Slides from Digsite Webinar: Insider Tips for Fast and Effective Online Qualitative 8_21_18

1. Insider Tips for Fast and
Effective Online Qualitative
Featuring Amy Elkes and Jill Meneilley

2. About Your Host
Digsite Sprints SocialFind SmartReporting
Smarter, Faster Qualitative Research

3. Jill Meneilley
About Your Speakers
Digsite Consultants
Amy Elkes

4. Our Online Qual Experience
Study Types
Concept
Advertising
Attitude and Usage
Ethnographic
(Re)Positioning
…and many more
Frozen Foods
Household
Appliances

5. Why Online
Qual?
Study Design
Moderating
Analysis
Team
Alignment
Agenda

6. Why Online Qual?
Why Online
Qual?

7. Why Online Qual?
Reasons Fall into Three Categories
1.
WHO
Who you want to talk to
2.
WHAT
Needs related to the
business question
3.
HOW
Logistical considerations
and limitations

8. Why Online Qual?
Reasons fall into three categories
• Complex recruit
• Broad geographic representation
• Busy, younger target
1.
WHO
Who you want to talk to
2.
WHAT
Needs related to the
business question
3.
HOW
Logistical considerations
and limitations

9. Complex Recruit with Broad Geography
Need: Recruit consumers in each of three
custom target segments
• Ensure geographic diversity to
reflect use of outdoor spaces and
outdoor products in a variety of
locations and seasons
Solution: Recruited target consumers in
each segment, across in the country, using
Social Find + client’s custom typing tool.
• Also secured a mix of rural,
suburban, and urban
respondents.

10. Why Online Qual?
Reasons Fall into Three Categories
• Interact with various stimuli
• Extends over a time period
• Iterative
• In Home - Ethnographic Elements
• Real-time insights
• Sensitive topic
• Going deeper, but cost effectively
• When you want results tallied quickly
1.
WHO
Who you want to talk to
2.
WHAT
Needs related to the
business question
3.
HOW
Logistical considerations
and limitations

11. When You Want to Be Iterative
Need: Client wanted to quickly develop
and optimize concepts to address
consumer struggle
Solution: Consumers ideated, built on one
another’s ideas and then voted on a list
that included client team ideas to identify
the strongest solutions

12. When You Want Results Tallied Quickly
Need: Client wanted to explore strengths
and weaknesses of two frozen pizza
concepts but also understand interest
levels in each
Solution: Frozen pizza fans responded to
their likes and dislikes about the ideas on a
whiteboard and then rated their interest
in each idea via a closed -ended question

13. In-Home: Ethnographic Elements
Need: Client wanted to really understand
consumer challenges in using a particular
type of appliance
Solution: Consumers took photos and
videos showing their struggles with their
appliance

14. Real-Time Insights
Need: See how target consumers navigate
and shop a particular aisle, without
spending the time and money needed for
in-person shop-alongs.
Solution: Respondents took video of
themselves shopping the aisle and were
prompted to tell us, in detail, how they
make purchasing decisions there.

15. Sensitive Topics
Need: Non-profit wanted to talk to
teens about relationships and
becoming sexually active
Solution: Online discussion board
allowed teens to remain
anonymous and discuss a sensitive
topic in a way that was natural and
comfortable for them

16. Going Deeper / Projective Techniques
Need: Various clients wanted to
understand emotions around
category purchase
Solution: We built activities where
consumers shared images or stories with
analogies to represent emotions they
experienced when they needed the category

17. Why Online Qual?
Reasons Fall into Three Categories
• Fast Turnaround
• Time, budget, travel
limitations
1.
WHO
Who you want to talk to
2.
WHAT
Needs related to the
business question
3.
HOW
Logistical considerations
and limitations

18. Tight Timeline
Need: Determine which version of a
new, boundary-pushing creative
direction to develop and how far to
push the envelope – in less than 1 week.
Solution: One-day Sprint with among
category shoppers, using story boards
and other early-stage creative stimuli.

19. Study Design
Study Design

20. Most Important Step in the Process
13,640!

21. Variety + (a little) Creativity = Engagement
• Activities should vary in structure and length
• Think outside of the box for how to approach your
question
Example:
• Standard Approach: Which attributes are most
important to you when buying shoes for your
children?
• Different Approach: The shoes I buy for my
children must have/be [Blank], because [Blank]. I
would never consider purchasing shoes for my
children that are not/do not [Blank.]
Thanks so much! It was
such a fun experience!
Loved talking about the
holidays!
I love giving my
opinions on these.
Makes me feel like I am
making a difference.

22. Build Gradually Into the Topic
Initial activities build rapport and
participants’ confidence
Next activities/ questions dig
into topic broadly
Specifics and
Key
Business
Questions

23. Clarify Instructions… and Then Clarify, Again
Quirks Corporate Research Report Survey 2017
• Written directions must speak for themselves
• Focus on detail without getting too complicated
• Don’t be afraid to follow up with individual probes,
group emails, and comments
Example:
• Standard Approach: Drag and drop the dots on the heat
map to indicate your likes, dislikes, and questions.
• Detailed Approach: Drag and drop the dots on the heat
map to indicate your likes, dislikes, and questions.
• Drop a GREEN dot onto anything you like, a RED dot onto
anything you dislike, and a GREY dot onto anything you
have a question about.
• Drop as many dots as you need to for us to understand
how you feel about this product, and make sure to include
a comment with each dot.

24. Pros
• Rich, open-ended responses are a
cornerstone qual
• Online studies have the benefit of responses
already being “recorded”
Cons
• Some respondents need more
prodding/direction
• Best engagement comes with variety
• Analysis of open-ends only can be very
cumbersome
Beware of Too Many Open-Ends
analyze

25. Moderating
Moderating

26. Digsite functionality provides the basics for
engagement
Automated announcements, reminders, and rewards mean the participants
know what to expect, and keeps them engaged so the moderator can focus
on the important things, the study content!

27. Engage Early and Often
I’m Jill and I’m going to be
your moderator
I’m from Portland and live with my
big goofy mutt, Moby
Thank you for being here!
I can’t wait to learn
from you and your
experiences!
You mentioned you like to
travel. Where is a favorite
destination?

28. Watch Outs
THE ONE-WORD ANSWER
NOT FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS
ONLY ANSWERING THE FIRST PART OF THE
QUESTION
NOT PARTICIPATING FULLY (i.e., posting stock
photos)

29. Stay Engaged Throughout
Thank you so much for all your observations
on videos you submitted last night! It really
helped me understand your perspectives.
Thanks, Sam, for such a
detailed response! Kelly, can you tell me more
about what you mean when you
say it was high quality?

30. Moderation and getting a jump on Analysis
“Pinning” insightful responses as you go can be useful to keep clients
engaged/informed and prepare for reporting

31. EXTRA MOTIVATION
When you have a long study or are asking
for a bit of extra effort (video, detailed
ideas), it’s nice to offer an extra
incentive, like a drawing for a couple
people to win an extra $50 gift card

32. Analysis
Analysis

33. It All Goes Back to Setup
• Think about how analysis will be conducted as you’re designing your study!
• Use close-ended questions, heat maps, and other online tools that can do some
of the heavy lifting of analysis.
• Save standard open-ends for questions/topics that are truly exploratory, need to
be in respondents’ own language/words, or require more detailed responses.

34. Another Example of Thoughtful Set-up

35. Voting Task Enables Streamlined Reporting

36. Find a System that Works for You
3 Digsite Examples:
• SmartReport: Rapid overview, analysis of closed-ends, word clouds
• Detailed Excel Report: Allows for highlighting cells, typing in notes, etc.
• Detailed PDF: Full transcript and all photos for highly visual and complete
data review

37. Team Alignment
Team
Alignment

38. Rapid and Regular Communication is Key
• Providing daily updates or SmartReports
• Building time into the research time line to
revise and refine activities based on early
earnings
• Pinning of key responses in SmartReports
• Using the Backroom to share key take-aways in
real time
• Having the entire team watch the community
and funnel probes to the moderator on daily (or
hourly!) basis
Gaining alignment
for rapid decision-
making, not just
reporting.

39. Questions?
Amy Elkes
amy@digsite.com
Jill Meneilley
jill@digsite.com