You’ve probably had your share of emails about COVID-19, its impacts, and what organizations are doing to cope (and to help you cope, too). As many are right now, we’re taking this seriously and doing our part to stop the spread of COVID-19.

While Corona Insights is not typically a consumer-facing company, our work does bring us into contact with our community, from conducting in-person research, to community activities with our clients, and of course our clients themselves. It’s a rapidly evolving situation, but here is where we stand as of today.

Direct Impacts to Date

  • Research participation. Recruiting for in-person research (e.g., focus groups largely) has largely been postponed with few exceptions. Beyond just the challenges, we feel this is the right thing to do at this time as we want participants, clients, and staff to be safe and comfortable in their participation. We have not yet seen impacts via other research modes. We’ll continue to monitor the situation and current recommendations with our partners to assess additional needed changes.
  • Research impacts. Beyond just participation, we’re recommending assessing the impact, if any, on the project itself, such as the impact the current situation will likely have on some research topics.
  • Project timelines. Whether it’s due to a reason above, or clients themselves being swamped, we are helping mitigate potential delays as best we can. We’ve always been flexible for our clients’ needs and that’s true now more than ever.

What Corona is Doing

  • Proactively managing projects. Corona is advising clients about the impact COVID-19 is having, or will likely have, on our work together, as well as how we recommend addressing it.
  • Altering research modes. Corona’s has a breadth of research tools and we are working with our clients to determine if and when it is appropriate to either change how we’re collecting data (e.g., moving more research online) or delaying research if we think the current impacts can’t be mitigated enough.
  • Recognizing the increased possibility of response bias. With an unprecedented level of societal changes happening to tackle COVID-19, we want to do what we can to avoid collecting data in a non-normal state right now. For instance, we recommended delaying one project that has to do with transportation, including public transit. Due to transit being used less right now, we will wait until behaviors return to normal before continuing with the study. We’re happy to talk through this with any clients who might have questions.
  • Working from home. Remote offices are nothing new for Corona except now it’s mandated. Staff will only be in the office as needed for critical functions, and we will determine the need for in-person meetings on a per client basis (most, perhaps all, have already moved to virtual or been rescheduled).

Where we are “Business as Usual”

Many of our areas are not impacted at all by current events.  These areas of work remain unaffected:

  • Online survey research.  Online surveys are currently unaffected.
  • Online qualitative research.  Our online boards and one-on-one interviews are still in operation and can quickly give you insights.
  • Demographic studies and mapping.  We mine lots of existing data to build demand projections, identify needs, and other purposes.
  • Data analysis.  You probably have lots of data in your organization that you’ve always suspected was full of insights.  Now’s the time! 
  • Strategy coaching.  We’re holding our weekly online community of strategy with our virtual strategy office hours.  (See below.)

How Corona can Help

  • Remote meeting facilitation. Some meetings cannot wait, and Corona can utilize our facilitation expertise to conduct and/or help you design, including with online platforms, productive remote meetings.
  • Mapping services. Mapping data can often help you make sense of your data. If your work is directly related to, or impacted by, COVID-19 and you need to better understand where cases are, your populations of interest such as vulnerable populations, or your resources, to name a few, Corona can help you make sense of your situation.
  • Creative research solutions. Corona has extensive experience with many research tools, from in-person to online (video meetings, bulletin boards, online surveys, etc.). If you have a project that cannot wait but you cannot determine the best way to move forward, let us know and we’ll quickly give you our assessment.
  • Additional counsel and online community. You might enjoy engaging with Differentiation Zone on social media. We are offering: Pro bono counsel and weekly online community, via Zoom, on Tuesdays from 10am-12pm MDT.

We’ll look forward to the day that our name is not synonymous with a global pandemic.

Take care,

The Corona Team