About Nova Insights
Nova Insights is a market research and evidence-based consulting firm providing services to companies across Canada and the United States. We serve as a full-service provider to a broad range of clients, but also provide individual services when serving as the "researcher's researcher." These can range from basic data processing to providing cross-tabulations, instrument design, analysis, reporting, or the full range of these services along with overall project management.
From customer or employee satisfaction surveys to membership or general market surveys, Nova Insights helps clients understand their audience better by providing reliable evidence through sophisticated analytic techniques along with interpretation that can be understood and acted upon.
Nova Insights provides an independent, third party design and analysis outlook so the client can receive the unbiased story told by their market.
As founder and President of Nova Insights, Paul DesBarres brings over 25 years of experience to clients in the market research industry. Paul built his experience working in the U.S. for a diverse client list including major universities, policy advocates, international music companies, major newspapers, entertainment companies, and professional and amateur sports organizations. Nova Insights maintains many of these relationships and continues work in these fields.
In Canada, Nova Insights also works for a broad range of clients including various government departments, municipalities, ad agencies, public relations firms, social marketing organizations, educational institutions, and the gaming industry.
Paul DesBarres began his career with the Becker Institute of Boston. Becker has a long history as New England’s first name in survey research, and provided a vital foundation where Paul specialized in higher education and public policy research.
Paul then spent nearly a decade with The Taylor Research & Consulting Group of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. At Taylor, Paul specialized in quantitative consumer research in the sports, media, and entertainment industries. It was during this time that Paul received specialized training as a qualitative moderator from the RIVA Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
After spending these many years in the United States, Paul returned to Nova Scotia to live in Kentville and became Vice President of Operations for a telephone collection facility. This gave Paul an inside look into the data collection side of the business giving him additional insights into the importance of quality control on the collection side.
Paul DesBarres turned back to the design, analysis, and consulting side of the industry as Vice President of Research for Thinkwell Research, specializing in public policy and social marketing.
His varied career culminated into the creation of his own company, Nova Insights, allowing him to bring evidence-based research to his clients in a way that directly addresses their objectives by telling the story behind the data, so implications can be understood and acted upon.