Market Research
10/25/09
Representative sampling
While working in a Boulder, CO coffee shop, this post reminded me of the importance of making sure your sample is representative of whomever it is you want to learn more about. Looking around, it would seem like Mac has a very healthy market share (I’m one of the sole PC users here), but of […]
By David KennedyRead More
9/21/09
Best tool for market research?
I ran across this article recently on Inc.com.While you cannot expect an exhaustive guide on market research in one article, they did, in my opinion, oversimplify the use of quantitative studies (e.g. surveys) vs. qualitative studies (e.g. focus groups) indicating that with limited resources it generally makes sense to go quantitative (no reason was given […]
By David KennedyRead More
8/31/09
Social media and research
We recently blogged about phone apps and research. One of the draws of phone app research is that it can be immediate. Just saw a movie? Review it while walking out of the theater. Just left the store without buying that flat-screen TV – what kept you from buying? While actively seeking feedback through phone […]
By David KennedyRead More
8/10/09
LinkedIn Survey
Last fall we blogged about LinkedIn’s entrance into research. While one might think this means LinkedIn understands research, a recent survey I received from them makes me think otherwise. I took their survey, which was done on survey monkey (with all of their partners, they couldn’t find a better service?); skip patterns didn’t work (or […]
By David KennedyRead More
8/3/09
Research gone wrong – online polls
We’ve all seen quick online polls on news sites, in our email, and on social networking sites. While the purpose of these polls is often for entertainment the way they are executed is often too similar to that of real surveys – anyone can take it and can take it as many times as they […]
By David KennedyRead More
7/13/09
Avoid pie
… charts, that is. We’ve had some “debates” here at the office about the best types of graphs, charts, or other visual means of portraying data (Word clouds anyone?). We even had a few posts (here and here) last year when we disagreed with Seth Godin’s three laws of graphs. I was amused when I […]
By David KennedyRead More
4/27/09
How to rank – Four tips for smarter ranking questions
Have you ever taken a survey that asked you to rank a list? Maybe it was just a few items. Maybe it was many more. I was recently asked to rank a LONG list of attributes on a survey which quickly became an exercise in futility. When ranking nearly 20 items, can you really decipher […]
By David KennedyRead More
4/7/09
Variation in focus group styles
Saw this post and video (from a UK researcher) about how US focus groups were different from UK focus groups. The author pointed out interesting aspects of a US group, but did not mention what UK groups were like in contrast. Which led me to pose the question, what makes UK groups unique? The post’s […]
By David KennedyRead More
3/30/09
Timeliness of surveys
I was going through my mail last night and discovered a survey from the manufacturer of my car. Since survey research is a major part of my work, I figured it would be good Karma to take it. I happily started the survey and realized it was supposed to be about my most recent visit […]
By David KennedyRead More
3/12/09
An interview with a professional respondent II
We recently posted a satirical video of an interview with a professional focus group respondent. Today I ran across this article written by another professional respondent. While somewhat old, I believe it still rings true nearly five years later. For reasons that are probably apparent from watching the video and reading the article, the current […]
By David KennedyRead More