Inquiry Sessions
Inquiry Sessions are engagements with a single Forrester analyst:
- For the benefit of Forrester Market Insights Leader and Emerging Growth Leader license holders.
- Delivered in a 30-minute audio or video session or via email.
- Covers no more than 3 questions related to a specific piece of research, technology or client’s market.
- Can be submitted as needed; back-to-back Inquiry Sessions or multiple Inquiry Sessions on the same topic are prohibited.
- May not be recorded or transcribed.
Attendance and participation:
- Inquiry Sessions must be scheduled for, attended by, and address the questions of the Forrester Market Insights Leader or Emerging Growth Leader license holder.
- Forrester Market Insights Team license holders are permitted to attend, though participation is limited to the Forrester Market Insights Leader or Emerging Growth Leader license holder, since Inquiry Sessions are to address the questions of and for the benefit of the Leader license holder.
- Individuals without a Forrester Market Insights Leader, Forrester Market Insights Emerging Growth Leader, or Forrester Market Insights Team license may not attend Inquiry Sessions.
- Depending on the specific contract, Group Reader Access or Reader Access Plus license holders may also be able to attend Inquiry Sessions. Contact your account manager or client success manager for details.
- Forrester Market Insights Leader and Emerging Growth Leader license holders are not permitted to invite license holders to join their Inquiry Sessions on a frequent or recurring basis. When additional attendees join an Inquiry Session, Forrester will record and share their names with the Forrester account team and account administrator. Repeat additional attendees will be prompted to purchase an appropriate license or product to better meet their needs.
- A third party may attend Inquiry Sessions only if they are licensed according to our Contractor Licensing Policy. Third parties may also conduct an approved perception survey so long as they conform to the limitations described in the section below.
Inquiry Sessions may be used to ask about:
- A specific piece of research available to the client.
- A technology.
- The client’s markets (customers, competitors, trends).
- An analyst’s research agenda or coverage (permitted subject to analyst availability).
Inquiry Sessions may not be used:
- To brief an analyst.
- To get detailed feedback on a client’s initiatives: such as how to implement a project or to get feedback on a client’s internal documents/go-to-market messaging.
- This kind of feedback is available to VIP Leader and Leader license holders in a Forrester Decisions service or through our Consulting Offerings.
- To receive feedback on other Forrester engagements (e.g., briefings and advisory sessions).
- To conduct document or messaging reviews.
- This kind of feedback is available through our Advisory and Consulting Offerings.
- To discuss the details of evaluative research, such as a Wave, including inclusion criteria.
- For back-to-back inquiry sessions or multiple Inquiry Sessions on the same topic.
Clients who would like more detailed, custom feedback than we can offer in an Inquiry session may inquire with their account manager about Forrester’s Advisory Services.
Perception surveys
Forrester allows Forrester Market Insights Leader license holders to get feedback from multiple analysts on their strategy or event in limited circumstances. These “perception” surveys are typically designed to gather tactical feedback from analysts and are not a replacement for analyst interactions such as Advisory sessions.
Forrester Market Insights Leader license holders seeking to conduct these surveys should submit the request to our inquiry service (inquiry@forrester.com) and copy their Forrester account manager. The following limitations apply:
- Clients must limit the surveys to one survey per account per year.
- Surveys must be limited to a maximum of 10 analysts per survey.
- Surveys may take no more than 20 minutes for an analyst to complete.
- Surveys should mostly avoid open-ended questions and/or allow for 1-2 sentence responses. Surveys should always include an option for analysts to pass on questions if they are not able to respond.
- The individual responsible for the survey must be a Forrester Market Insights Leader license holder.
- Survey results may only be used for the benefit of the Forrester Market Insight Leader license holder.
- Survey results are for the internal use of the client with inquiry access and may not be used in any external communications.
See the Inquiry FAQ page for further guidance.
Guidance Sessions
Guidance sessions are designed to provide ongoing support for functional leaders to advance their initiatives through Forrester analyst advice and the application of research findings, best practices, tools, frameworks and data.
They are defined as one-on-one engagements between a Forrester analyst and an eligible Forrester Decisions VIP Leader or Leader license holder, where the analyst provides the license holder with advice, guidance, &/or recommendations based on existing research, their areas of expertise, and/or application of Forrester tools, templates or data.
Criteria and limits of Guidance Sessions:
- Must be scheduled by the eligible license holder (i.e. VIP Leader or Leader)
- Addresses 1 – 3 specific questions
- Topic is aligned to an entitled Forrester research coverage area(s)
- Topic can be answered/addressed thoroughly in 50 minutes or less
- Involves only one analyst at a time unless otherwise determined by Forrester
- Analyst prep time is ~1 hr. or less
- No client-specific deliverables are developed either before or after the session
- Includes only individuals with active eligible licenses at that account
Guidance sessions are unmetered in most Forrester products and can be submitted as needed, but back-to-back Guidance Sessions are prohibited. They can also be recorded and transcribed by Forrester (see guidelines here).
Attendance and participation:
- Guidance Sessions must be scheduled by, attended by, and address the questions of an individual with a Forrester Decisions VIP Leader or Leader license.
- Forrester Decisions Team license holders are permitted to attend in “listen-only” mode, as participation is limited to the Forrester Decisions VIP Leader or Leader license holder, since Guidance Sessions are to address the questions of and for the benefit of the VIP Leader or Leader license holder.
- Individuals without a Forrester Decisions VIP Leader, Leader, or Team license may not attend Guidance Sessions.
- Depending on the specific contract, other license holders may also be able to attend Guidance Sessions. Contact your account manager or client success manager for clarification.
- Forrester Decisions VIP Leader and Leader license holders should not invite other FD license holders to join their Guidance Sessions on a frequent or recurring basis. When additional attendees join, Forrester will record and share their names with the Forrester account team and account administrator. Repeat attendees will be prompted to purchase the appropriate license or different product that better meets their needs. A third party may attend Guidance Sessions only if they are licensed according to our Contractor Licensing Policy.
Guidance Sessions may be used by individuals with Forrester Decisions VIP Leader and Leader licenses to:
- Get answers to key questions within their designated area of Forrester’s research.
- Receive guidance applying frameworks and models.
- Seek best practice advice on specific challenges.
- Get feedback on the output of a Forrester assessment, tool, or template.
- Receive written feedback on documents such as planning templates, org charts, messaging, RFPs, or product roadmaps.
- Analysts will provide up to one review of each document (of up to 20 pages or equivalent) total with a scope limit of one to three specific questions and no more than one hour prep.
- Request data and benchmarks through a Data Guidance Session
Guidance Sessions may not be used:
- Access research or advice outside of the license holders designated service
- Request custom work from the analyst either before or after the Guidance Session
- Engage, educate or inform non-license holders at the client account
- To review a document longer than 20 pages (or equivalent), even if the request is to review only a portion of that document.
- To conduct back-to-back sessions (e.g. a Guidance Session at 2pm, and then another one at 3pm), even if on different topics or with different analysts.
Individuals whose needs extend beyond what we can provide in a 30- or 50- minute Guidance Session should speak with their account manager about other options for how Forrester analysts and consultants can support their initiatives through our Advisory and Consulting offerings.
For further guidance, read our Guidance Sessions FAQ here.
Education Guidance Sessions
Guidance Sessions are one-on-one engagements between a Forrester analyst and an eligible Forrester Decisions VIP Leader or Leader license holder where the analyst provides the license holder with advice, guidance, &/or recommendations based on existing research, their areas of expertise, and/or application of Forrester tools, templates or data.
There may be times when the VIP Leader or Leader needs to educate others who are not license holders on their team or within their organization about a concept, tool or best practice covered in their entitled Forrester research. In those rare instances, they may leverage “Education Guidance Sessions.”
For example: An Education Guidance Session could be with just one or two individuals who need to understand and buy-in to a new framework, concept, or approach for which the VIP Leader or Leader license holder is responsible; or, it can be to inform a small cross-functional team who will be involved in helping ensure that an initiative that the VIP Leader or Leader is leading is successful.
Education Guidance Sessions are subject to the same policies and rules for Guidance Sessions, though with some specific differences.
Rules for Guidance Sessions that continue to apply to Education Guidance Sessions:
- Must be scheduled by the eligible license holder (i.e. VIP Leader or Leader)
- Topic is aligned to an entitled Forrester research coverage area(s)
- Topic can be answered/addressed thoroughly in 50 minutes or less
- Involves only one analyst at a time unless otherwise determined by Forrester
- Analyst prep time is ~1 hr. or less
- No client-specific deliverables are developed either before or after the session
Exceptions for Education Guidance Sessions:
- Education Guidance Sessions must be scheduled by and attended by the VIP Leader or Leader license holder, though they may mainly be for the benefit of other attendees. This is especially helpful for Forrester Decisions VIP Leader and Leader license holders whose high-profile initiatives often require the understanding and buy-in of individuals on their team – or in other functions – to be completed successfully.
- Education Guidance Sessions can include non-license holders from the VIP Leader or Leader’s organization; however, no more than 20 individuals involved in or impacted by the initiative are permitted to attend. (A third party may attend an Education Guidance Session only if they are licensed according to our Contractor Licensing Policy.
It is recommended – though not required – that a separate Guidance Session be scheduled for planning/preparation, prior to the Education Guidance Session. This planning discussion should take place with the Forrester Decisions VIP Leader or Leader license holder, since the key to an effective Education Guidance Session is that the analyst understands ahead of time the purpose of the session, the desired content to be covered, and the way in which it connects with an initiative that the Forrester Decisions VIP Leader or Leader is currently working on.
Attendance and participation:
- The Forrester Decisions VIP Leader or Leader license holder must attend and introduce/set the context for an Education Guidance Session.
- Education Guidance Sessions can only be scheduled one at a time; the next one cannot be scheduled until an already scheduled one is completed.
- Education Guidance sessions may not be recorded or transcribed.
Education Guidance Sessions may be used:
- To educate up to 20 members of the license holders organization on concept, tool or best practice covered in Forrester research and related to a priority for which the VIP Leader or Leader is responsible (and that is ideally captured as an initiative).
Education Guidance Sessions may not be used:
- For audiences of greater than 20 people total.
- Example: Conducting the same Education Guidance Session twice, each with a set of 15 different people.
- Cover concepts outside of the license holder’s designated Forrester research coverage area(s)
- Example: FD B2B Marketing Exec may not discuss topics or research content that are exclusively included in FD Security & Risk or ask for an overview of their specific markets, customers, and competitors which are topics covered in FMI
- We have other offerings, such as Certification and Consulting engagements, if you need to accommodate a broader set of topics or attendees.
Education Guidance Sessions are a benefit provided to clients who purchase Forrester Decisions VIP Leader and Leader licenses that extend beyond the specific entitlements defined in a Purchase Agreement. The expectation is that clients will use Education Guidance Sessions infrequently and only when they need to educate or align across their organization to make progress on their initiatives. Forrester provides this flexibility to help clients at our discretion and reserves the right to limit the number of Education Guidance Sessions conducted by any one individual or account if we believe that the spirit and intent of Education Guidance Sessions are not being respected.