Trends

Beyond Their Words: Bob Granito on the Past, Present, and Future of Neuro Methods

We can’t read respondents’ minds, but through contemporary neuro methods we can access the truths they don’t mention, along with how they are feeling, how hard they’re thinking, and where they’re looking, to round out the data we get from what they say. The author explores neuro methods, where they came from, where they are going, and crucially, how we can leverage them to elevate the insights we deliver to our end-clients. […]

Toolbox

Conducting an Experience Investigation: A CX Approach That Adds Depth and Dimensionality to the Discovery Phase of Your Research

Show your clients a vivid picture of what it’s like to be one of their customers by delivering an Experience Investigation. Using a Customer Experience (CX) mindset, go beyond rational and conscious observations to better understand how expectations, emotions, subconscious clues, and behavioral psychology affect how customers feel toward a company. The article is a useful primer on how to pay attention to, capture, and evaluate the signals firsthand that create the emotions that can either attract or repel customers. […]

Industry Focus

The Implications for Qualitative Researchers as Tesla Disrupts the Automotive Industry

Tesla has disrupted the automotive industry with innovations in vehicle connectivity, autonomy, sharing, and electrification. Feature editor Tom Neveril explains how this has sparked an industry-wide wave of innovation initiatives, and suggests qualitative researchers re-think traditional automotive study approaches and adopt more agile, iterative explorations that focus on the impact of new technologies on customer lifestyles. Several industry-leading automotive researchers share their views on the essential methods and skills needed to successfully conduct automotive research. […]

Global

Crossing Over from Traditional Qualitative to User Experience Research: The Journey with a Thousand Faces

There is increasing demand for user experience (UX) research, and qualitative researchers’ unique expertise in understanding human behavior can help bring this type of research to the next level. The author focuses on the use of three frameworks that explain the “whys”—and this understanding is equally significant when consumers are interacting with technology as when they interact with other products and services. The author provides examples that have proven to be very useful in her experience exploring customer journeys within shopping apps and streaming platforms. […]

Business Matters

Improv Mindset: 4 Principles to Build Your Qualitative Skills

Qualitative research is a form of applied improvisation: even though moderators prepare extensively, almost anything can happen in an actual conversation, and we have to be able to react in the moment—all while putting on a show for our highly-engaged client “audience.” Actor Will Dennis describes how deliberately adopting an “improv mindset” can further bolster our qualitative skills, offering exercises to help us listen more attentively, make our respondents look good, and reconsider how spontaneous dialogue can turn into opportunities for more genuine and authentic conversations with participants. […]

Book Reviews

Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long & Well You Live by Becca Levy, William Morrow, 2022 and Stage (Not Age): How to Understand and Serve People Over 60 by Susan Wilner Golden, Harvard Business Review, 2022

The world’s population is getting older, but businesses struggle to address this consequential shift. Two new books, Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long & Well You Live, and Stage (Not Age): How to Understand and Serve People Over 60, explore the many negative ageist perceptions and self-perceptions that constrain business opportunities within the aging population. […]