Editor's note: Alice Rodgers is president of Rodgers Marketing Research, Canton, Ohio.

The challenge: Get in-depth information about the ways people learn to assemble, install or use a product.

The solution: Simulate reality as much as possible.

Replicate, replicate, replicate

Rodgers Marketing Research (RMR) has found that one-on-one interviews provide valuable insights into learning and usage behavior. Having a research consultant interview prospective consumers in an observable setting that closely replicates an expected usage site lets clients witness a surprising number of ways that people learn to do or use something. This technique puts observation research into a focus group setting.

For products and services that could have almost universal usage, particular care should be taken to include respondents who are not highly literate and/or people who define themselves as mechanically inept. This lets the client observe a full range of behaviors. Additionally, companies that target senior citizens will want to include people who have arthritis to make sure their product can be easily opened or used.

To maximize the research, consider recruiting people who have never used the product or service, but who can be expected to use it in the future. Additionally, consider recruiting "consumption constellations" like husband and wife or parent and child, where applicable. This lets the client see learning and usage behavior and how prospective customers interact during the process.

When looking at products that parents might use, consider recruiting people who don't yet have children, so you can get a novice's viewpoint. RMR has used dolls to simulate children and to stimulate conversation. We usually ask respondents to name the doll and have found that people do this without hesitation. The doll is then called by name throughout the session.

To further replicate the experience, the focus group room can be transformed into a setting that closely resembles an expected consumer environment. Interviewees can be escorted to a focus group room that might look like a kitchen, living room, playroom, or even a garage. For some projects, we've even had a four-door car in a focus group room, along with a person videotaping consumer actions, allowing observers to see what is happening at all times.

Finally, to understand how consumers use an instruction manual, the focus group facility receptionist can tell interviewees upon arrival something like the following:

"In a few minutes you will be talking to someone about assembling, installing, or using a new product or service. Here's the instruction manual that comes with that product or service. Feel free to read the manual, or the pages that you would normally read if you were assembling, installing, or using something. You don't have to read the manual if you would normally try assembling, installing, or using the product without reading it."

Based on our completed research, a wide range of behaviors result:

  • Some read instructions carefully, page by page.
  • Quite a few mainly look at the pictures or illustrations and pay little or no attention to the accompanying verbiage.
  • Some rely on the instructions or pictures on the box (or the labels on the product) to help them assemble, install or use a product.
  • Some people tackle the task without reading or looking at any directions.
    Doing these things - re-creating a kitchen, living room, or garage, naming dolls and instructing people to do what they would normally do in such a setting - appears to closely replicate respondents' individual experiences.

Range of behavior

Based on the responses in sessions we have conducted, we believe this methodology has been very successful.

The wide range of assembly, installation and usage behaviors observed has proved valuable to client teams.

Using this methodology, clients have witnessed a variety of mechanical abilities - initially, all self- described. (Interestingly, some of the people who described themselves as somewhat - or even very -mechanically inclined later said they might want to change their self-description.)

This technique has also revealed a wide range of expectations about the experience and the impact such expectations have on the learning experience.

  • Some expected assembling, installing, or using the product to be easy because they saw it as a small, rather than a large project. This is particularly likely when there are few pieces to be assembled or if the product is already assembled and only needs to be installed.
  • Some expected the task to be easy because they had seen other people easily do it. Their expectations may have been based on watching experienced users.
  • Some made mistakes because they had seen other people make exactly the same mistakes. Thus no one may know that the product might not be assembled, installed or used correctly.

Other comments provide further insight into the process:

  • "The more pieces [in the box], the more likely I am to read the manual."
  • "If it looks like I can do it, the less likely I am to read the manual."
  • "My brother-in-law does that all the time, and it looks easy to me. So I didn't think I would need to read the instructions."

Accordingly, some participants were surprised to find the experience frustrating and the procedure complicated.

What did one client team think about this observational approach? We received the following response:
"This was as close to a simulation as we could get. The car was absolutely essential. People got more into it than we thought they would - we expected some people to be self-conscious or maybe not take it as seriously as we would like, but that's not what happened. We are very much aware that this is a small sample and this is qualitative research, so we cannot make broad-based assumptions; however, it was quite clear that what we saw was an accurate depiction of this experience for those people.

"Overall, it was very helpful to observe people attempting to use the product and understand the materials. The research gave us a sense of areas that are problematic for consumers - areas of confusion - particularly where we were not communicating as clearly as we would like. The research made us aware of gaps in information. It very graphically showed us how consumers use the product and all the accompanying materials. We learned things that even the person who deals with customers on the phone all the time didn't realize.

"We believe this is the best method to date for obtaining information about our communications skills and for understanding how the consumer learns to use our products. It provided us with information that we would otherwise be unable to obtain, short of following the first 1,000 people out of the store."
In summary, observational research in a focus group setting can provide useful and actionable information that might not otherwise be discovered.