An important aspect of conducting, interpreting and using research is this idea of context. All research projects have a context — when they were conducted, how they were conducted, who conducted them, who was invited to participate in them, how respondents participated, etc. All of these considerations affect how we should look at the…
It can be hard for people to believe, but lots of folks really do enjoy participating in online surveys and other types of research. For some, it’s just that they enjoy being asked for their opinion. It makes them feel helpful and valued. For others, it’s that they have a genuine interest in giving…
One of the most common questions I get about research is “How do I find the right people to take my survey? Finding people to take a survey isn’t that hard. But ensuring you have the right respondent group for your survey is incredibly important. It’s common to include customers in your survey, and…
Even if you’re not very familiar with research, you’ve heard the terms “quantitative” and “qualitative”. What’s the real difference? These terms refer to types of data — not necessarily to research approaches. Quantitative results are those you can count, that you can tabulate. These are either numbers you can work with mathematically or text…
Every researcher I know has gotten this question or comment at some point: “Steve Jobs said research isn’t helpful because people don’t know what they want.” Actually, what Steve said in an interview in 1998 was: “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want…
Many marketers don’t really think about the difference between data, insight and HELPFUL insight when strategizing research work. And it’s absolutely CRUCIAL when it comes to getting the ROI out of market research. Data are just numbers or text. How many clicks? How many views? What’s an individual’s gender or age? What’s an organization’s revenue…