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The current issue of Survey Magazine features an article I wrote on the growing capabilities of "hybrid" research design, particularly with the explosion of online research software.

In the research industry, "hybrid" research is quickly being defined as the integration of quantitative and qualitative research.  There are several options available in the market, including:

• Chat Intercepts during an online survey
• Webcam intercepts during and online survey
• "Smart" open ended questions with automated probing
• Bulletin Board focus groups following an online survey

Each of these is optimal for different research objectives and problems to be solved.  A researcher who uses these methods should be aware of 3 keys to an effective design when picking a hybrid methodology.

1. Depth. Some hybrid methods do not provide the depth of true qualitative research.
2. Speed. Adding a qualitative "phase" to a quantitative project can push the schedule past an acceptable deadline.
3. Integration. Is the quantitative and qualitative research truly integrated or pieced together

At 20/20 Research, we have answered many of these questions with QualLink, a simultaneous hybrid that creates a direct link between virtually all survey platforms and a QualBoard bulletin board focus group. The method is deep, fully integrated and can often be completed before the survey closes.

The following was a post I made in response to the above question on the Linkedin Groups forum called The Market Research Event.

Technology advancements in the past 10 years have been terrific for the MR industry. Years ago, there were a few accepted methods of collecting data and the industry generally followed those methods without a lot of creativity. Technology has created an explosion in at least three areas:

New techniques. No one can argue the fact that we have seen an explosion of research techniques and methods related to technology.

New capabilities. Social media, longitudinal qualitative (e.g., bulletin board focus group), biometric analysis, etc, have given us capabilities to research people as never before. We are getting closer and closer to truly immersive research that is a 360 degree 24/7 understanding of our customers because of the techniques technology makes available to us.

New understanding. The capabilities mentioned above give us a deeper understanding of people, how they relate to our products and services and how those relationships are inter-related.

Any research team that is not getting deeper understanding than ever before is not utilizing the new research tools at their disposal.

Longtime 20|20 client Pat Snyder of What They Think Research was in a bind when she contacted us about a month ago. Faced with a client's tight deadline and tiny budget, Pat needed to do a quantitative survey and an in-depth bulletin board focus group ASAP.
 
We introduced her to QualLink, our patent-pending technology that seamlessly integrates a quantitative survey with our online focus group software, QualBoard. QualLink automatically recruits for the online focus group using data from the quantitative survey, so there's no downtime (or extra cost) for re-recruiting.

Pat was sold on QualLink, which works with the majority of survey software platforms.

What would have taken two months to complete took just two weeks, and Pat reports that the responses she got from the QualBoard were some of the most in-depth ones she's ever seen in her 14-year career. She was thrilled, her client was thrilled, and we were thrilled--so much so that we wrote a case study about it.

Read more about this online research software solution and how it can help you.
 

Moving focus groups online is a lot like taking other disciplines to the Internet--it's often faster, cheaper and easier. But there's more to using a bulletin board focus group than just those basic benefits. The technology has added new capabilities that were previously too difficult to execute--or just flat out not available. In addition to the time and money you can save, here are three more benefits of using an online focus group:

1. Removes space/time barriers: Online qualitative research removes the geographic barrier, so your participants can truly represent an entire market--not just the city where your focus group facility is. And because a bulletin board focus group is asynchronous, time-strapped participants, like CEOs and physicians, or participants in different time zones can log in on their schedules.
2. Supports longitudinal qualitative studies: Want to follow a group of participants over time for product or acceptance testing? Online focus groups have high participation rates (you can thank the natural setting), which make them a great tool for longer engagements. Plus, if panelists move or their schedules change, they can still participate in the bulletin board focus group (see benefit No. 1).
3. Can be anonymous: Researching a sensitive topic? A virtual focus group can provide the protection participants need to be frank about sensitive topics. There's no face-to-face interaction, and responses can be anonymous, both of which can help increase the participant's level of self-disclosure.

20/20 Research recently announced a new tool called QualLink (patent pending) that is a major advancement toward seamless integration for quantitative and online qualitative research. 

QualLink acts as a data conduit to transfer a respondent's survey responses directly to their QualBoard profile.  When the survey respondent opts in to the bulletin board focus group, their survey and demographic data is already there so the moderator can probe and segment during the qualitative phase without further screening.

There are several benefits that we will investigate.  A major advancement is the speed at which follow-up online qualitative research can now be conducted.  Because most online quantitative responses come in the first 24 hours of a study, the online qualitative respondents can be chosen from this initial sample.  Then the follow-up QualBoard can be conducted and finished before the online quantitative survey is completed.  No more waiting for a tedious recruiting process to conduct follow-up online qualitative research.

Social media is everywhere.  MySpace then Facebook then Twitter, not to mention millions of blogs on everything from foreign affairs to banana pudding.  People are talking on the internet about EVERYTHING.  For researchers, the internet and social media is a data bonanza.  We can "scrape" sites to gather enormous volumes of data on a particular brand. 

All of this data is helpful and can serve as a "thermometer" to monitor the brand's temperature in the market.  This can be very valuable to spot potential problems before they become widespread or to monitor reactions to marketing initiatives.  The question is, "How do researchers the "thermometer" monitoring to mine the mountain of data and produce real, actionable information?"

As research in social media matures, it will have to answer specific questions such as:

• What are the drivers behind the changes in brand "temperature."
• Are the changes only among specific user groups or in specific regions, etc.?
• Are the changes significant or just "noise?" 
• How does the brand team respond to the findings without affecting the entire market?
• How can the brand team respond and respect individual privacy?

Social media mining or "scraping" is here to stay.  However, a lot of hurdles need to be cleared before it becomes a widespread and effective tool for researchers and marketers.

I've been intrigued recently by the number of researchers who are trying to understand the "value" of online qual versus face to face, social media "scraping,"  etc.  Here are some thoughts that come to mind.

There is more consumer data available than ever before.  Data is everywhere but marketers remain challenged with turning that data into usable information so they can truly understand their customers.  At the end of the day, when marketers peek out from under piles of consumer data, they are craving in-depth understanding of consumers and a way to communicate that to marketing and strategic decision-makers.  Tools that provide depth of understanding will grow in value as breadth becomes easy but depth becomes increasingly difficult.

Online qualitative brings tools to assist in developing a deeper understanding of the customer if the methodologist understands how to use the unique capabilities of online qual. 

Online qualitative is not simply "conversations online."  If it were, it would be of limited use.  Online qual adds capabilities that did not exist before or were very difficult or very expensive.  Two such capabilities stand out above the others. 

• Longitudinal Qualitative -- Understanding behavior over time
• "In place" qualitative -- research at the point of purchase/consumption/interaction

Once the methodologist fully understands the power of these two concepts, it changes how they look at qualitative. 

There has been a lot of discussion in the industry about whether Market Research Online Communities (MROCs) are the future of the industry or simply a fad that will pass. 

Communities and community-like research is here to stay. The past couple of years have been an inflection point in our industry. "Standard" qualitative is changing dramatically. Therefore, expectations are changing and communities are a reflection of that.

No longer will "8-10 people in a conference room talking about your product in a project that requires 2 weeks of recruiting, followed by travel to four cities and two weeks for the final report" be the "standard" of qualitative research. Qualitative research has fragmented so that the method fits the project objectives, which often include a tighter schedule and budget.

Toss into this mix the rising world concern about privacy and the industry concern about data quality and you get a situation tailor-made for something like communities. As we have seen over the past couple of years, communities have evolved. They are not just for the Fortune 50 any more. They will continue to evolve. But other options will evolve along with them that also make research faster, better and cheaper. Much research will be online but F2F will continue to be valuable, but the old "standard" focus group project will lose share dramatically.

Generally, communities are here to stay but they are not the total answer. They are an example of the new ways of thinking in research as we pass through this inflection point into a new (dare I say it?) paradigm in research methodology.

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