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Is There a Difference in Quality of F2F vs Online Qualitative Research?

By Jim Bryson on August 10, 2010 7:53 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Is face-to-face any better than online qualitative research when it comes to quality? That's what one of my LinkedIn groups was mulling over last week.

This is a very complex question because there are many, many online qualitative research methods and many, many combinations of research objectives. And this doesn't even begin to address the definition of "quality." Since there is no easy answer I'll just toss in my 2 cents on a couple of items:

There is no doubt that the "data" from viewing people as they talk is largely missing from most online qualitative research methods. Viewing participants in person can reveal powerful insights, and the experience is insightful and memorable for the client viewer as well. This deficit is being overcome by online research software but, frankly, it is still a downside to online. So, when a direct comparison is made using this criteria, online qualitative research often comes up short.

On the other hand, online offers many opportunities that F2F does not. I love the opportunity to do longitudinal qualitative that several online methods facilitate (e.g., bulletin board focus group). Longitudinal studies are very difficult and very expensive F2F. Online provides greater opportunity to go into the lives of a participant for a 360 degree view of their interaction with a product or service. Online also gives us tools that allow people to be totally open with anonymity. There are other advantages, but you get the idea.

So, at the end of the day, the question to me is not which is higher quality, but which methodology best fits my needs?

Brainstorming with Word Clouds

By Jim Bryson on January 9, 2010 8:35 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Last week, I received my 2010 prediction issue of Research Business Review.  There were 12 pages of predictions from all corners of the research industry.  It was overwhelming. I wondered what would happen if I created a word cloud of the entire predictions issue to easily assess the common themes?  I scanned the entire issue and loaded the text into Wordle to create a typical word frequency word cloud (below).
2010 Predictions.png

Then I began to consider the business implications of this compilation.  My mind instinctively began to combine words in an attempt to decipher meaning from this jumble of words.  Suddenly new concepts began to form around those word combinations.  I quickly realized that I was brainstorming trends and opportunities for 2010 from this jumbled mass of relevant words.  The word cloud and the resulting word combinations became an unexpected tool that stimulated brainstorming.  

Look at this word cloud and allow combinations of words to form.  What are their implications?  How do those combinations lead you to insights?  Here are some combinations that pop at me:

  • New Media Companies
  • Media Insights Communities
  • New Social Consumers
  • Consumer Insights Communities
  • Marketing Less Media
  • Continue Technology Promises
  • Understand Traditional Listening
  • See New Consumers
The beauty of using word clouds in this way is that the word cloud prioritizes the concepts (at least the words) that the experts are using but presents them in such a way that the brain has to work to make some sense of it.  That is the process that leads to brainstorming.

As a qual researcher, my mind is spinning on two levels.  First, how can I tactically use Word Clouds in my qualitative research brainstorming?  Second, how can I use Word Cloud Brainstorming in my business planning to tap the wisdom of the crowds of experts to better plan and strategize?

You Can't be Brilliant Alone: Effective Collaboration

By Jim Bryson on October 13, 2009 2:31 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Last week, I attended the AMA Research Conference in Palm Springs.  One of the better presentations I witnessed was by Chris Frank, VP of Global Insights for AmEx.  He presented on "Tricks and Techniques" to be a brilliant researcher.  These techniques are built on two trends he sees as pervasive in research.

  1. Research Control becoming Research Collaboration
  2. Education about research becoming Evangelism about research implications

Here are Chris Frank's 7 "Tips and Tricks" to be "Brilliant!"

  1. Be explicitly clear on the essential business question.
  2. Develop hypotheses, test them in the research and report on them.
  3. Practice Smoke Jumping.  Be willing to change the research design at any point to accomodate new findings or explore new questions so that the final report includes complete understanding of the findings and issues.
  4. Reveal surprises.  Ask the question, "What surprised you the most?"
  5. Don't sweat the small stuff.  Miniscule changes are just that miniscule.  Focus on the important findings that are important enough to change decisions. 
  6. Plan and be sprecific in your research meetings.
  7. Make the bottom line the top line.  Put conclusions up front.  Leave the detail for those who want to dig through it.  Display the data to drive the point home.  Be compelling.

These points are changing the way research is designed, managed, reported and used throughout American Express. 

If we all focused on our research in this way, we would be more valuable to the decision-makers in our firm or our client's firms.  This process makes complete sense and focuses everyone on the game-changing research results.

 

Research Design Structure Suggested

By Jim Bryson on August 6, 2009 9:29 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

As researchers we are being called on more and more often to think of different methods for crafting our research design to carefully fit marketing needs and overall research objectives.  With the explosion of available tools and the resulting fragmentation of methods, choosing a research design is getting more and more complex and more and more powerful.  One result of this explosion of methods is our need as researchers to think holistically about research so we can apply it effectively.

The following blog article by Caryn Goldsmith provides an interesting structure for considering different types of research.  The article generated quite a few comments.  For the article and the comments, go to;  http://goldsmithstrategicservices.wordpress.com/

Paradigm Shift: Trends in Market Research

Published July 30, 2009 Marketing , Trends 14 Comments
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I'm a consumer advocate.  To advocate for them - to give them voice in the business decision-making process - I must know the best ways to learn from them.

As new techniques are developed, I can embrace them, refine them, reject them, or even create something else that will work better for my clients.  I want a large arsenal of effective tools.  And, when needed, I want to be able to combine approaches to address the client's objectives in the best way possible.

 

Continue reading Research Design Structure Suggested.

Are you lying to me?

By Jim Bryson on June 17, 2009 9:58 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Susan Abbott points out that people who are lying often can't be caught by body language but are usually given away by their words, usually they way they tell a story. 

Drawing from Judging Honesty by Words, Not Fidgets, by Benedict Carey, Susan presents the debunks the following myths about liars.  

  • Liars do not avert their eyes more than people telling the truth
  • Liars do not fidget, sweat or slump more than truth-tellers
  • There are fleeting changes in expression, but these are difficult to analyze

In addition, she presents the following truths:

  • People who are lying tend to try to stick to a script, to avoid getting caught in a lie.
  • People telling the truth don't have a script, so they tend to recall more extraneous details, and make mistakes. And the more they talk about a given experience, the more of these details come to mind.

Paying close attention to words is just as important as nonverbal behaviour to truly understand the truth contained in the research.

Susan's blog, "Customer Experience Crossroads" can be found at www.customercrossroads.com.

NSF speaks on qualitative research

By Jim Bryson on April 25, 2009 8:20 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Rarely do you find an academic science foundation producing a serious paper on qualitative research.  While browsing the internet, I came across a paper that the National Science Foundation published following a 2003 workshop.  The paper titled "Workshop on Scientific Foundations of Qualitative Research" is an academic paper that laid out a roadmap for the NSF to begin awarding grants for qualitative research. 

The paper is not terribly long. The actual paper is only about 10 pages though the appendix balloons the entire document to 147.  As a practitioner, I found it somewhat helpful if I applied a "qualitative" eye to it as I read.  For me, I gained the most by keeping the question, "How might this concept be applied to my practice?" rather than reading it for literal knowledge. 

Here is the link to the entire paper http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04219/nsf04219.pdf

Click the link below to read two paragraphs from the paper's Executive Summary about the organization of the paper.

Continue reading NSF speaks on qualitative research.

Case Study: Logitech uses qual to go beyond analytics

By Jim Bryson on April 8, 2009 2:27 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

In advance of the Web Strategy Summit coming up May 4-5 in Calgary, Matthew Nish-Lapidus sat down with one of the presenters, Dianne Howie to get a preview of her presentation.  In this interview, she shows how Logitech used qualitative research to dig deeper into issues highlighted by Logitech's web analytics and how the qualiative actually allowed Logitech to identify and solve specific consumer problems. 

2009 Web Strategy Summit - A word with Dianne Howie

by Matthew Nish-Lapidus
April 1, 2009

At the upcoming Web Strategy Summit Dianne Howie and Heather Searl will speak about the role of research in their session "Going Beyond Web Analytics to Dig into the Minds of Your Users." I was lucky enough to get a few minutes of Dianne's time to ask her a few questions about her session.

Matt: In your Web Strategy Summit session you are going to talk about using qualitative research to back up web analytics quantitative data. When was the first time you used this technique, and what kind of benefits have you seen?

Dianne: Both Heather and I have used qualitative research for years. The Logitech remote controls division began using qualitative research web research when Heather joined the company in 2006. Logitech's Harmony remote controls have web based setup software, allowing the company to collect a lot of quantitative data including: the time to set up devices, which pages they visited, and where people quit the setup process. Previous projects had tried to improve the setup process based on this information, but it didn't work was well as they hoped. In addition, the quantitative data and marketing data didn't match. They had high return rates. They could tell when a returned remote wasn't fully set up and where people dropped off. But that wasn't enough to know how to improve the design.

It makes a world of difference to see someone struggling with the setup process in person. You see things that could never be revealed by web analytics. For example, people tried to use the remote with the (very realistic) store sticker still on top of the LCD display. It wasn't obvious that the sticker had to be peeled off! Another example... People didn't know where to look on their devices for the model numbers. Just providing some simple tips and pictures during the setup made a huge difference.

The qualitative research made a compelling case to get the funding to do redesign of the setup process properly. Videos from visits made the points well: for example one person spent 12 minutes going around and around trying to fix a mistake and not understanding what he had done wrong. After applying the findings from the qualitative research, Logitech measured significant improvements in customer satisfaction for remote setup.

Continue reading Case Study: Logitech uses qual to go beyond analytics.

YouTube for academic-minded quallies

By Jim Bryson on March 10, 2009 8:27 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

This paper from the Weekly Qualitative Report is specifically produced by academics for academics.  However, if you are interested in finding qualitative material in video format on YouTube, this paper has done the work for you.  The authors searched YouTube for qualitative related videos, reviewed them and provided them in this paper with a synopsis and a link.  You may find it useful.  Here is the article abstract:

YouTube, the video hosting service, offers students, teachers, and practitioners of qualitative researchers a unique reservoir of video clips introducing basic qualitative research concepts, sharing qualitative data from interviews and field observations, and presenting completed research studies. This web-based site also affords qualitative researchers the potential avenue to share their reusable learning resources for all interested parties to use.

You can go directly to the paper at: http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/WQR/youtube.pdf 

The importance of unlearning

By Jim Bryson on March 8, 2009 5:42 PM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

At the end of a very good article that defines the ever-elusive "insights" that we seek as qualitative researchers, is an interesting couple of paragraphs related to the importance of "unlearning."  I've copied those paragraphs below and hope they will stimulate your thinking.  To see hte entire article, go to:  http://kumeugirl.com/

Kathy Sierra in her blog Creating Passionate Users discusses unlearning.

"Yes, we're under pressure to learn more and to learn quickly, but the future goes to those who can unlearn faster than the rest, because you can't always learn something new until you first let go of something else. And learning to let go of rules is one of the first things we (and our managers) have to learn to be quicker at.

Sometimes that means letting go of something that served you well for a long time."

Qualitative Research is changing, as we work through how we engage people in a more "authentic" way. The recession means we literally cannot afford to do what we have done in the past. We will need to "unlearn" both how we construct methodologies as well as how we analyse and interpret meaning. And maybe there are other things we have to unlearn as well?

15 types of meaningful experiences

By Jim Bryson on March 6, 2009 9:46 PM | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks

Qualitative research is constantly engaged to understand underlying motivators, hot buttons and meaning for various types of consumers.  Therefore, understanding and being able to communicate those insights is crucial to success for the qual researcher.  The folks at Making Meaning outline 15 meaningful experiences people common to people across cultures.  For the full article go to http://www.makingmeaning.org/meanings.html

The 15 meanings that they found across cultures simply provide a framework for thinking as we conduct qualitative research.  Those 15 means are presented below in alphabetical order. 

  1. Accomplishment
  2. Beauty
  3. Community
  4. Creation
  5. Duty
  6. Enlightenment
  7. Freedom
  8. Harmony
  9. Justice
  10. Oneness
  11. Redemption
  12. Security
  13. Truth
  14. Validation
  15. Wonder

Its an interesting website.  I recommend you check it out.

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