Online Qual & Qual at Scale

Trying to moderate and understand hundreds or thousands of people talking at once may seem like a nightmare. Until you see how it’s done; then it becomes a dream. Now, via the power of processing and the agility of intelligence, it’s a reality you can experience and evaluate for yourself.

As chronicled over the years in the GRIT Report, COVID knocked in-person focus groups and IDIs from 93% usage among buyer-side insights professionals to just 35% with a single punch. At the same time, it boosted adoption of online qual from 68% to 85%; a year later, usage of mobile qual jumped from 35% to 52%. Although GRIT shows that in-person qual has made a partial comeback since then, other modes of qualitative research have not ceded their gains. No matter how much of the change you attribute to necessity versus technology, the practice of qualitative research has been fundamentally altered.

Technology has added another dimension to these online capabilities: qualitative research at scale. Hundreds or thousands of members of your target market can be interviewed simultaneously, and, increasingly, individually. Instead of applying a standardized virtual discussion guide that is the same for every participant, interviews can be tailored to each respondent’s perspective. Some platforms may give you the opportunity to intercede manually in real-time to redirect questioning, or you might leverage GenAI capabilities to independently moderate each interview.

Platforms can automate sampling, recruiting, data collection, and analysis, enabling you to have data and insights in a matter of hours or days as opposed to weeks or months. Even though platforms can automate much of the work – most significantly interviewing and analysis – you can have full transparency and choose which tasks to automate and to what degree.

The latest GRIT Insights Practice Report shows that more than half of buyer-side research projects have a qualitative component, so this tech showcase is likely to be highly relevant for most insights professionals. If you are high on the learning curve with online focus groups and IDIs webcams, you’ll want to understand the next levels of automation and see how for yourself they come together. If you are new to the world of virtual qual, you’ll want to see if these solutions address or reinforce your hesitations.

The latest GRIT Report also shows that most qualitative research providers use online focus groups and IDIs, mobile qual, and chat-based qual and that nearly half leverage text and Big Data analytics. If you make your living from qualitative research, you will want to understand how these technologies can help your business to grow.