wish you’d known then?
Your network is one of your greatest assets. Many of the people I met in my first four years remain close personal and professional contacts, offering support, advice and opportunities throughout my career.
I have also learnt the value of protecting my energy and maintaining perspective. Seeing others burn out has reinforced the importance of managing wellbeing proactively, particularly during demanding projects.
Stepping away often helps me return at my best: my daily dog walk creates valuable space to think and is where some of my strongest ideas emerge. I find staying active and being outside gives me clarity when I am hitting a brick wall, as well as keeping me calm, focused and resilient.
Giving back is really important to me! Whether through volunteering at Scouts or participating with a school careers event —it’s another powerful way to recharge, connect and gain fresh perspective.
Looking ahead, what advice would you give to individuals in our industry? How do we remain relevant, influential and impactful in the years ahead?
Staying ahead of the curve and benchmarking is very important to me. I can’t benchmark with other internal departments so I look for this externally. Within our industry there is so much to be gained from participating. Being a member of AURA is very reasonably priced and gives access to a wealth of webinars, Quirks conference tickets and face to face sessions. Agencies also run many free events, so there is loads to tap into and by doing this I have kept things fresh and ahead of the curve. This is also another way of staying motivated, keeping energies up.
If there are opportunities – seize them! E.g. a volunteering day, family days at work, women in leadership events or being asked to present at a conference! It’s easy to say No, but everyone is always busy. A colleague once said to me, will someone remember that in a week – so would they remember that you missed an event to do work, or will you remember the event that you attended? It is important to prioritise our own growth and learning, no one else will do that. I am about to embark on a coaching course with the Henley Business School – back to University for me!
Most successful careers include a few pivotal decisions or turning points. Which moments changed the trajectory of yours, and why?
Being made redundant! Redundancy was a difficult time for me. While it was not a surprise, I realised I was emotionally unprepared. However, I got lucky meeting a start-up at a conference who quickly asked if I would do some consulting with them. I’d never done anything like this and it felt out of my comfort zone, but I could see how much I was able to help shape their offering and it gave me so much confidence. I then secured my job at former O2, but this was a spark that I have kept in mind and I am now, 8 years later, returning to consulting!
I would say that the Research industry is one the friendliest and most supportive, in my opinion. I particularly see it now setting myself up doing consulting, everyone is so helpful, opening doors, making new connections. If you get stuck in your career, definitely reach out to others!
Careers rarely follow a straight line. Can you share a setback, failure or particularly difficult period or challenge that taught you something important and still influences how you lead today?
A particularly challenging period came when I returned to full-time office work after having children. My son is now 15, but at the time I was juggling nursery hours and caring for a one-year-old. Although I started at 8.15 am, I had to leave at 4.15 pm. while no one else left before 6 pm, and it felt like a walk of shame. No one said anything, but I found the experience extremely difficult; my career stagnated slightly, and I felt I was juggling and not succeeding at either parenting or my career. We are now much more fortunate to have flexible working, and over the years women have told me that seeing me manage that period gave them confidence when they returned to work after having children. It is amazing to know that my experience may have helped others make that transition, particularly when so many do not return.
If you were mentoring someone entering the industry today, what are the two or three qualities, behaviours or mindsets you would encourage them to develop above all others?
There are three qualities I would encourage above all: the first two are about mindset, and the third is about turning insight into action.
Expect the unexpected. People rarely behave exactly as we anticipate, so stay open to surprises rather than forcing findings to fit assumptions.
Be curious. Keep asking what sits behind the behaviour, because understanding how people think is where the most valuable (and interesting!) insight begins.
Create impact. Spend as much time communicating and embedding insights as you do generating them, connecting each finding with existing knowledge and wider data to build a rounded, memorable story. Project management should be no more than 50% of your time!
If you would like to discuss client development consulting please email claire@claireraineyconsulting.com