Tag Archives: CRC

What’s the big deal with big data? #casro #MRX 

By LoveStats on | 2 Comments

I recently debated big data with a worthy opponent in Marc Alley at the Corporate Research Conference.  He stood firm in his belief that big data is the best type of data whereas I stood firm in my position that traditional research is the only way to go. You can read a summary of the debate written by Jeffrey Henning here.

The interesting thing is that, outside of the debate, Marc and I seemed to agree on most points. Neither of us think that big data is the be all and end all. Neither of us think that market research answers every problem. But both of us were determined to present our side as if it was the only side.  

In reality, the best type of data is ALL data. If you can access survey data and big data, you will be better off and have an improved understanding of thoughts, opinions, emotions, attitudes AND validated actions.   If you can also access eye tracking data or focus group data or behavioural data, you will be far better off and have data that can speak to reliability or validity.  Each data type will present you with a different view and a different perspective on reality. You might even see what looks like completely different results.  

Different is not wrong.  It’s not misleading. It’s not frustrating.  Different results are enlightening, and they are indeed valid.  Why do people do different than what they say? Why do people present contradictory data? That’s what is so fascinating about people. There is no one reality. People are complex and have many contradictory motivations.  No single dataset can describe the reality of people.  

There is no debate about whether big data has anything to offer.  Though Marc and I did our best to bring you to our dark side, we must remember that every dataset, regardless of the source, has fascinating insights ready for you to discover. Grab as much data as you can. 

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Connected homes, political polls, and quicksand oh my! #CRC2015 #MRX 

By LoveStats on

Live blogged at #CRC2015 in St. Louis. Any errors or bad jokes in the notes are my own.

Leveraging methodologies and optimizing your product: How NRG developed a connected home solution

  • help consumers better understand how to use and control energy when we don’t really think about it unless it doesn’t work
  • connect/smart homes can help you control anything from an app on your smart phone, lights on and off, check on kids, see what time people come home
  • people will always want a $10 000 ferrari. stop asking about that. no one wants a $200 000 kia either. stop asking that.
  • what is the most efficient product based on costs and preferences
  • Learn about the efficient fontier – optimizing preferences and costs
  • what features do people really like and which are undervalued
  • must narrow down the features using max diff first
  • people really wanted to be able to confirm that they had closed and locked the door
  • price obviously had to be included
  • there is no right answer but you get data to make decisions [totally agree. statistics never give you th right answer. they give you something to ponder]

Political polling 2016: what pollsters and corporate researchers can learn from each other

  • “This election finally prove that most market research is probably twaddle”
  • research is used to find the idioms that people like and these words show up in speeches
  • RDD has been the most prefered data collection mode, and in some cases still are
  • compare a phone and online survey side by side, n=500 for both, 21 questions around 5 minutes
  • housekeeping variables generally matched
  • no major differences between the two groups for many variables on voting, immigration, economics
  • study that appends voter data from registered voters
  • questions were about favorability and support, e.g., i don’t really like them but i’m voting for them
  • in single select questions, trump is favoured.
  • tending data is more important than single point estimates
  • brand liking is not always a good predictor of buying behaviora
  • change in question wording can yield substantially different data
  • online data can provide a reliable supplement, if not replacement, for phone surveys [in other words, there is NO perfect data collction method. be SMART in your data collection and interpretation]

Tiptoeing through innovation quicksand: methods to die for and methods that might kill you

  • Gartner hype cycle for methods
  • 100 responses so far, convenience sample – researchers, supply side, corporate; skewed quant
  • asked about 34 techniques, no forced answers
  • 3 people said they were fired for using a technique – virtual store research, prediction marketets, A/B testing, emotion detection [i wouldn’t want to work there anyways!]
  • if you did an online survey in 1996, it might have had a big impact on your career
  • people said they were rewarded, promoted, raise for using a new technique; helped companies shift directions
  • only 64% had used online surveys, half had used focus groups
  • never use again  -mail surveys, facial recogniton
  • Career builders, Career opportunities, Career investments, Career challenges
  • Microsegmentation – can identify micromarketing action to take, but complex to implement
  • Customer journey mapping – great holistic view of customer experience, too complex or externally focused
  • Uplift modeling – trying to action individual, strong ROI, 
  • social media analytics – unprompted items of concern, difficult to decipher, not-reliable data
  • mobile intercept surveys – on the spot real data, hard to get participation
  • neuromarketing – higher price, opinions vs actions
  • microsurveys under ten questions – quick,better for niche audience, low barrier of entry
  • facial recognition – might feel it doesn’t give new information
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How better meetings and wicked problem solving propel research-based innovation by Tom Wujec, Autodesk #CRC2015 #MRX 

By LoveStats on

Live blogged at #CRC2015 in St. Louis. Any errors or bad jokes are my own.

  • technology will rise at an expontential rate, industries are rising and falling chaotically, human creativity generally remains the same
  • we’ve built more transitors than grown grains of rice this year [what the?]
  • in technology, each step is greater than the sum of the previous steps
  • London has a number of trains operating undersground for …. mail! Technology lets you look at it at the level of a bolt.
  • Can measure traffic patterns by creating subway systems and highway systems using a digital model
  • VUCA – volatile, uncertain, chaotic, ambiguous – this is the state of the world as described to congress
  • businesses are becoming VUCA
  • do you want to buy the fastest VCR? no, you want DVD and netflix and newer.
  • kodak HAD more patents for digital than all their competitors but they didn’t want to disrupt their category
  • uber is the current post child
  • there are three kinds of basketball according to the shoes needed, shoes are digitally developed to suit these specific needs, monitors are built into the shoe and you can subscribe to that service
  • two robots are assembling a bridge in amsterdam
  • robots can do things people can’t, can try many variations in the thousands and evaluate all for strengh and weight, can create an algorithm that a designer can use to select the attribute they would like, and all this in an afternoon [ah yes, tales of my statistics professor who did ONE factor analysis for his differtation]
  • computers create solutions that look like nature, the best solutions are often designs from nature [think helicopters and planes that we designed thinking about birds]
  • imagine creating a dress for an individual via 3d printing, no waste, exact fit
  • technology is being adopted massively faster as the years go by, TVs took many years, iphone took no time at all
  • many sports stories in newspapers are written by computers
  • Watson has better predictive ability than 12 physicians
  • what happens when this technology goes ito a toy? child can ask a toy any question though some questions are answered with ‘go ask mommy’
  • impossible, impractical, possible, expected, required – the phases of techology
  • need to change our mindsets to work with these technologyies
  • showing the technology and the research is not enough
  • creativity is endless and magical, we can explore more broudly and deeply than every before
  • fostering innovation involves identifying problems that matter by exploring alternative and delivering elegant solutions
  • in two minutes, draw a picture of how to do something trivial, inconsequential, such as how to make darkened crispy toast, no words, for someone who has never made taste before – where do you start, where to you end, what are the salient points. in different countries you get toasters or frying pans or fireplaces
  • use sticky notes on the wall, move them around, do it quickly 
  • technology is increasing and industry is increasing but humans havent’ had a hardware upgrade for hundreds of thousands of years so creativity remains static
  • where should you put your efforts?
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How Groupon MR Fuels Smart Products and Programs by Eric Rasmussen, Groupon #CRC2014 #MRX

By LoveStats on

CRC_brochure2013Live blogging from the Corporate Researchers Conference in Chicago. Any errors or bad jokes are my own.

How Groupon MR Fuels Smart Products and Programs by Eric Rasmussen, Groupon

  • local deals, national brands/deals, goods, travel, luxury, medical, dental
  • less than 5 years old but 51 million+ activer users, 500+ marketings, 12000 global employees
  • how much of your advertising goes towards current customers, giving them a discount when they would have paid full price
  • groupon gets you a completely different slice of the pie – new users, lapsed users, and still some current users, makes  a lot more sense for customer acquisition
  • use research as an educational tool – who and why people use groupon, as well as spreading the word
  • they use existing data – demographic profiles, behavioural, external studies
  • usually have 12 studies in the field at one point
  • merchants need research specific to them – build business with new relevant customers, consumers want something different – it’s people who have disposable income
  • people drop out of groupon because they have financial issues
  • groupon is a discover engine, you can find it all on the internet but they offer a curated experience and know they’ll get a great deal, it’s dipping your toe in the water, you won’t be happy spending a lot of money on something new that you don’t like
  • IMG_2804[1]discovery engine – consumers see groupon as spontaneous, able to reveal hidden treasures, adventurous, introduce to new things and places i might not have otherwise found
  • Saks 5th did a groupon for designer apparel, would this devalue the brand? But, data showed it improved people’s perception of the brand and only 1% made them feel more negative towards the brand. 8 out of 10 people were incremental. only 15% would have bout the product there anyways.  many people brought someone with them who subsequently bought something too – average spend was around $150.
  • Gaming example – why would a game company need groupon? profile doesn’t fit a more female groupon audience. these people were buying it for a gift
  • Travel example – people no longer go a physical travel agency, they just go to Expedia. hotels are now commoditized because they are in a list with every other hotel and people look for the price. Groupon promotes individual hotels in specific areas. People use the websites for price comparisons. People use groupon to find interesting new places. Groupon ended up booking vacations in places that people wouldn’t have gone to otherwise.
  • Gnome project – they track satisfaction very closely. Groupon merchants are more satisfied with groupon than other services and then consumers are even more satisfied, right up there with apple. Realized that people who were tracking their groupon ROI were more satisfied than people who weren’t tracking ROI. Decided to share this knowledge with their merchants. Created a tablet just for merchants with seamless redemptions, all in one cash register, campaign management tools, feedback tracking. Gave merchants control they didn’t have before.
  • marketing funnel needs to focus away from non-internet users which gets you the coveted younger crowd
  • groupon builds brand impressions, over-spend, and gains lapsed users, creates repeat customers
  • lessons learned
    • focus on what will make a difference, ask and push back, will it be done on time?
    • anticipate questions so that you have the answers, think about upcoming initiatives and be proactive,
    • set timing expectations early
    • think globally, use the smaller markets as test arenas

https://twitter.com/ResearchRocks/status/513006725927272449

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Interviewing for the Edit by Michael Carlon, Hall & Partners and Joe Indusi, RESEARCH2VIDEO #CRC2014 #MRX

By LoveStats on

CRC_brochure2013Live blogging from the Corporate Researchers Conference in Chicago. Any errors or bad jokes are my own.

Interviewing for the Edit by Michael Carlon, Hall & Partners, Joe Indusi, RESEARCH2VIDEO

  • why is high quality video important – people always remember the videos more so than reports
  • PATIENCE is your friend. we’re trained to probe and fill the silence, we’re uncomfortable with silence. when someone asks WHY all the time, it interrupts the sound bite. HIt the mute button. 3 second rule. think of soundbites during the interview – wait 3 seconds. this lets the editor cut the clip and it leaves room for the person to keep talking. the first answer is usually the answer they think you want to hear but if you wait 3 seconds then they come up with the real answer.
  • Stay out of the LIGHT.  The poltergeist rule. Let the responder have the light. Don’t film in front of windows or it looks like you’re in the witness protection program. You can only use footage if you can see the face of the person talking. It’s important to show their environment, show what represents them, show where they usually sit in their favourite chair. Don’t put them against a blank wall that you could find anywhere. show their character.
  • It’s okay to beat a deadhorse – you do know what’s going on after a few questions or interviews. But then you’re looking for consistency and reliable. and it gives you multiple editing takes in cases where there was a cough or a baby crying in the background. You can ask people to repeat what they said, “we’d like to hear you say that again.” Maybe they’ll say it a little differently or not but it’s okay to ask.
  • Cutaways – don’t forget the B side. if people mention behaviours, keep track of them so you can show them during the filmed interview. it doesn’t need to be just a person talking, show little clips while they’re talking.
  • Consider screening out pet owners – particularly if you know footage will be used, we don’t love your pets all the time, you can’t get footage out of a video full of barking. bring a lint brush 🙂
  • Capture establishing shots – communicate without having to say it, take footage of the neighbourhood.
  • Interview 3 to 5 consumers per segment – one will be a dud or they have dogs or cats, allows you to show multiple people saying the same thing, you can’t have a montage of one. helps sell an idea.
  • Budget for time-coded transcriptions – do this even for tight budgets, it lets you not take notes and be fully involved, it’s easier to highlight quotes on paper and then show these to the film editor
  • Insist on a video script – think about how the edits will come together, if the filmer can see the script ahead of time, then can plan ahead
  • Work with an editor who know the MRX business – anyone can buy a computer with film editing and anyone can pull clips, but there is an art to pulling clips, they know what makes a good sound bit and how to build a story of clips

https://twitter.com/ResearchRocks/status/512977891333001216

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Big Data and Privacy: The Legal Landscape Affecting Corporate Research by Shannon Harmon, JHC #CRC2014 #MRX

By LoveStats on

CRC_brochure2013Live blogging from the Corporate Researchers Conference in Chicago. Any errors or bad jokes are my own.

Big Data & Privacy: The Legal Landscape Affecting Corporate Research by Shannon Harmon, JHC

  • our lives are a series of data points
  • more opportunity vulnerability and the potential for greater abuse
  • smaller entity might purchase data from 3rd party
  • who owns the data, who has the right to access the data, what steps are taken to keep it secure
  • goal of any regulation is to protect personally identifiable information form breach and misuse
  • you can identify people with very little information so keep in mind a lot of information is PII
  • Notice and consent: need to provide notice of how the data will be used, and then obtain consent – this is the core of the law related to privacy, you need to make sure the right practices were followed to do this
  • Where do we look for oversight? Right now, state attorney general, FTC, FCC, FDA
  • Fair information practice principle – only collect what you need to collect and only retain it for as long as is necessary to fulfill the specified purpose
  • FIPP – data quality and integrity – organizations should ensure that the PII is accurate, relevant, timely and complete and this is difficult if you’ve purchased the data, supplier should have a structure in place to ensure this
  • Consumer privacy protection bill of rights – google search this – things corporations should do to protect privacy, this area will become increasingly more regulated so think ahead
  • Fair Credit Reporting Act – example of what big data protection framework should look like, right to review your credit report and make sure it’s accurate and get it fixed if it’s not correct, this is where we’re headed, your digital dossier is being collected and you don’t know how decisions about you are being made, you can’t contest your big data points… right now
  • special considerations for health data – apple has stated that any app developers cannot use any of the health data for advertising, or data-mining except to help an individual manage their health or for medical research. but is apple responsible for developer compliance? what if a data broker got the data from someone who wasn’t supposed to have it in the first place?
  • considerations for researchers
    • where is the data being obtained, what are the sources
    • what practices are being used to obtain it and what is your confidence in your aggregator
    • how is the data being trained to arrive at conclusions? what algorithms? what human manipulation?
    • think about the vendor/subcontractor relationship, is the contractor independent? a substandard contractor impacts you
  • we need
    • use restrictions – can’t use big data to discriminate on age, race, etc
    • oversight – protect against unregulated digital dossiers
  • KNOW YOUR INFORMATION SOURCE
  • be intimately knowledgeable about your company’s data gathering practices – informed consent, opt-out, internal user access controls
  • be ready to evolve as the law is only beginning to be developed in this area

https://twitter.com/MoreDK/status/512964541958070272

https://twitter.com/MoreDK/status/512966101270298624

https://twitter.com/MoreDK/status/512967417287680000

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Influencing the Corporate Strategy Agenda with Research Insights by Claire Brooks, ModelPeople & Dina Lawson, McNeil #CRC2014 #MRX

By LoveStats on | 1 Comment

CRC_brochure2013Live blogging from the Corporate Researchers Conference in Chicago. Any errors or bad jokes are my own.

Influencing the Corporate Strategy Agenda with Research Insights by Claire Brooks, ModelPeople Global Brand Insights & Strategy, Dina Lawson, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson

  • Help your senior execs to play, and learn, and act upon consumer insights by involving them in the journey
  • Empathy needs to be at the heart of the strategic agenda
  • help executives become strategic learning conductors – embed insights, involve stakeholders, help others uncover insights on their own
  • this is a strategic learning journey
  • important to immerse in strategic context
    • put people in the middle of consumers, cultural/semiotic, social/family, channel/retail, technology/media
    • you only have 15 seconds with executives, need to curate an immersive experience
    • use virtual ethnography; use mobile ethnography to make sure you have articulate consumers
  • need to activate learning by identifying insights and scope
    • don’t leave executives with impressions, create time in the field for them to express what they’ve heard and learned, keep it simple focused on AHAs
  • need to inspire
    • story telling using video and other graphic media
  • Case study – nutrition in India – the desk is dangerous place from which to view the world ~John LeCarre
    • many client assumptions turned out to be very wrong in india
    • need a local research partner experienced in the techniques
  • Case study – korea – there may be language difficulties so be as visual as possible
  • Take your business partners on the journey with you, from objective to key business issues so everyone knows exactly what to do
  • turn all of your materials into a really good actionable page
  • don’t just deliver on a functional benefit – “faster, longer, pinker”
  • Mylicon example – for infant gas, very functional. existing product positioning was not inspirational at all. People saw the product as a life saving product not a fussy baby product. Role of product wasn’t enabling a mother child bond, it was as a magical, god-made product. Completely different positioning for brand. Video played an essential role in proving to the board the positioning was wrong.
  • Product may not change but consumers are always changing.

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DISH Network’s Research Culture Shift by Patti Fries, DISH Network#CRC2014 #MRX

By LoveStats on | 2 Comments

CRC_brochure2013Live blogging from the Corporate Researchers Conference in Chicago. Any errors or bad jokes are my own.

DISH Network’s Research Culture Shift by Patti Fries, DISH Network

  • dish network actually has more revenue than Starbucks. but the brand value of Starbucks is twice as much
  • ask consumers – If dish was a car, what kind of car would it be – grey car with four wheels – perception is everything
  • describe yourself in five words – Charlie Ergen founder of dish was adventurous, competitive, risk taker, tenacious, optimistic – he put 100 million dollars to put a satellite into space, 40% success rate on rocket launches in china in 1995 [please don’t blow up, please don’t blow up, please don’t blow up]
  • First rocket in 1995
  • Consumer research and insights launched in 2012
  • why spend one more penny on research than you had to, they couldn’t keep up with sales
  • now, need to focus efforts on where going long term because its turning into a commodity
  • speakers five words: energetic, passionate, ambitious, trusting, optimistic
  • Research history – it had spartan beginnings, they did do roundtables, talk to people at the DMV, it wasn’t structured, they did DIY surveys, people weren’t sharing their research results, no one knew what else was happening in the company
  • department stores generate NPS of 62. Cable services generate NPS of 14.
  • where would you rather work? a place that gives you opportunity to improve perceptions of a brand.
  • “Our culture works hard to prevent change” ~Seth Godin
  • How do  you bring research in when nobody cared about it?
  • Culture shift: beginning, who, data, education, brand, future
  • Beginning – do what it takes, she did 72 projects by herself in the first 7 months, she coded open-end data herself, did the tabulation, analyses, reports, presented. She had to build awareness and get people to want what she was selling. she wanted a 1000% budget increase. Biggest increase they’ve ever given. Got permission to build a small and mighty team. Develop vision and mission – objective, simple, strategic, inspiring
  • Who – the target was 18+ with a pulse. we target everyone and we target them all the exact same way. Did a household level segmentation with financial information. Lower income doesn’t mean lower interest in TV. Needed to do needs based segmentation too. How do you marry lower income with their services. Worked on predictive models to make a better experience.
  • Data – Less is more. Reports are not based on $$ value per page. would rather two pages of actionable data than 400 pages of numbers we can’t understand. focus on things that will have the greatest impact. need to find a way to move fast. have 14 million subscribers, most have 2 set-top boxes, and they can monitor every click but don’t worry because they are doing zip all with it! zillions of data points not being used. But when you use this data, you need to get it down to one single page of actionable results. 35 suppliers bug her everyday to work with her but she only works with 6.  [how exhausting is that]
  • Education – have you ever been to a focus group? they had to teach people how to do it. they put hundreds of their marketers through focus groups in two days. these people had never heard the voice of the consumer. told consumers they could write a letter to the CEO but then they brought the CEO to the focus groups to talk to them. he talked to them for an hour. there was difficulty getting traction. people weren’t necessarily interested in learning more. chose to empower others by teaching them qualitative tools. had them go in the homes of consumers to see they could do some of their own work. Make it fun, interactive sessions.
  • Brand – make brave recommendations. price focus has made them a commodity. consumers were seeing message madness – 25 completely different commercials. Brand awkwardness – weird commercials that don’t make sense like the cowboy hat commercial. Brand wasn’t building while competitors were growing. Worked to build partners with apple, southwest – that’s better than a grey car. Now you can talk about value. Moved their NPS score up to 38 and the hopper NPS to to 43. Won lots of awards but consumers don’t care about features than won awards.
  • Future – ended up winning the hearts and minds of consumers. awareness is fine but brand advocacy takes your business to the next level. Create a brand feel and make it different than a grey car with four wheels. Build on consumer motivations. It’s more than price and features.  Elevate collaboration. Met with the C-suite to push their thinking, got everyone in the same room so that everyone would be on board. Came up with 972 ideas to change the trajectory of the company and only 4 had anything to do with price.
  • If you’re going to take a side, take the side of the consumer. an exciting category shouldn’t feel horrific to consumers.

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How to Get Out of the Question/Answer Rut by Susan Fader, Fader & Associates #CRC2014 #MRX

By LoveStats on

tCRC_brochure2013Live blogging from the Corporate Researchers Conference in Chicago. Any errors or bad jokes are my own.

How to Get Out of the Question/Answer Rut by Susan Fader, Fader & Associates

  • use story telling, use all five senses, use 3D
  • if your culture focuses on memorization, creativity is lower
  • everyone has a laundry list of question, take it so you know what people are thinking – who, what, where, when, why, how; questions they think will give them the answers they want
  • when you ask a direct question you don’t necessarily get answers – people feel defense, interrogated, preconceived notions
  • think of a controlled conversation vs free choice
  • do you always talk to heavy users? but even these people aren’t all the same. their behaviour is automatic. they aren’t thinking. it’s all subconscious. they can’t articulate because it’s submerged. must bring the subconscious to conscious.
  • try self-ethnography – have them observe themselves
  • if you have 5 kids, do you THINK about how and why you’re doing laundry? no, it’s automatic
  • need to prime the conversation – get them in the right mindset – use storytelling to do this
  • 80% of the laundry list of questions can be answered by telling a story
  • don’t say “tell me a story about potato chips” say “tell me a story about the world of snack foods” [do NOT get me started!]
  • frame the conversation broadly
  • Financial example – wanted to talk to people who spent at least $2000 in the store, used a group session to talk about loyalty rewards of the program, need to get people in the frame of mind of shopping in the store
    • think about shopping, some of you love shopping, some of you would rather get root canals
    • imagine you have to go to a store and find an outfit, what are you feeling and thinking about that situation – some people are energized, others are sweating
    • they don’t need to read what they wrote, but just tell a story about it
    • takes only ten minutes
  • pharmaceuticals – Hernia surgery
    • general surgeons do 5 to 10 surgeries on a regular basis [did not know that!]
    • they wanted to speak to hernia specialists – 8 to 10 per month – didn’t like that criteria
    • ask them which surgeries they like and dislike, where did hernia surgery fall – they didn’t like it
    • why do you like and dislike these, using a story, people didn’t realize why they gravitated to certain surgeries until they told the stories
    • took ten minutes
    • hernia surgery is non-creative, rote, just about the engineering, doesn’t speak to the creative mind, but when you demonstrate how the tools let you be creative, then surgeons liked it more
  • Orange juice
    • Bring three items from home to help you tell a story, people all brought in the same things – sports
    • but when asked to tell a story they moved from a baseball glove to “i like playing the sport” while the other brand was “i like the team playing”
  • 3D collaging and photo cards – collages are generally automatic pilot, people do what they’re expected to do
    • people didn’t think about getting a flu shot at a pharmacy instead of a doctor
    • why did people who really like diet pop drink a certain brand in full calorie version
    • HIV test – millennials had to have 5 partners over a year – “please tell us a story”  🙂
    •  3D collage of things in your home – “Why would you get a flu vaccine at a pharmacy” – dollar bills, chip bags, cough drops, soap
    • diet vs nondiet – mom created a monopoly game and told her story by playing the game – she put kids fighting on the board, chips on the board
    • someone else used toast, cards
    • in financial services, people include condoms, cars
    • put all the 3D collages on the wall for the story telling
    • people start referring to each other’s collages
    • they work as lie detectors, sometimes they gravitate towards something that wasn’t on their collage, sometimes they can articulate their reasoning
  • Photo cards – there are no people in these cards except for a baby and a witch; they include a range of scenes
    • a group of fish is school time
    • a christmas tree could be surpise of the gifts, sharp needles on the tree, disappointment at getting something you don’t want
    • use about 40 cards – can have story on the wall in 5 to 8 minutes
    • sometimes pair people together for similarities or differences
  • Use game pieces – give people lego, tell them colours mean something, they can communicate taste and smell visually
  • use touch as the springboard – use disruptors, make people come at a discovery in a different way – pick something in a black back and describe it with adjectives. now the assignment is to think of a ~new iphone accessory~ using those adjectives. forces people out of their preconceived notions

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How a Mobile-Enabled World is Changing Research Presented by Roddy Knowles, Director of Mobile Research #CRC2014 #MRX

By LoveStats on

CRC_brochure2013Live blogging from the Corporate Researchers Conference in Chicago. Any errors or bad jokes are my own.

How a Mobile-Enabled World is Changing Research
Presented by Roddy Knowles, Director of Mobile Research

  • “This is the year of mobile” we say this every year
  • what steps do you take for mobile friendly design
  • 1 in 5 survey starts on a mobile device; 2 in 5 panel enrollments is on a mobile device – this is a 100% increase over last year
  • over time, people realize that surveys aren’t always designed for mobile devices
  • meet responders when and how they prefer – at home, work, on the bus
  • mobile reminds us that real paper take our surveys, we lose the human element sometimes
  • Mobile helps with feasibility, data quality, and representativeness
  • Data quality
    • bias towards visible answer choices
    • scale biases
    • count biases – few choices selected on a long list
    • straightlining – mitigated by good design
    • you need to test your specific situation to be aware of potential problems with your survey
  • Data comparability
    • data generally comparable
    • [remember – even if you give the same survey to the same people just one day apart, the data will be different]
    • excluding mobile people from a desktop survey means the data will be less representative, less tech savvy people, fewer early adopters, fewer shopping-centric people, certain tech occupations excluded
  • Best practices
    • avoid wide grid qrid on a smartphone – people still do this!
    • responsive design is not a large font grid on a smartphone
    • keep it short, try for ten minutes
    • use fewer answer options where possible
    • aim for a 5 point scale
    • make sure all scale points are visible without scrolling
    • allow “fat finger” responses on a phone, tiny radio buttons mean you will hit the wrong button
    • avoid need to scroll, pinch, and zoom
    • open ends are shorter but ask the questions well – don’t ask for a novel, ask for a succinct response
    • you can use audio/visual but test it first. if people can’t see the video your data will be poor quality
    • don’t use flash
    • use responsive design – PROPERLY, make sure text size is good
  • they’ve created a scoring system to show four buckets – mobile optimized (you might get a hand-written thank you note if you score this high), mobile friendly, mobile possible, mobile incompatible
  • let’s not torture panelists
  • not every survey is designed to be a mobile survey so don’t do it if it’s not
  • response rates have doubled, dropouts have dropped, fewer reminders, more efficient [impressive!]

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