Very shortly after September 11th, 2001 I had the option to go to Tel Aviv, or to get up in the middle of the night and listen by phone to the focus groups being conducted there. I opted to listen by phone given the jittery airport scenes I was seeing. They placed the old school […]
An occupational hazard for a researcher is exposing negative feedback about a client’s brand or a product. This can be especially dicey when talking with people in real time when clients are present. Tech-centric companies have a bad rep for blaming users and/or researchers when the developers watch people struggle to figure out how to […]
That idea that people distort the “truth” when telling you about themselves is nothing new to seasoned qualitative researchers. My first research job out of grad school involved interviewing jail detainees about their drug and unsafe sex behaviors. Being let out of their cell to talk to the lady with the clipboard and drink the […]
Qualitative research is practiced by a relatively small group of people seeking answers to questions about humans and our relationship to the world we inhabit. The sub-category known as qualitative market research is especially misunderstood. Perhaps this is because things change more rapidly in the business world than in the academic world. Whatever the reasons, […]
I was recently asked to answer this question about focus groups on Quora: What type of information do market research firms request from their clients to successfully conduct focus groups? What is the optimal format for this information? My answer may be useful for those of you who are considering conducting focus groups in the […]