As employee #2 at a telecom consultancy, I witnessed major telecom clients making critical strategic decisions based on research data that was 3-6 months old. Traditional survey methods couldn't keep pace with rapid market changes, while syndicated research lacked specificity and custom research was too slow to be actionable. I saw an opportunity to bridge this gap by creating a hybrid solution that combined the speed of syndicated research with the precision of custom insights.
I led the development of Recon Pulse from concept to platform, managing a small team responsible for survey programming, data cleansing, ETL pipeline design, and visualization. The core innovation was building a syndicated research framework that allowed clients to 'pulse' their custom proprietary questions on top of it, delivering fresh intelligence weekly rather than quarterly. I personally defined the data specifications flowing through our pipeline and designed the translation process that converted thousands of weekly survey responses into interactive Tableau dashboards, enabling clients to interrogate data and generate insights independently. The biggest technical challenge was maintaining data quality while processing at speed—I iteratively redesigned our ETL flow nearly a dozen times and leveraged my GIS background to build a unique validation system using highly granular broadband provider footprints to verify respondent accuracy, a level of precision unavailable in any competing telecom research solution.
The impact was substantial and sustained. Within the first two years, we sold Recon Pulse to 2 of the 3 largest wireless telecom providers and expanded into complementary products for home internet and B2B markets. Five years after launch, we now serve 7 of the top 8 telecom providers in the United States and have successfully launched pulse products across AI, Aviation, Spanish Language Telecom, and Financial Services verticals. Recon Pulse is now recognized as the fastest large-sample custom research option in telecom, directly informing major business decisions around pricing, promotion, and product development across the industry.
