One of the biggest benefits of an online research community is the ability to take a step back and listen to what people have to say, beyond what you’re asking them directly through planned research discussions and surveys. It’s important to let go a bit and let the community guide where the direction of the research activities should go. The most “natural” conversations often occur that way, leading to questions you may have never thought to ask.

When you first start your research community there might be a temptation to setup formal approvals for all activities launched to the community. I’ve noticed this urge is especially strong with customer communities, even if they are private online communities. While I can understand the urge to control all interactions with customers from the client perspective, I strongly recommend resisting the urge to do this (if you can). Here’s why…

Resist the “approval” mechanisms (if you can)

If you are constantly going through an approval process for moderators to launch a new activity to the community, you’re going to lose the spontaneity that results in better activities. For example, you wouldn’t expect a moderator to check in the backroom every time they wanted to ask a follow-up probe in a focus group, would you? Doing so would just disrupt the flow of the group.

It’s really no different in the online community setting. Community moderators should be given a degree of freedom to ask impromptu questions when necessary, without waiting weeks for approvals. Otherwise, they may miss their window of opportunity to ask a great follow-up probe or question.

Of course there are industries where it makes sense to be a bit more cautious with every activity you run due to the legal ramifications (the healthcare, automotive and education industries comes to mind), but my advice is to generally keep the conversation as “organic” and free flowing as possible. That’s going to help guide your research community to generating valuable insights that you may never have obtained otherwise…