Accessorizing Your Research Project: Amp up the Value for Your Clients

Think of the word “accessory,” and you probably think about stuff – gadgets, add-ons, and small touches that enhance whatever they accompany.  The scarf that turns a simple black dress into a statement.  The Square device that turns your tablet into a cash register.  Or the reflective shirt that keeps you visible and safe when running along a road in the dark. According to Merriam-Webster, to “accessorize” is to “furnish objects or devices not essential in themselves, but adding to the beauty, convenience, or effectiveness of something else.” 

There are certainly a few ways to think about accessories in the world of qualitative research.  For example, accessories could be the techniques used to elicit the most insightful feedback from respondents, the efficiency tools that make life easier for heavy travelers, or the resources that help us share results most effectively with clients.  Rather than cover all these angles in what would wind up being a cursory tour, let’s zero in on the last category: The tools that help us convey results to clients with more efficiency, beauty, and insight. 

The following ideas come from QRCA members – seasoned, passionate qualitative research consultants (QRCs) who know what it takes to deliver efficient, engaging, insightful learning at every step of the research process.

Daily Downloads

Clients are spread thinner than ever.  They may only review the posts in a bulletin board or MROC once a week.  They may “tag team” and each attend only one market in a multi-city project.  How can we keep clients up to speed on what we’re hearing from consumers so that they are fully engaged and invested in the learning process?  If they can’t be there with you, then feed them tidbits each day:

• Send a one-paragraph email or 5-minute mp3 summary of the key things that struck you in the consumer conversations that day

• Schedule a daily 10-minute touchbase by phone about big themes

• Share highlighted smartpen notes of your sessions.  Smartpens such as Livescribe record the audio in the room along with your simultaneous handwritten notes, in real time.  Later, you can simply tap on a spot in your written notes to hear the accompanying audio.  So, for example, you can write a snazzy star symbol each time a respondent says something particularly insightful.  Share the notes, and your client can click to play back just those starred “best of the day” audio clips.

Visual Curation

Imagery tools can capture incredible emotional depth and vividness from consumers.  Many clients love visual output because, as they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”  In addition to sharing the best examples in reports, comprehensive visual collections become mementos clients can keep and refer to forever.  These albums – which can be created in hard copy or electronic (DIY digital albums, picabo, picasa) form – can:

• Document the key photographic moments of ethnographic interviews (in-home, in-store, etc.),

• Collect individuals’ collages, psycho-drawings, thought bubbles, and other worksheet-style exercises)

• Exhibit mind maps and other group output from focus groups

• Showcase homework assignments the clients would otherwise never see

If you have a lot of visual techniques in your project, consider individual folios for each respondent.  If a project has just one or two visual techniques, you may prefer a single album with all respondents’ versions in one place. 

Power Debriefs

Research results are more actionable when clients are invested in the learning process.  So make sure they are actively engaged in what you are learning and what it means for the future.  If you have room for more than the 10 p.m. M&M-fueled post-session discussion, consider these ways to amp up your debrief sessions:

• Pre-Worksheets.  Share debriefing worksheets with clients before the research begins.  Have them fill out a worksheet at the end of each day.  The worksheet can include key questions (What did you see or hear that surprised you?  What is the one key thing you would change today/ in the next year/ in the next 5 years based on what you’ve seen and heard?  What one thing sticks with you the most?) and areas for note-taking.

• Stickies.  In face-to-face projects, hang poster-size post-it pads in the backroom (you can accomplish a similar effect with online whiteboards or meeting rooms).  Provide lots of small post-its.  Encourage clients/observers to jot down key themes and ideas as the research happens.  By the end of the day, your post-it pads will be full.  If time permits, have clients organize the small notes into clusters of related ideas. 

• Bright eyes. Schedule debriefs for the morning after (or even a couple of days after) fieldwork, when people have had a little time to rest and digest. 

• Pen-Cast.  Record the verbal debrief sessions with a smart pen, and share the e-notes with clients afterward. 

Amp Up Your Look

Is there anything more painful that a PowerPoint report chock full of text, text, and more text?  The greatest insights in the world may go unnoticed in a boring, flat-looking report.  Some of us are lucky enough to be true visual thinkers, whose ideas flow out in perfectly formed illustrations and graphics.  But the rest of us could probably use some help. Consider these resources to power up the visual engagement in your reports.

• Outsource.  Apps and plug-ins such as presentationpro.com and visualbee.com offer DIY tools that can make your existing PowerPoint deck more visually exciting.  To take it a step further, consider hiring a professional presentation designer to create custom presentations for you. 

• Try infographics – As our attention spans get shorter and shorter, the need to portray a large amount of impactful learning in a small space just keeps increasing.  Like it or not, infographics are becoming more important in research.  Get inspiration and templates from sources such as piktochart.com, coolinfographics.com, and dailyinfographic.com.

• Inject imagery.  Troll online sources for affordable, legal downloads of iconography (iconfinder.com, thenounproject.com, useiconic.com) and photos (dreamstime.com, shutterstock.com, istockphoto.com) that will bring insights to life.

• Freshen your colors.  A single color palette used throughout a presentation helps bring harmony and cohesiveness to your ideas.  If your colors have gotten a little stale, you can see interesting palette ideas on sites such as colourlovers.com and paletton.com. 

Special thanks to QRCA members (and killer QRCs) Susan Abbott of Abbott Research, Farnaz Badie of The Thought Bubble, and Stacy Elsbury of Good Run Research and Recreation for sharing their favorite accessories.

Julie Medalis leads Brain Pot Pie, an ideation and marketing research consultancy.  For more than 20 years, she has plugged in to the genius of people, going deep to uncover consumer feelings, needs, behaviors, and opportunities her clients can act on.  Julie is a RIVA-trained qualitative moderator and CPSI-trained (Creative Problem Solving Institute) ideation leader.  She’s an active, award-winning member of the QRCA.([email protected])