Live video interviews provide many of the same benefits of in-person interviews, with the additional ability to flex between group and one-on-one interactions.

For live video interviews, use a consumer-friendly video platform like Zoom for a seamless research experience on mobile devices and laptops. Insights platforms like Digsite combine Zoom capabilities with recruiting, automated scheduling and rewards to take the hassle out of video research.

Don’t just talk about products. Making participants physically do something that helps them remember the context of how they would interact with your solution opens up parts of the memory that would otherwise stay dormant. Some people have a hard time talking about things in the abstract. Give research participants a physical task to do to spark their imagination and encourage more detailed feedback.

For example, Digsite offers behavioral testing on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.  Compare concepts, headlines, claims and more by seeing how many people click as well as how many provide their email for more info.  Then bring them into a Digsite community to drill deeper into the why’s.

When doing research, it’s tempting for the team to collect all of the questions they have and try to put it into the research study. Instead, start with a smaller scope of a few questions that will have the biggest impact on your direction. Those answers often change the team’s direction and inform a new set of questions you hadn’t anticipated. This approach also tends to speed up development, as the smaller scope study can be completed more quickly and affordably. 

The earlier in the process you resolve shortcomings, the faster you’ll be able to bring a well-received product to market.  And, planning smaller scope in your initial test will give you the budget to iterate as you learn.

When you do validation research before qualitative exploration, it can lead to frustration and confusion among your team. If ideas don’t perform up to expectations, validation tests often don’t have diagnostics to tell you why and more importantly, what to do about it.

Save your team time and money by using qualitative iterations with 10-25 consumers to ensure your target consumer understands and value your solution for your bulls-eye occasion or use case, before validating your research with a broader sample.   

Research has found that more and more customers—and members of the younger generations in particular—wish that companies would communicate with them via text message more often. Use an agile approach with text-based reminders to increase speed and engagement in your research. You’ll also want to be sure to use text messaging in conjunction with email to get better engagement.

Using embedded SMS capabilities, Digsite is able to invite participants to research studies, notify them of new activities and to ask them follow-up questions.