9 Lessons Learned About Digital Qual #MRX Studies
By Sandra Bauman & Mary Aviles
Steve August and the Revelation folks use the term digital immersion to describe asynchronous online or digital qualitative market research. Digital qual platform vendors allow participant interaction via mobile and desktop. Dr. Alistair Goode explains the key benefit to conducting this type of in-the-moment research:
Gathering data real-time is an advantage as not only does it cut out issues with memory, many studies have shown that people are far better at reporting how they feel ‘in-the-moment’ than trying to recall what they felt in the past. Using mobile tech is far more likely to get an accurate response.
We’ve been on the road presenting What Women REALLY Want From Healthcare—our own digital qual case study–and we’ve collected the most frequently asked questions to share here:
- Stick to being the “good cop.” Invest in the vendor’s project management, if you can. This way you can be the “good cop” to the participants and focus on the moderating and study objectives, while the vendor takes on the role of “bad cop”–ensuring that participants complete their required tasks and other housekeeping.
- Model it. Clearly set expectations in the project introduction, at the beginning of Day 1, about how you want participants to engage. Then, model that behavior throughout your own interaction.
- Quality NOT quantity. One activity per day is plenty (for both the participants and the researchers). This way you don’t over tax participants and you get better quality engagement each day.
- Quid Pro Quo. This level of project engagement requires a little more personal sharing by moderators, due to the level of engagement you’re asking of your participants. For example, if you’re asking them to upload video selfies, demonstrate with a video selfie of your own.
- Dream it, then design it. The beauty of platforms like FocusVision’s Revelation or AhaOnline is their activity-based nature. If you (or they) can think of it, it can pretty much be constructed in the platform. And, if you’re creatively blocked, they have activity libraries to inspire you.
- Embrace the chaos. With this type of online qual project, the shortest distance between two points is not always a straight line. This is not a linear analysis process. There’s a reason it’s called “immersive.” Prepare yourself for organized chaos in order to obtain deeper insights.
- Begin with the end in mind. Design your study with the client objective and your analysis plan in mind. This allows for better on-the-fly analysis. The output of this type of study is greater in volume than a traditional offline qual project. It’s essential to try to apply a framework or lens with which to organize the data.
- Go broad. Decide on broad thematic categories for your tags and tag in real-time to avoid becoming overwhelmed by analysis and to begin outlining the deliverable as quickly as possible.
- Stick to the schedule. Choose set times–we like three per day–to log in and check on participant progress. Include that in your expectation setting so participants know when to expect to see you interacting. We think of this as immersion with work/life balance on the side!
We LOVE the creativity and fantastic emotional output that result from these types of projects! They’re challenging, but they’re fun. If you’d like us to determine whether digital immersion can answer your research question–or if there’s another more appropriate methodology instead–please contact [email protected] or call 201.444.6894.