As I have said in this space many times before, two of my favorite things about the marketing research industry are its collegiality – the sense that we’re all in this together and what helps you helps me – and its pursuit of better, more effective ways of gathering insights. We lost a prime exemplar of those traits when Naomi Henderson died from COVID-19 complications in December. 

As founder and CEO of RIVA, she was a true industry giant and pioneer, helping train legions of moderators and doing so much to establish qualitative research in general and moderating in specific as disciplines that required craft and rigor rather than being something that just anyone can do.

Reading the various online posts following her death, it was clear she touched the lives of so many people in profound ways and my experience was no different. She was one of the first authors to regularly submit high-quality articles to Quirk’s after I started here in 1988 and she seemed to inherently grasp founder Tom Quirk’s vision for the magazine as a vehicle for education and knowledge exchange. 

Even though I was a 20-something kid who was just getting started learning about the industry she was wonderfully patient and kind when I would call her with questions about her manuscripts. (I hope she wasn’t forced into practicing unconditional positive regard with me!) Her upbeat manner was so infectious and I always left our conversations feeling empowered and enlightened. 

Substantive, insightful articles 

Our December issue has historically had an editorial focus on qualitative research as that edition also contained our annual directory of focus group facilities and Henderson was for years a dependable contributor of substantive, insightful articles to it. A look at the titles and subjects of those early Quirk’s articles tells you all you need to know about what her goals were in elevating and teaching about qualitative.

“Qualities of a Master Moderator” from December 1989 laid out 25 distinct skills that she had identified as making a Master Moderator, from being comfortable with uncertainty to managing all aspects of a project. “Continual self-examination, personal stretching of skills and abilities and a questing nature for better ways to handle individuals in the group setting are some of the steps to becoming a Master Moderator. How close are you?”

“Client ground rules for observing focus groups” from December 1990 was a thorough primer that forcefully but respectfully made the case that the moderator’s job is not an easy one and that backroom observers play a major role in having the focus group process go smoothly – in addition to having a duty to do more than eat fistfuls of M&Ms and berate respondents for their appearance or seemingly stupid comments. “How would you sound in a group discussion about a brand-new idea or product that had just been presented to you five minutes earlier?”

“Qualitative report-writing – Is faster better?” from December 1992 dove into great detail on the tug of war between client demands for instant insights and the moderator’s job of digesting, analyzing and communicating what they’ve seen and heard in the focus groups. “If a report has the power to support decision makers, should it be written mostly from memory by someone with little sleep and limited review opportunities?”

“Asking effective focus group questions” from December 1994 used in-depth examples to stress the importance of effective questioning, not only for the project at hand but for leaving respondents and future clients with a positive impression of the research process. “The devastating impact of the wrong questions is one of the things that makes focus group research difficult to sell to savvy clients. If they have been burned by moderators who ask two hours’ worth of poor questions, it is no surprise they don’t want to conduct qualitative research or trust the information they receive from it.”

Felt and echoed 

If you didn’t have the pleasure of meeting Naomi Henderson, I urge you to go online and read some of the remembrances of her. While we all mourn her passing, it’s comforting to know that the impacts of her teaching – her life’s work – are felt and echoed across our industry every single day.