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4 ways mindswarms works with traditional qualitative research

4 ways mindswarms works with traditional qualitative research

Recruiting for ethnography.

Rather than show up at a respondent’s home with an Excel spreadsheet and fingers crossed the participant is good, mindswarms has been used to recruit in advance for ethnographies. Not only does it help identify cream-of-the-crop candidates, but it also informs the research process early on, and can be used to sharpen discussion guides.

Pre-in field.

What we have often done is a wave of mindswarms in advance doing any kind of field work (focus groups, IDIs, in-homes). A lot of clients are anxious to get projects moving quickly, and instead of waiting two weeks to begin traditional qual research, mindswarms can gather insight within days from a very broad geography to begin to inform the project.

Post in-field.

mindswarms has been used as a way to bounce ideas off consumers after the traditional qualitative field work has been completed. So, for example, on a project with product designers, sketches of ideas inspired on the road were bounced off mindswarms respondents after the initial wave of research had been completed to help validate a direction.

Extending reach of focus groups.

In most countries, the tendency is to conduct traditional qualitative research in major markets because that’s where the lion’s share of volume comes from. But mindswarms has been used a remarkably quick way to access consumers in every level of market to help balance out a more urban skew to the recruitment. So, for example, in the US, rather than hit the usual NY/LA/Chicago markets, sprinkling in a nationally representative wave of mindswarms helps provide a more representative picture of consumers nationally.

By Tom Bassett
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Journey Mapping

Journey Mapping

Have consumers show you their journey through a decision, product use or consumption journey.

How the process works

    • Identify the journey to investigate in the study
    • Work with our Research Managers to develop a research protocol to explore different points along the journey continuum
    • Recruit key audience segments (e.g. Loyalists, Casuals, Lapsed)
    • Use mindswarms remote video capture to have participants provide insight on their journey, touching on rational or emotional touchpoints
    • Synthesize findings into Journey Mapping report

Methods used

    • Beginning, middle and end check-ins
    • Physical environmental reporting (e.g. drive thru menu ordering experience)
    • Diaries (e.g. report on the changing relationship with music having a smart speaker in the home)
    • Micro moments (e.g. have consumers report when a key event occurs, like in our work with Think with Google)

Timing and cost

    • Journey Mapping projects can take from one to four weeks or more to complete, depending on study complexity
    • Typical projects involve 15-30 participants
    • Fees including screener development, study management, recruiting, hand-selecting the best candidates, QA of videos, respondent incentives, and transcripts @$500/person for US respondents, and $1,000/person for international markets (additional incentives may be required if travel or retail visits are required)
    • Fees for optional analysis start at $7,500 for a report on a 15 person study, and $12,500 for a 30 person study
    • Fees for optional edited video start at $5,000 for a 90-120 second highlight reel with title cards and music (B roll and motion graphics are extra)
    • For projects where shopping missions or travel outside of the home is required, additional incentives may be required

Deliverable

Example: 20 participants each answer 10 questions using the video on their smartphone or laptop. That produces 200 x 1 minute video clips and corresponding transcripts (both Google Speech, and a parallel service that includes a human’s eyes to capture important nuances).

All delivered via a cloud-based link that is shareable, and assets that can be downloaded (videos in MP4 format) to be used to bring the insights to life for presentations, and highly engage audiences.

By Tom Bassett
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Conduct a deep-dive with one key audience segment

Conduct a deep-dive with one key audience segment

Get to know your core target audience, intimately, by delving into their attitudes and lifestyle, brand affinities, product use and more.

How the process works

    • Work with our Research Managers to design testing protocol for customer experiences
    • Use mindswarms remote video capture to gather participant responses to their experiences
    • Conduct inquiries to fully understand user expectations and the cognitive models they associate to the product or environment experience
    • Capture the product/environments context and the artifacts and elements influencing the user experience

Methods used

    • Belief and Behavior delineation
    • Drill-down on insights identified through prior quant
    • Self comparison to other segments, attitudes, beliefs or behaviors
    • Motivation mapping

Timing and cost

    • Core Target Audience projects can take from 7-14 days or more to complete depending on study complexity
    • Typical projects involve 15+participants
    • Fees including screener development, study management, recruiting, hand-selecting the best candidates, QA of videos, respondent incentives, and transcripts @$500/person for US respondents, and $1,000/person for international markets (additional incentives may be required if travel or retail visits are required)
    • Fees for optional analysis start at $7,500 for a report on a 15 person study, and $12,500 for a 30 person study
    • Fees for optional edited video start at $5,000 for a 90-120 second highlight reel with title cards and music (B roll and motion graphics are extra)

Deliverable

15 participants each answer 10 questions using the video on their smartphone or laptop. That produces 150 x 1 minute video clips and corresponding transcripts (both Google Speech, and a parallel service that includes a human’s eyes to capture important nuances).

All delivered via a cloud-based link that is shareable, and assets that can be downloaded (videos in MP4 format) to be used to bring the insights to life for presentations, and highly engage audiences.

By Tom Bassett
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Understand customer experiences through the eyes of the consumer

Understand customer experiences through the eyes of the consumer

Gather visitor reactions to new stores, restaurants, drive- thrus and more. Observe the visitor experience and capture opinions, pain points and areas of delight to refine the overall experience.

How the process works

    • Work with our Research Managers to design testing protocol for customer experiences
    • Use mindswarms remote video capture to gather participant responses to their experiences
    • Conduct inquiries to fully understand user expectations and the cognitive models they associate to the product or environment experience
    • Capture the product/environments context and the artifacts and elements influencing the user experience

Methods used

    • User narrated walkthroughs of physical product usage and environment visits
    • Ergonomic audits of product and environment features
    • Contextual tours of related elements influencing the experience
    • Comparison of the ideal experience to the actual one

Timing and cost

    • Customer Experience Projects can take from 7-14 days or more to complete depending on study complexity
    • Typical projects involve 15+participants
    • Fees including screener development, study management, recruiting, hand-selecting the best candidates, QA of videos, respondent incentives, and transcripts @$500/person for US respondents, and $1,000/person for international markets (additional incentives may be required if travel or retail visits are required)
    • Fees for optional analysis start at $7,500 for a report on a 15 person study, and $12,500 for a 30 person study
    • Fees for optional edited video start at $5,000 for a 90-120 second highlight reel with title cards and music (B roll and motion graphics are extra)
    • Additional incentives may be required if lengthy trips to retail are required.

Deliverable

15 participants each answer 10 questions using the video on their smartphone or laptop. That produces 150 x 1 minute video clips and corresponding transcripts (both Google Speech, and a parallel service that includes a human’s eyes to capture important nuances).

All delivered via a cloud-based link that is shareable, and assets that can be downloaded (videos in MP4 format) to be used to bring the insights to life for presentations, and highly engage audiences.

By Tom Bassett