QRCA Views Magazine, Spring 2016

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40 QRCA VIEWS SPRING 2016
and there’s no time to write it! If it is
required, make sure it is in the same for-
mat as the debrief report so the content
can be used for both (i.e., objective, meth-
od, respondent profile, etc.).
Tip #3 – Design Sessions to Maximize
Respondent Airtime and Client Presence
Consider more sessions that are
shorter, each with fewer respondents.
Because of the backup team you have
working with you (back-room modera-
tor, live note taker, real-time qualitative
analyst, etc.), you can run sessions with
virtually no break between them. It’s
easier to recruit for 30-minute sessions
than it is for longer 90-minute sessions
(which helps with your rapid recruit),
you pay lower incentives, and the con-
versation is more naturally interactive
and, therefore, more in-depth.
Running sessions back-to-back also
maximizes the client team’s time—no
downtime waiting for the next discussion
session to start, and clients can hear first-
hand from 20-35 consumers in one day
of fieldwork.
Tip #4 – Succinct Screener
Build from an existing screener to
save time. If the client doesn’t have one,
then start with one you already have for
a similar target profile. Keep it short
and purposeful. For rapid recruit, the
screener needs to be a maximum of
10-12 questions—easy for a 25%+ inci-
dence target audience.
Tip #5 – Rapid Recruit
Explore which of your current recruit-
ing partners can provide rapid recruit-
ment so that you know where to turn
when you need to be in-field within 48
hours for a fast-turnaround approach.
Live intercept in urban centers is a great
way to secure fresh respondents fast,
and if it’s a tourist/conference hub (e.g.,
San Francisco, NYC, Las Vegas, etc.),
you can get a respectable national repre-
sentation as well. Facilities and online
platforms that have their own panel are
more likely to be able to deliver respon-
dents within 48 hours than those that
do not.
Tip #6 – Discussion Guide
Think of this as a “Topic Guide” rather
than its cousin, the longer, more detailed
“Discussion Guide”:
• State the single objective clearly at the top.
• Ensure each “topic area” to be probed
is delivering against this objective.
• Allow these “topic area” conversations to
be driven by the individual consumers.
• Stick to a single page (don’t allow
scope creep!).
Tip #7 – Pre-Brief Participants in
the “Lobby”
Your back-room moderator can share
the “must cover” information with
respondents before they enter the room.
This way, after brief introductions, you
can dive straight into the warm-up that
relates directly to the topic.
Tip #8 – Dual Moderators for Maximum
Impact of All-in-One-Day Fieldwork
Your back-room moderator will cap-
ture key insights as they emerge.
Involving clients behind the mirror in
identifying insights, combined with the
rolling cast of respondents, will help
maintain client focus and engagement
throughout the day.
For in-person, notes posted to a big
“Learning Wall” can be clustered into
key themes as they are identified or into
negatives/positives against each concept,
etc. For online real-time capture,
mind-mapping tools or StormBoard
provide an excellent way to synthesize
learnings as they emerge.
Tip #9 – Record Everything
A live note taker for in-person, or a
voice-recognition transcript online,
captures content to provide quotes for
the report. Video recording is essential
if you have agreed to create a three
minute highlight reel to “bring alive”
the research learning. Some online
platforms now allow you to tag the
voice recognition transcript and create
a highlight reel within hours, in which
case you can agree up front to deliver
the highlight reel within your seven
day deliverable.
Tip #10 – Merge Consumer Understanding
with Client Knowledge for Your Deliverable
At the end of the consumer-feedback
sessions, the client team and consumer
moderator become the participants in a
debrief group discussion led by the back-
room moderator. This session allows the
client team to hear each others’ perspec-
tives as they discuss the insights captured
throughout the day and overlay the filter
of their expertise and in-depth knowl-
edge about their business to identify
actionable directions.
Client Need Inspires More Agile Qual CONT INUED