Today’s leading organizations are increasingly employing agile approaches to developing new marketing programs, product or service innovations and customer experiences. By leveraging agile market research methods, your organization is able to simultaneously design, test and build new solutions before going to market. This approach speeds time to market, while still ensuring your go-to-market strategy fits with consumers’ changing lifestyles, situations and needs.
Our monthly blog post offers practical tips and advice on how to implement agile research. June's agile tips are centered around the ways in which you can succeed with agile research during COVID-19, and are provided by Jill Meneilley, founder of Mobius Solution Lab and one of Digsite's expert consultants.
Tip 1. Give Participants Flexibility
It’s important to understand that people’s home lives are much different now than they were several months ago. Consider setting up an online community to give participants flexibility to respond whenever they have a break in their day. Think about unmoderated videos vs. live interviews to allow participants to record when it’s convenient for them.
Understand that people can get distracted by a variety of things in their home, so don’t require the research be completed all at once. And, if you’re including a live video interview, use shorter 20 to 30-minute interviews when possible.
Tip 2. Consider Shipping Products to Participants
If you’re looking to test a product or get feedback on packaging, consider shipping the product or stimuli to their home instead of asking participants to go to the store or a facility to pick it up. You can even ship them a competitive product to get their reaction to it.
Use unmoderated video to have participants record the unboxing experience or to upload videos of them interacting with the packaging or product.
Tip 3. Minimize in the Moment Responses Outside the Home
Behavioral testing outside the home is not as straightforward as it used to be – there are now federal and state guidelines, as well as the comfort and safety of your participants to consider.
If you want to do ethnographic research outside of the home, think of ways for participants to journal or record their experience without putting themselves or others at risk. For example, allow them to journal after they get home, as opposed to having participants record extended live interactions while shopping, at work, or in other locations outside the home.
Tip 4. Set up a Virtual Show-and-Tell to Replace In-Person Research
Regardless of whether you are using live or unmoderated video, online qualitative research enables you to share concepts, photos, ads, and more, as well as have participants share their screen and demonstrate their behaviors. Use an online qual platform to set up a virtual show-and-tell to replace traditional in-person research that would have typically been done in a facility.
For more information on how to implement agile research during COVID-19, check out our new eBook: How to Conduct Market Research During the COVID-19 Era.
