Conversations with corporate researchers
Chelsea Cutino
Analyst – Consumer and Business Insight, America’s Test Kitchen
What tips do you have for researchers looking to facilitate their first qualitative online discussion board?
The initial recruitment survey is so important to carefully think through to set the stage for the quality of the research. I try to start with as large a sample size as possible so I have some ability to pick and choose who to invite back for the discussion. If you can, anticipate what factors you need to measure in order to pick out the right variety of people. I also try to anticipate what details I’ll want to present about a person along with their verbatims, for example: Sarah H, 42, Illinois, Cook’s Illustratedsubscriber.
Engagement on online boards can definitely be hard to maintain. I’ve found it helps to ask people to select their reward before the study begins – we have them pick out a cookbook from a list of choices. That seems to boost motivation and ground them with a clear goal that they’re working toward. When the study starts, it also helps to interact with participants and post follow-up questions as much as you can, even if your comment isn’t exactly pertinent to the study. As long as participants see that someone is listening to them, it makes a big difference.
In your experience, what is the most effective way to present study findings to stakeholders and why?
One of the pitfalls I run into when presenting findings to stakeholders is getting too detailed in the data and graphs in an effort to prove my conclusions. I generally find that they don’t need this level of proof, and it can end up sort of alienating them. If they have questions about the details you can always address that as it comes up or include it in an appendix. I also try to help stakeholders follow along with my line of thinking by very clearly laying out the potential implication of a finding and how they could apply it. Even if it’s not something they’d necessarily do, it helps them think about how findings could have wider impact.
What new research projects and/or methodologies will you be focusing on in 2019?
As our kids brand develops we’ll likely gather feedback from kids in reaction to prototype videos, perhaps via remote Skype interviewing or more in-person focus groups.
As for bigger picture, we’re looking into better data management to pull insights across multiple sources of data and being more proactive in pursuing research projects rather than only responding to requests. We’re planning on launching our own home cook survey to start trending our different types of customers’ cooking habits and attitudes over time.
I also want to explore greater sharing of insights both internally and with customers. We’re working on establishing a consumer insights newsletter to send out internally, and I want to work on potentially telling consumers specific ways in which their feedback was used to inform improvements to our products.
* Photo credit: EKF Studios