Managing (unpleasant) surprises among your research team

      August 5th, 3p ET (-5 GMT):
      The issue: Many research team members (and end-user clients) feel threatened by surprising and unpleasant
      findings findings, shifting immediately into damage control, rationalizing, or resistance.  And, from that moment
      forward, such clients stop listening to the marketplace and, in turn, stop adapting to marketplace realities. 
      A solution: Skillful intervention, in at least three ways, including educating clients about the "cycle of surprises"  
      can minimize unproductive effects of unpleasant surprises. 

Using symbols in qualitative analysis and reporting
August 12th, 3p ET (-5 GMT):
The issue: An overdependence upon the written word can clutter meaning and worsen reader comprehension.
A solution: Used with economy, the selective use of visual symbols in qualitative analysis can produce clearer, more impactful comprehension.  Three common data and conceptual relationships are described, as well as four compelling, symbolic ways to depict such relationships. 

The 61 minute rule: During interviews, helping clients cope with information overload
Aug 19th, 3p ET (-5 GMT):
The issue: Good qualitative interviewing generates far more richness than can be understood real time. This resulting gap between what gets produced vs. what is truly understood explains one of the least understood, more insidious, more serious problems in all of research: Clients and researchers, oversaturated with waves of new information, begin to filter out a surprisingly large amount of what is said by focus group participants.
A solution: Five specific steps are described for minimizing information overload.

Three common QR Project Leadership Models -- each with very different outcomes
Aug 26th, 3p ET (-5 GMT):
The issue: Too often, researchers fall into the "Artiste" (i.e. getting the research right but rubbing the client wrong) or "Attendant" (i.e. getting the research wrong by trying to rub the client right) categories of project leadership styles.  Both approaches create seriously misaligned roles and risky project outcomes. 
A solution: The Leader model of project management is described, one based on commitment to both to the client's goals and to quality research, a willingness to intervene to minimize project problems, and insight into the the vulnerabilities and fears of clients.   Points of leverage in persuading clients toward safer, more productive uses of qualitative research are also discussed.

Bridge designs: Blending qualitative validity with survey research reliability
Sept 9th, 3p ET (-5 GMT):  
The issue: Clients routinely need qualitative insights -- but also a rough sense of how representative such insights are among their target audience.  Traditional qualitative designs address the first goal but not the second.
A solution: A study design approach is described for accomplishing both goals, including a discussion of cost/time trade-offs of alternative approaches.

Pearls: In 1985, Ned Kennan defined a fundamental principle of study design
Sept 16th, 3p ET (-5 GMT):   
"We are researching PEOPLE -- not potato chips"
-- Dr. Nadev Kennan, former Chairman of KRC/Research in New York
This insight provides the starting point for a group discussion that includes the strong internal focus that complicates the capacity of marketing insiders to understand the consumer's world.

Avoiding career burnout
Sept 23rd, 3p ET (-5 GMT):  
The issue: The issue: Due to many demanding factors, market researchers seem particularly prone to career burnout.
A solution: Specific steps (embracing the unfamiliar, developing a fearlessness, redefining your role, redefining expectations of market research) are discussed.

Alternative approaches to usability testing
Sept 30th, 3p ET (-5 GMT):
The issue: Web site usability testing is traditionally done via central location interviewing, which introduces data validity issues.
A solution is described to help create improved data quality, including eliminating group learning effects, minimizing acquiesence bias, and creating a more realistic research environment.

Minimizing miscommunications with clients
Oct 7th, 3p ET (-5 GMT):
The issue: Our increasing reliance upon non-interactive communication with clients – voice mail and email – can be quite risky to the market researcher, particularly in a  a hurried culture of scanners, not readers. 
A solution: Specific approaches describe how to minimize miscommunications with clients by achieving consensus and building true client commitment to the means and ends of research. 

TBA
      Oct 14th, 3p ET (-5 GMT)

Pearls: In 1950, W. Edwards Deming defined a study design fundamental
Oct 21st, 3p ET (-5 GMT):
"Researchers must present their findings in the form of predictions."
This insight provides the starting point for a group discussion that includes how most business managers make
most decisions -- wanting to compare the estimated consequences of choosing alternative A vs. B -- and also the tendency to create safe, descriptive study designs.

TBA
Oct 28th, 3p ET (-5 GMT)

Minimizing group learning bias in focus groups
Nov 4th, 3p ET (-5 GMT):
The issue: When the focus of qualitative research is to refine or assess material unfamiliar to respondents, use of a group dynamic can introduce group learning effects bias -- resulting in misleading study findings.
A solution: Two specific approaches describe how to minimize or eliminate group learning effects.
The issue: When the focus of qualitative research is to refine or assess material unfamiliar to respondents, use of a group dynamic can introduce group learning effects bias -- resulting in misleading study findings.
A solution: Two specific approaches describe how to minimize or eliminate group learning effects.

 TBA
Nov 11th, 3p ET (-5 GMT)

Qualitative Research: The principle of reciprocity
Nov 18th, 3p ET (-5 GMT):
The issue: The principal of reciprocity is important in most cultures.  This principle is ignored by many moderators who begin an interview imperiously, mentioning only their first name and (perhaps) where they live.  This can create respondents who are less motivated to share their world with someone who shares so little with them. 
A solution: Two specific approaches are described that help moderators create stronger rapport with respondents.

Getting clients to use research findings
Dec 2, 3p ET (-5 GMT):
The issue: Creating quality data is a demanding, full-time job, leaving researchers less attentive to the discipline of transferring the very knowledge they labor to create.  In turn, this leads to insufficiently used research.  And that, in turn, helps explain budget cuts and layoffs in research as well as the sharp rise in DIY (do it yourself) research – all leading indicators of client dissatisfaction. 
A solution: The traditional focus upon gathering and interpreting market knowledge is only a means to an end. The next big developmental milestone of our industry will demand a different focus: Upon the end itself – upon more successfully transferring market knowledge into the hearts and minds of our clients. This session introduces sophisticated soft skills: Process skills and consulting techniques that surface and break down resistance, then systematically build support for the means and ends of your project.  A model for knowledge transfer, based upon genuine client involvement, is also discussed.