Editor's note: Jennifer Dale is president and CEO of InsideHeads. Susan Abbott is president of Abbott Research + Consulting and co-founder of the Think Global Qualitative alliance. Their book, Qual-Online, The Essential Guide, is published by Paramount Market Publishing(www.paramountbooks.com).
Online qualitative has had an interesting past, starting with the bulletin board systems and public chat rooms that were the first platforms used. We think the future for online qualitative is bright and the journey will continue. Forecasting the future is an activity fraught with risk but we do see some clear trends.
Imagery. Qualitative practitioners know that the human brain often thinks in metaphor and we can use images to tap into different kinds of thinking. Current online tools have good imagery capabilities but we see these continuing to grow and expand. Social networks that are built around imagery have been tremendously popular and new ones continue to pop up, e.g., Instagram, Pinterest, Vine and Snapchat. While some brave pioneers have used platforms like Pinterest and Facebook directly for research, most researchers will want these capabilities integrated with, or recreated inside, a secure professional platform.
Hybrid studies. The online-offline study design has been in use for a while, bringing people together online for some portions of the research and bringing them together face-to-face for other portions. We anticipate more hybrid studies, particularly for advance preparation work, aka homework assignments. But we also see more potential for real-time and extended hybrids in various forms; for example, an extended community that also has live chat sessions.
As consumers continue to be more comfortable with technology of all kinds, there is less worry about confusing people with multiple response modalities. Several methods can be brought together to get the best strengths of each. For example, live chat can be used to run a brainstorming session and then an ideation platform can be used to develop and evaluate the beginning ideas.
Another hybrid trend that hasn’t waned is tackling both quantitative and qualitative objectives in a single study. Eight chat groups, each with 16 participants, will not only provide rich qualitative insights but also could collect a sizeable amount of data among the same participants by posting the same survey on the whiteboard for each group.
New recruiting approaches. Recruiting is another part of the qualitative research process to become the target of innovation. Faster recruiting into studies can be readily enabled with online and mobile access methods combined with a panel database. Some of these research panels operate almost like social media, with invitations to participate pushed into an online “community” where interested individuals can respond. These environments will need to be evaluated against the same criteria used with quantitative access panels now, of course, e.g., how fresh is the participant pool, etc.
Extended small communities. The scope and scale of large communities are barriers to using community approaches for some clients. However, a clever researcher can find ways to engage a smaller group over time. We are hearing about more extended communities being done with 25 or fewer individuals, which may not be robust enough for a global brand but can deliver phased insights for smaller organizations using iterative innovation approaches.
More ideation and co-creation. In addition to the smaller extended communities, we expect to see more organizations embrace the idea of a consumer advisory board – a community of pre-screened customers that becomes involved in the creation and development of ideas in the spirit of co-creation. While large global brands have led the way in this area with popular crowdsourcing studies, we see consumers becoming more involved in extended innovation projects using online methodologies.
Crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing as a method of qualitative insight is still finding its place in the toolkit. It has materialized in several forms and applications and new crowdsourcing platforms are being offered as an alternative method for finding insights. The applications of crowdsourcing that seem proven in the marketplace can involve significant rewards for a significant amount of work, e.g., InnoCentive, or a share of the profits, e.g., Quirky.
Mobile. We will stop talking about mobile soon because mobile access will be so pervasive that it will be assumed as an essential access point. That may be overstating the case somewhat, because we still envision people using a wide variety of devices, including the sturdy desktop and laptop, for some time to come. We don’t really see mobile as a methodology; rather, we see it as an access mode. It’s just another gateway into the city of insights, incorporated into real-time or extended-time projects, using a wide variety of communication modalities.
Clients. While some clients still seem to see online methodologies as an alternative, rather than as an option to be considered on every project, the future tide is rising. We know that client engagement in real-time projects is strong, yet in extended projects can be a challenge. Real-time is live and immediate, just like in-person research. Researchers are continuing to evolve ways to engage client teams effectively in extended projects. As more clients experience the depth of insights possible, we believe they will be as excited as we are about the power and flexibility of all the online qual approaches.
A last word
As our ways of traveling through the city of insights become ever more diverse, one thing is crystal clear from our point of view: It’s not about the technology. All the tools are servants of insight and need a thoughtful and creative research brain to operate them. It is you, the inquisitive researcher, who holds the key to running successful online qual studies – making the journey interesting, avoiding the potholes and ensuring your client arrives safely to the destination. We encourage you to explore the city of insights, find new routes of interest and expand your world!