Tell us a little bit about your background.

Jamin grew up on a farm in Visalia which taught him the grit of working hard. His father had the foresight to know that tech was going to set the future of industry and bought an Apple 2 for the family. He gave Jamin the opportunity to learn programming and tech, which he parlayed into a small web development business.

How did you end up in the market research space?

From the web dev jobs, Jamin was hired as a market researcher at a boutique firm where he met Jayme Plunkett. It was there that Jamin first realized that using the internet to distribute surveys would cut research time (and therefore cost) into a fraction of what it was before.

Why did you start Decipher?

Jamin is always looking for ways that tech can reduce time, difficulty, friction in daily lives. That first test of web delivered surveys was the seed of Decipher.

What does happiness mean to you? Why is the podcast titled Happy Market Research?

Jamin loves to have fun, and one of his favorite ways to spread joy is to provide that “aha” moment for clients. When they really understand what the data means for their business, they are able to make the right decisions.

What core belief is most essential to your worldview?

During a father-daughter dinner in Sacramento, Jamin noticed homeless people setting up camp for the night on the lawn in front of the capitol building. He pointed this out to his daughter and asked her, “Which would be better, to spend our money protecting and bettering our family or on the people out there?” Her response was that to spend it on the people out there is to spend it protecting their family. Making the world around you better, makes it better for oneself in the process.

What does market research really do for businesses? Why should businesses pay attention to it?

At core, market research facilitates answering a question. Businesses want to ask questions of their consumers. If you have millions, hearing them clearly becomes very difficult. That’s where market research comes in.

What is one of the biggest opportunities for market research?

Market research isn’t merely about finding the data and delivering it to the businesses. It’s also about interpreting it. As tech progresses, businesses have more, faster, and easier tools to directly access customer data. But market researchers have the training and background to deliver big insights — to be the “keepers of why”. We should continue to provide that and do it even better in the future.

Where are you now? What are you looking to do in the future?

Obviously Happy Market Research which has this podcast as well as MRx News. Happy Market Research also has a consulting arm. Jamin is also doing small tech and market research investments through Vine Venture Capital.