More Natural Research

We're running a really interesting short term community project (Neighborhood) around an alcoholic beverage concept and it has really has confirmed some of my thoughts about the future of market research, specifically how our approach and research methods need to be more engaging, natural, and interactive.

The Old Way

Traditionally as a moderator (whether running online bulletin boards or focus groups), you create a comprehensive guide and once the project starts you scramble to field or execute the topics/questions in your guide. However, for this project, our approach is turning out to be much less controlled.

The New Way

We organized our activities in waves, and though we sketched out the entire 4 week study, we regularly reviewed and adapted our approach a few times each week. We forced ourselves to stop and think about what topics we had explored enough, and what new issues emerged based on what we were seeing. It sounds very simple, but it made me realize, that planning too much on the front end can at times be a detriment. In a focus group setting, you don't have the luxury of time. However, in the online setting you do.

What we've found so far is that this more natural and organic approach that:

• minimized the amount of repetition for respondents
• created a more natural conversation with members
• quickly allowed us to develop a better context of the consumption experience (even quicker than we anticipated)
• allowed the client to change the product concept based on this better understanding of the consumption experience
• created room to explore areas we did not original intend (or even know we needed to explore)

It has been a great experience and we are looking forward to developing a formal case study on this project. I know the words "interactive" and "organic" can seem like flavors of the month, but it is great to see these concepts at work!

-Ben

Recently we were asked about the relative advantages and disadvantages of running a short-term research community (1 month) instead of a week-long bulletin board focus group project.  We thought it was an interesting question worth blogging about, so here are a few of the advantages and disadvantages of running a 1 month community over a 1 week bulletin board...

Advantages of a 1 month community

1. Explore a topic in-depth - A month-long community will give you more time to really explore a topic from multiple perspectives using a variety of tools (e.g., photos, blogs, etc...), rather than being rushed to fit all of your topics into a single week. 
2. Adapt the discussion - Rather than focusing on a limited set of questions in a week-long group, a short-term community lets you adapt the conversation around the feedback from early topics, and guide the group naturally to topics that are of interest to them.
3. Cover more topics - This may seem obvious, but a month-long community will give you time to cover more topics than you could in a bulletin board group.  It will also give you the chance to add in last minute topics you may have forgotten in your initial research plan.
   
4. Let the findings "incubate" - Giving participants the time to really think about their answers and articulate their thoughts can lead to more insightful feedback and ideas that might not have emerged in a week long bulletin board group.
5. Learn more about participants - With a month-long community you can take some time to learn about participants, providing some background and context for their answers to research topics.
6. More engaging for participants - Depending on the community platform you choose, the experience for participants in an online community setting tends to be much more engaging.  We've tried extending bulletin boards out over a few weeks and have been disappointed with the results as participants drop off from the conversation.  

Disadvantages of a 1 month community

1. Can be more than you need - If your research needs are limited to a single topic with a limited amount of feedback necessary, a bulletin board might make more sense. 
2. Turnaround on findings - A bulletin board is generally over in 3-4 days, while a short-term community will be providing ongoing feedback over a month.  If you need a feedback on a single topic asap, then a simple week-long bulletin board might be the way to go.  However, weekly topline reports from the community can also deliver findings quickly. 
3. Cost - A week-long bulletin board may be slightly less expensive than a community, depending on the number of participants and topics being covered.  However, when you compare the amount you are able to cover in a month long community versus a bulletin board the cost can actually be less, as you would need multiple bulletin boards to cover the same number of topics.

What's the takeaway?

We've done many bulletin board focus groups and online communities here at PluggedIN, and readily acknowledge that each has their own value as a qualitative research methodology.  What you choose will ultimately come down to your research objectives, the depth of feedback that you need and the timeframe in which have available to gather findings.  We hope this breakdown helps you consider some of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each approach as you decide what works best for you and your organization...