Innovate While You Validate
Qualitative research (collecting data through interviews, focus groups, and observations) is one of the best ways to understand the perspectives and values of your audience. We often partner with clients who are seeking to learn what people think of specific ideas or products – which can be fascinating work – but what we really love is when a client sees the opportunity to go a step further and generate entirely new ideas through qualitative research.
No matter what question we’re trying to answer, we always look for common themes or patterns among respondents. For instance, a client might simply want to know whether their audience responds more positively to concept A or concept B. Simple enough, we can give you that answer.
But if we look more closely, we’re likely to find some other interesting things. Maybe 60% of your core demographic prefers concept B, but by changing the way we splice that segment even slightly – say, younger/older, more/less education – you start to see untapped opportunities in adjacent audiences. Or maybe there’s a specific subset of your potential audience facing an obstacle that, if alleviated, would cause them to become loyal customers.
There are two key moments to help your study yield innovative findings:
BEFORE THE PROJECT BEGINS. The best way to ensure you ask questions that generate new ideas is to set that intention at the beginning of a research project. The good news is that even if innovation wasn’t part of your original objectives, we often spot revealing insights even in purely evaluative studies that can be turned into new idea fodder.
AFTER THE RESULTS ARE IN. By inviting stakeholders to engage more deeply with your research findings through findings workshops, you can filter the real needs and preferences of your audience through your brand promise and values. Mind-mapping exercises that include multiple perspectives will allow you to generate ideas that will resonate with customers while staying true to your brand. Better yet, it means you can validate current strategies while setting yourself up to explore new territories, which makes your research investment even more valuable.
Wondering what qualitative research can do for you? Let’s talk.
