I wrote a piece for @Greenbook on a common research dilemma: what to do when cross-cultural fieldwork clashes with holiday seasons. We’ve all heard the usual advice: pause, delay, avoid. But in a world where people are online 24/7, does that still stack up?

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• AI-powered dubbing

• Gen Z's instant coffee boom

• Dior's luxury rail travel

• Sleep Tourism

• Rome airport's app to support travellers with vision impairments

Ever found yourself in a research debrief, thinking, “So what?” You're not alone. And it’s probably not because the data was bad, but because the research was designed forwards rather than backwards.

The backwards approach in market research isn’t new, but it's still surprisingly rare in practice. The central idea is simple: instead of starting with questions, start with the decisions.

If you've ever wrestled with a bloated questionnaire, or had that moment of realisation that your data doesn't actually answer the questions your stakeholders care about, this one's for you.

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• Does anyone still print photographs?

• The hidden costs of digital nomadism

• "Lipstick in the dark" stores

• "Granny hobbies"

• Knit-while-you-watch screenings

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• Buying European-made goods

• Spain's fines for not labelling AI-generated content

• People have become ruder since the pandemic

• Little Treat Culture

• The rise of baby tech

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• Vinted's Shopping Personas

• AI book discovery tools

• Singapore's laundromats are transforming "third spaces"

• Niche Book Clubs

• Italy’s first "emotional bookstore"