On October 29, 2026, Paul Hartley, CEO of Human Futures, opened the KPMG Ignition Lab fall speaker series at McMaster University with a talk titled Knowledge in a Time of Data. Speaking to students, researchers and practitioners in room MCCD8150 at the DeGroote School of Business, Paul looked at what research is for when organizations are surrounded by data, and how qualitative and market research create knowledge that numbers alone cannot.
About the speaker
Paul Hartley leads Human Futures, a strategy and research firm that helps organizations understand people, culture and change, and use that understanding to plan for the future. His work sits where research, strategy and foresight meet, which made him a natural first speaker for a lab built around designers, builders, technologists and subject matter experts working together.
Research as the sensory apparatus of an organization
A central idea of the talk was on screen for much of the session:
Research is the sensory apparatus of an organization.
Seen this way, research is the means by which an organization perceives its environment, not a step that happens once before a product launch. Customers, employees, markets and culture are always shifting. An organization that invests in research can sense those shifts and respond. One that does not is left reacting to change after it has already happened.
From data to knowledge
The title of the talk points to a distinction that runs through Paul’s work. Data records what happened. Knowledge explains why it happened and what it means for the decisions ahead. Moving from one to the other takes interpretation, context and judgment, and that is where qualitative methods come in: interviews, observation and close attention to how people actually live and work.
The session covered:
- What research does for an organization, beyond collecting data
- How qualitative and market research are practised in industry
- Why human context still matters when data and AI tools are everywhere
- How research becomes knowledge that leaders can act on
- What students and early-career researchers can take into industry roles
Why it matters for the lab
The KPMG Ignition Lab brings together people who design, build and analyse. Paul’s talk set a useful starting point for the series: before teams build solutions, they need a reliable way to understand the problem and the people involved. Later sessions pick up the same thread, including Dr. Shane Saunderson on Making Sense of Sensemaking: synthesis in Design Thinking.
Watch the talk
The full recording is above. For a longer, more personal conversation with Paul on the same themes, watch our podcast episode Paul Hartley (Human Futures) on Research, Data and the Future of Insight.
The KPMG Ignition Lab Show records conversations and talks from the KPMG Ignition Lab at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business. Upcoming sessions and recaps are at kpmg.raplab.ca.