For those of us at Versta Research, he is well known for his focus on understanding versus research:

“Basically, I’m not interested in doing research and I never have been,” he said. “I’m interested in understanding, which is quite a different thing. And often to understand something you have to work it out yourself because no one else has done it.”  (From an interview cited in the New York Times)

Why are we inspired by this?  Because even though we are interested in doing research, we do it for one reason:  To understand things.  In fact, we named our company from the social science concept (and German word) “verstehen” which means to understand.

Fundamentally, we define our work not by proprietary methods, or the specific tools that we use or develop, or the statistical procedures we implement.  We define it by our interest in and approach to understanding.  And that, of course, means using, learning, developing, and inventing whatever tools, processes, data collection techniques, and analysis that will get good answers.  In short, to achieve understanding, we do research.

Understanding is the outcome.  That’s what we really care about (and what you really care about) and what motivates our work.  Research is the means to that end.

If you have not done so, take a look at the homepage of our website.  It’s all about understanding.  We are committed to helping you understand:

• Your clients
• Your prospects
• The public
• Consumers
• Your competition
• Your customers
• Your data
• Your products
• Your image
• The world

If and when research can help you understand, we are here to help.

—Joe Hopper, Ph.D.

Is this possible?  No.  It unfortunately confuses the tools of market research and public opinion polling with the interpretation and outcomes of research.  To be sure, better tools and technology help us do our work faster, smarter, and cheaper.  They bring sophisticated tools into the hands of smaller organizations who can then help businesses and media outlets with nimble and cost efficient solutions.  Market researchers are benefiting enormously from these new technologies and tools.

But ultimately these easy-to-use applications that deliver real time data and pie-charts give us … well, just data and pie-charts.  They don’t give us insights.  For insights, we need smart people who bring expertise, brainpower, and thoughtful creativity to the research effort — people who know how to design and implement studies, and then interpret and communicate information to answer critical questions.  When managers and clients see their own desktops stuffed with “auto-alerts-sent-to-key-stakeholders-enterprise-wide” from our newest suite of tools, they need people to answer challenging questions like, “So what?  Is this really true?  What does it mean?  How should I proceed?”

These are the kinds of questions we can help you with.  We can help you sort through the latest tools and can help you implement them within  your organization.  But don’t forget that tools are a means something bigger and more fundamental, like a story with a context, a puzzle, a question that needs to be answered.

—Joe Hopper, Ph.D.

Today, an industry colleague (another owner of a market research firm) said to me, “We all lust after those big tracking studies.”  For most market research firms, tracking studies are attractive because they involve big samples, multiple ongoing deliverables, and multi-year commitments, all of which means predictable, ongoing (and usually substantial) revenue.

At Versta Research, we lust after them for a different reason: they are the true test of whether our key personnel can really add value and insight to the work that we do.  How do you take something routine and predictable, and turn it into an effort that delivers an “Aha” every week?  Here’s how we do it:

• We find smart, methodologically-rigorous, and business-savvy associates to run the study instead of “capable” research people who are tracking-study-care-takers.

• We clear off our desks and close our doors and examine the data for new angles and insights with every deliverable.

• We look at the data collection process for ways to streamline so that our time is spent on thinking rather than compiling data and putting numbers into tables and charts.

• We advise you on whether the money spent is worth the insight gained, and if collecting and tabulating data is your only goal, whether there are better ways to automate and/or bring the process in-house.

Too often the smartest people avoid tracking studies because they can be boring.  What you need, however, is smart people who are committed and passionate about adding significant value to every project they do for you.  There is nothing boring about finding the story in your data and helping you communicate it to your managers or internal clients.  That is the challenge of tracking studies that we love.

—Joe Hopper, Ph.D.

]]> http://www.verstaresearch.com/blog/of-lust-and-tracking-studies/feed/ 0 http://www.verstaresearch.com/blog/don%e2%80%99t-do-research-in-your-sleep/ http://www.verstaresearch.com/blog/don%e2%80%99t-do-research-in-your-sleep/#comments Mon, 03 May 2010 00:41:22 +0000 Joe Hopper http://www.verstaresearch.com/blog/?p=482 A colleague in market research once complained to me that he felt bored and unchallenged by all the client satisfaction and loyalty research he was doing, claiming he had mastered it to the point that he could do satisfaction and loyalty research in his sleep. I was struck because I could not think of any market research that I found boring or unchallenging, and certainly none that I could do in my sleep.  On the contrary, my experience is that doing great research requires intellectual work and waking thoughtfulness no matter how many times it is done and for how many clients.

Contrast this with a client for whom we were generating weekly data reports from a tracking study who said that her directive (and hence our directive) was that “nothing goes to my internal clients without insight.”  And so every week we cleared off our desks, closed the door, and examined the data for new angles and insights.  If we were unable to come up with a compelling, non-boring, challenging story, then surely our client’s client would not find it either.  And if nobody can find a compelling story in the data, why is the client spending money on it, and why are we being paid to do it?

In our view, high quality market research requires smart, thinking people who are:

• Curious about your problems
• Passionate about getting the right data to answer the right questions
• Diligent and detailed in turning that data into stories that give you insight

Nobody can do these things in their sleep.  The next time your research partner starts nodding off mid-sentence, “Why, yes, we have done this kind of work so many times we can do this project in our sleep . . .” take another look at the work they are doing for you and ask yourself whether everything they do delivers thoughtful insights you can use.  If it doesn’t, give us a call for a different perspective on how to do research.

—Joe Hopper, Ph.D.

Various surveys, all rigorously  done, showed support for including a public option in health care reform varying from 44% to 66%.  All asked neutral, unbiased questions, and all provided appropriate answer categories.  But each used slightly different wording, which dramatically affected the results.  Comparing the proposed reforms to the Medicare program boosted support, while referring to it as a government-run insurance plan killed support.  If you are the marketing or communications team charged with the task of selling health care reform, these are exactly the kinds of conflicting results that help you.  They give you deep insight about how to position your product or service, and what kind of messaging you need to develop.

Of course this example also highlights the critical importance of questionnaire design when launching a survey.  Ostensibly similar efforts to measure the same thing can lead to different answers.  It is easy to write questions and field surveys, but not so easy to nail down exactly what needs to be measured, and not so easy to anticipate how your audience will respond to the nuances of words and design.

The lesson?  First, pay a great deal of attention to question wording, and get input from many members of your team: survey experts, outsiders, insiders, the brand team, your business executives, and so on.  Second, when you get results that don’t make sense because they contradict other data, look for opportunities where this conflict can help enhance your understanding, because usually it can.  If you need help with either, give Versta Research a call.  We are happy to bounce around ideas and provide some initial thinking at no charge.

—Joe Hopper, Ph.D.

You need to find out the who, what, where, when, and why they hate you.  Probe deeply with focus groups, in-depth interviews, social media monitoring, and survey research.  Rigorous research done right (our specialty) will give you valuable insight.  And if it is communicated expertly to management (our specialty) you can probably fix the problems.  Then, the next time you listen to your customers, you won’t need to duck and cover.

-Joe Hopper, Ph.D.

So I’m always encouraged with yet more evidence that people do tell the truth on surveys.  Studies continue to show that surveys and polling are effective because (1) you need to ask only a small representative sample of people what they think to make statistical conclusions about the whole, and (2) the vast majority of people will tell you the truth about what they think.  It would seem that people are less concerned about privacy and keeping their opinions to themselves  than they are about being heard and making a difference.

The latest data demonstrating this was published in an industry magazine from the Marketing Research Association.  If a person volunteers, or is asked, to take a survey multiple times, what happens?  The vast majority will give you the same answers each time they take the survey, even on questions that ask for subjective ratings on 10 point scales.  If a person were lying or just racing through a survey with random answers to collect incentives, this would not happen.  It turns out that most people give thoughtful, truthful answers each time.

Of course you do not want the same person included in your survey more than once, and a good research vendor will do the careful work of ensuring it does not happen.  But when it does happen, it is fascinating that our efforts to get to the truth are so resilient. The study was done by Paul Johnson, a senior analyst at Western Wats.  If you would like a copy of the study, let me know and I will send you a copy (unfortunately the MRA keeps this content under lock and key, so I cannot include a web link here).

A corollary of this research will be a topic for another day, but here’s the gist:

If you want to know the truth about your product or your customers or your competition, just ask, because most people will tell you.

Versta Research can help you with what to ask, how to ask, whom to ask, and how many to ask, and chances are you will be delighted with how much insight you can gain through a systematic and rigorous effort of asking.

–Joe Hopper, Ph.D.

There will always be a need for good storytelling. This point was eloquently made by Susan Howe, President of Weber Shandwick Chicago.  The media through which stories are told is shifting, but the fundamentals of good PR remain.  Likewise for research, the tools we use are changing every day, but turning data into stories is a constant that underlies change.

You know the story better than anyone. Rich Jernstedt, EVP of Fleishman-Hillard argued that good PR professionals own and communicate the client’s story at every phase because a reporter will never know that story as deeply.   Likewise, an effective research partner helps a client communicate data from beginning to end, long after the “report” is delivered.  Nobody knows the research as thoroughly as we do.

We need to add value. Janet Cabot, Co-President of the Chicago Office of Edelman, highlighted the importance of research and intellectual capital because effective tactics are now a “given” and clients are looking for more.   The same goes for research itself.  Focusing on data collection and tabulation no longer adds value.  We need to leverage our considerable intellectual capital by helping clients interpret, grasp and communicate the research.

It was an optimistic and inspiring forum that was consistent with our thinking at Versta Research:    Change is an opportunity to focus on (1) the fundamentals of what we do (designing rigorous research to answer critical questions) and (2) the value we add (turning data into stories), both of which make for strong and lasting partnerships with our clients.

–Joe Hopper, Ph.D.

Unfortunately these companies are teaching customers to ignore them.  Their surveys are not about listening to customers, but about internal systems for benchmarking or trending.  Worse yet, sometimes nobody even pretends to listen.  The data from these surveys are ignored because there is too much of it, nobody knows what to make of it, or because it always says the same thing.  If they listened, they would notice that their customers are increasingly irritated.  We recently helped a client analyze such data and read customer comments like: “Why are you asking me this?  Do you really care? Why are you annoying me with a survey before I have even finished?”  Irritating your customers is too high a price to pay for this kind of research.

There are more efficient, more respectful, and more insightful ways to listen to your customers with survey research.  Here are a few simple guidelines:

• Define your “need to know” information, and don’t ask anything beyond that
• Know ahead of time how much data is needed, and put a limit on how much is enough
• Determine an end point for data collection, instead of gathering data forever just because it is cheap and easy
• Keep surveys relevant so that you are respectful of your customers’ time and goodwill
• Use sampling strategies so that each customer is surveyed no more than once or twice a year

Research and insight are important, but it is critical to understand the cost of teaching your customers to ignore you.  Be smart about your research, and you will get the insight you need.

If you are unsure, give Versta Research a call and we will help evaluate your current survey program to ensure that you are getting valuable information without undue burden on your customers.

–Joe Hopper, Ph.D.

Pie charts can be challenging because they are so common and so commonly misused.  When done poorly, they force us to think hard about what we are seeing and why.  When done well, they tell the story of our data.

Here are six tips on effectively designing and using pie charts:

• Pie charts are good for showing proportions, not quantities
• Use pie charts for category variables (like gender, or region) but not for variables that measure levels of things (like satisfaction)
• Pie charts should begin at 12 o’clock, and are read clockwise
• The maximum number of slices to the pie should be five or six
• Always show the numerical values on the chart
• Avoid three-dimensional “tilting” of the chart because it distorts true proportions

Programs that create charts automatically can be terrific tools, but they will never replace the need for you to think about your story and how to portray it in a chart.

–Joe Hopper, Ph.D.