A Day in the Life of a Researcher - Heba Bizzari

Behind stacks of insightful PowerPoint presentations, sharp questionnaires and thoughtful discussion guides, you will find researchers at times looking anxious, at times happy and sometimes more than happy after delighting a difficult client!  So, what does the life of researchers look like, and what inspires them to wake up every morning and get on with their lives?

Research World brings to you a new series – A Day in the Life of a Researcher -  penned by researchers themselves and curated by Sandeep Dutta, Consultant, Kantar  , giving you a close glimpse of their everyday lives. The series aim to shed light on the daily routines, challenges, and triumphs of bright and  talented researchers from different countries and cultures who are shaping the industry’s present and  future. 

Don’t miss the chance to explore  the diverse (and yet similar) experiences and perspectives of these researchers and be enthused and inspired by their stories of struggles and triumphs.

Getting to know Heba, who is a self-confessed lover of research

My name is Heba Bizzari, and I head the research unit at Feedback Egypt. I've been immersed in the world of consumer insights for over 20 years, and ( surprise, surprise!) I still love it. From my early days at Nielsen and TNS, where I developed and refined my qualitative skills working with giants like Nestle, Pepsi and Unilever, to leading research teams at Etisalat for 10 years and now Feedback Egypt, it's been a long and  I have to say a very fulfilling journey.

Heba’s mantra for everyday life: Just balance it!

Like many working moms, my days are a constant balancing act between my 12 year old daughter Karma, my 8 year old son Abdullah and my work life. Sometimes it gets maddening for me but I try my best to stay calm, cheerful and over years I have realized that at the end of the day it all falls into place!

Some extra sleep, fresh breakfast and a meeting on the road gets Heba started for the day….

The morning started a little differently. I expected to sleep in as my alarm was set for 8 am, a glorious two hours later than usual, but the smell of freshly made Ta'ameya woke me up at 7:15. My husband, a Quantitative researcher (yes, we are a research couple!), was already in the kitchen rustling up breakfast for us. I needed the extra sleep after a late night finishing a U&A report (the usual story of researchers). The client wanted it four days earlier, which had given us some anxious moments but after some hard negotiations we managed to get some extra time and stopped us from going completely insane. 

After a leisurely breakfast, a rare treat, I got ready, grabbed my laptop, and headed to the office. And then of course Cairo traffic happened. One of those random, sudden checkpoints popped up that stretched on for hours. So, I pulled over on the roadside and joined my team's internal meeting virtually as there was a lot to discuss and plan. We're working on an exciting proposal, and every team member was engaged with it. Some were digging into secondary research; others were carefully crafting the slides while few were working on the hypothetical sample outputs which we thought would truly impress our prospective client. It’s a big team effort and I’m so proud of my amazingly supportive team. Thankfully, the traffic cleared up by the time the meeting wrapped up, and I managed to make it to the office relatively quickly.

Notwithstanding the cognitive overload of attending endless meetings, Heba sails through the day aided with short coffee and cigarette breaks

My first stop after entering office is usually my Outlook inbox. I make it a point to check emails first thing in the morning, but I missed doing it thanks to the bad traffic and the meeting on the road. Between client requests and school notifications like vaccination consents, field trip approvals I spent a little more half hour catching up with the mails and responding to them before diving into an unending series of back-to-back meetings.

Some of my internal meetings required me to share team updates with top management. Other meetings ranged from new project briefings with clients, hashing out the details of an RFQ with my team, debating and discussing the flow of the Discussion Guides that my team had to write and so on. In between, I joined a client debrief session, assisting my team in amplifying our point of view and answering a few tough questions as they walked the client through a presentation on a highly strategic project. And not to forget the crucial costing meetings with the field team, where we intensely argued and bargained over CPIs for new RFQs as those could get tricky and result in a messy budget spillover.

I have to confess that I am a smoker, and those quick 2-3 minute cigarette breaks between meetings are like little restart buttons for me. Sometimes, I use them to check my kids' school app for homework updates and send them a quick WhatsApp message about how to cope with their heavy homework. Other times, I might scroll through social media for a few minutes; sometimes, I simply opt for the much-needed silent breaks. They give me a chance to clear my head and energise me to take on some more cognitive work. I'm not much of an office eater, but I do fuel myself with plentiful amounts of coffee and the occasional crackers or bag of chips.

Evenings are no less intense as Heba juggles between mothering, cooking and working (it never stops!)  though ending with a bit of me time. 

My evenings are a whirlwind, and today was no exception. The rush hour drive home is a given, but I used the time productively partly by escaping into my favourite music and partly by catching up on calls. I got home around 7 pm and went straight to the kitchen to prepare a quick dinner. Then, it was homework and quiz time with the kids. I did a quick scan of what my kids had on their plates for the next day and while they had done most of it, I helped them to finish the remaining bits. The real deep dive happens on Saturdays when I have dedicated "kid time” to manage the week's homework and also study for the weekly quizzes at school. Weekdays are more about quick check-ins and last-minute revisions. 

Once my kids got tucked in bed around 9 pm, it was my turn to switch gears. The laptop emerged again, and it was my time to go back to work. This was my quiet time, perfect for catching up on unanswered emails, reviewing my team's reports, and giving them a final sign-off. As the pace slowed down and there was a pleasant stillness all around, I put on my thinking cap and applied my mind to business development by researching potential clients and crafting emails for the next day. Honestly speaking, I enjoy this time of my day as my mind is calm, clear and productive. Unless, of course, there's a tight deadline approaching, in which case it can get rather stressful and often would end up being an all-nighter.

Finally, it was time for me to call it a day, but before I did that, I binged a bit on my favourite web series. After all I had to give myself a small treat after a day’s hard work!

Heba’s final take on the day: It’s all worth it

That's the rhythm of my days: juggling deadlines, navigating unexpected challenges, guiding my team and managing my home and children. It's demanding, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It’s my world, and I love every bit of it.