Press Release

Jamin Brazil Launches Consumer Insights Podcast Network

FRESNO, CA — Jamin Brazil, the host of the Happy Market Research Podcast and MRx News, launches the Market Research Mafia Podcast Network, a podcast network that offers the market a one-stop-shop for market research, customer experience, and user experience podcasts. 

The network has three goals:

  1. Help listeners find consumer insight specific podcasts 
  2. Provide podcast producers the ability to share their podcasts
  3. Connect advertisers and podcasts

“Podcasts are tripling this year and market research is keeping pace,” Brazil said. “According to Megaphone, programmatic ad buying in 2020 is the fastest growth rate of any segment. Why? Because people love podcasts and support the products that support the things they love. With the host of branded and private podcasts coming online, we need a network to increase discoverability.” 

The podcast network features a variety of consumer insight podcasts including Data Gurus, Happy Market Research, MRXplorer, and MRx News. 

If you would like to list your podcast on the Market Research Mafia Podcast Network, please visit https://happymr.com/market-research-mafia-podcast-network

About Jamin Brazil

As the previous CEO of FocusVision, Jamin Brazil was the first to bring to market a combination of qualitative and quantitative technologies that are used by 75 percent of the Fortune 100, and more than 3,000 companies globally. Prior to FocusVision, he pioneered online surveys, founding Decipher, a top survey platform in 2000. Today, he is the CEO and co-founder of HubUx, a technology company focused on user experience (UX) and market research (MRx) insights software; and is the host of the Happy Market Research Podcast, the number one market research podcast, as well as MRx News, a daily 2-minute podcast about UX and MRx trends and news. 

MRx News

ENGINE Insights Launches a Small Business Omnibus Survey

ENGINE Insights, a global full-service media and marketing services company, launches CARAVAN Small Business Omnibus Survey, a quick and affordable solution to help businesses gain intelligence on the small business community.

In events, The Quirks Event Brooklyn kicks off next week on March 3. The two-day event features guest speakers from insight professionals at IBM, SurveyMonkey, Twitter, and many more.

In human capital news, Kantar, a research and consulting company, appoints Robert Jan d’Hond as the Managing Partner of North America.  

Language Insights, a translation company used in the market research industry, promotes Stacey Harwood to Client Services Director.    

In jobs, Trusted Talent MR is looking to place a Boston-based Director of Research Operations in a company that is a leading provider of intelligence services that helps clients drive growth through technology innovation. 

Find Jamin Online:

Email: jamin@happymr.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil

Find Us Online:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch

Facebook: www.facebook.com/happymrxp

Website: www.happymr.com

Sources: 

ENGINE Insights: https://enginegroup.com/us/news/stay-curious/caravan-small-business/

The Quirks Event: https://www.thequirksevent.com/

Kantar: https://www.kantar.com/company-news

Trusted Talent MR: https://teamplus.co/trustedtalent/en/position/director.research.operations/

Language Insights: https://www.languageinsight.com/blog/2020/language-insight-client-services-director/ 

This Episode’s Sponsor:This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback provides the tools to help UX teams to interact with real users, in real-time, and in real contexts. It’s Lookback’s mission to humanize technology by bridging the gap between end-users and product teams. Lookback’s customers range from one-man teams building web and app experiences to the world’s largest research organizations, collectively ensuring that humanity is at the core of every product decision. For more info, including demos of Lookback’s offering, please visit www.lookback.io.

MRx News

InMoment and MaritzCX Merge

Beano Studios’ insight consultancy, the Beano Brain, launches its kids and youth Omnibus service. The new addition allows clients to get on-demand insights about kids and teens between the ages of 7 and 14.

Tableau Software, a leading analytics platform, releases new capabilities to help people unlock more interactivity in their dashboards and get deeper insights from their data.

In today’s mergers and acquisitions, InMoment and MaritzCX enter a definitive agreement to combine the two companies. InMoment CEO, Andrew Joiner says, “We are bringing together two world-class companies that will deliver a truly unique value to our clients in their ongoing quest to win over customers.”

In human capital news, Former Nielsen President, Steve Hasker, joins Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of business information services, as President and CEO. 

InnovateMR, a global digital survey solutions company, appoints Sandy Casey as Senior Vice President of Global Supply.

Find Jamin Online:

Email: jamin@happymr.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil

Find Us Online:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch

Facebook: www.facebook.com/happymrxp

Website: www.happymr.com

Sources: 

Beano Studios: https://www.beanostudios.com/post/beano-studios-launches-the-beano-brain-omnibus-giving-brands-trusted-on-demand-insight

Tableau Software: https://www.tableau.com/about/press-releases/2020/tableau-20201-delivers-community-driven-features-including-dynamic 

InMoment: http://inmoment.com/news/inmoment-and-maritzcx-join-forces-combined-company-will-deliver-extraordinary-capabilities-to-drive-results-for-the-worlds-leading-brands/

Thomson Reuters: https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/press-releases/2020/february/steve-hasker-appointed-president-and-ceo-of-thomson-reuters.html

InnovateMR: https://blog.innovatemr.com/news/supply-leadership-sandy-casey

This Episode’s Sponsor:This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback provides the tools to help UX teams to interact with real users, in real-time, and in real contexts. It’s Lookback’s mission to humanize technology by bridging the gap between end-users and product teams. Lookback’s customers range from one-man teams building web and app experiences to the world’s largest research organizations, collectively ensuring that humanity is at the core of every product decision. For more info, including demos of Lookback’s offering, please visit www.lookback.io.

MRx News

Escalent Launches EVForward

Escalent, a human behavior and analytics firm, launches EVForward, an insights platform that helps automakers and utilities plan for the continued growth of electric vehicle market share. 

Stats Perform, a leader in sports AI and data, launches Opta Graphics, an all-encompassing multimedia graphics tool incorporating unique AI-powered data and insights that drive fan attention.

In events, Insights Association’s Las Vegas Combined Chapter Conference kicks off tomorrow. The three-day event features keynote speeches from Melanie Courtright, CEO of the Insights Association; and me, Jamin Brazil.  

In human capital news, Nepa, a consumer research and analytics company, appoints Ann-Christine Fick as CFO, and Michael Wallin as head of Investor Relations.

In jobs, Cranbrook Search Consultants is looking to place a Vice President of Quantitative Research in New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C. Job responsibilities include pitching, executing, and delivering customized quantitative market research to clients.

Find Jamin Online:

Email: jamin@happymr.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil

Find Us Online:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch

Facebook: www.facebook.com/happymrxp

Website: www.happymr.com

Sources: 

Escalent: https://escalent.co/news/escalent-launches-evforward-to-predict-purchase-behaviors-among-the-next-generation-of-electric-vehicle-buyers/

Stats Perform: https://www.statsperform.com/press/stats-perform-launches-opta-graphics-the-most-intuitive-multimedia-graphics-tool/ 

Nepa: https://news.cision.com/nepa-ab–publ-/r/appoints-ann-christine-fick-as-cfo-and-michael-wallin-as-ir,c3045122

Cranbrook Search Consultants: https://www.cranbrooksearch.com/open-jobs/#!/d2d060e1-c5f8-4018-af92-10c2efd4086a/detail

This Episode’s Sponsor:This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback provides the tools to help UX teams to interact with real users, in real-time, and in real contexts. It’s Lookback’s mission to humanize technology by bridging the gap between end-users and product teams. Lookback’s customers range from one-man teams building web and app experiences to the world’s largest research organizations, collectively ensuring that humanity is at the core of every product decision. For more info, including demos of Lookback’s offering, please visit www.lookback.io.

Happy MR Podcast Podcast Series

Emma Craig, Lead UX Researcher at Shopify on Elements of a Good Participant Question

My guest today is Emma Craig, UX Research Lead at Shopify.

Shopify was founded in 2004 by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake after attempting to open Snowdevil, an online store for snowboarding equipment. Today, Shopify offers online retailers a suite of services for more than 1,000,000 businesses in approximately 175 countries, with total gross merchandise volume exceeding $42 billion.

Prior to joining the User Experience team at Shopify, Emma served as Manager Team Lead at Shopify and held the position of Investigative Interviewer at BackCheck.

Find Emma Online: 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/emmaccraig

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-craig-5b829920/ 

Find Jamin Online:

Email: jamin@happymr.com 

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil 

Find Us Online: 

Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp 

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/happymrxp 

Website: www.happymr.com 

Music:

“Clap Along” by Auditionauti: https://audionautix.com

This Episode’s Sponsor: 

This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback provides the tools to help UX teams to interact with real users, in real time, and in real contexts. It’s Lookback’s mission to humanize technology by bridging the gap between end users and product teams. Lookback’s customers range from one man teams building web and app experiences to the world’s largest research organizations, collectively ensuring that humanity is at the core of every product decision. For more info, including demos of Lookback’s offering, please visit www.lookback.io. 


[00:02]

Jamin: Hey, everybody. My name is Jamin, host of Happy Market Research Podcast. Emma Craig, UX Research Lead at Shopify. Shopify has experienced massive, insane growth over the last five years – it’s unprecedented. Valuations are just amazing on that company. Congratulations, Emma, on all of the success there.

[00:23]

Emma: Thanks. I won’t take credit for it, but it’s exciting to be part of it.

[00:28]

Jamin: Yeah. No kidding, no kidding. So you’ve been at Shopify for a few years. What did you do before that?

[00:34]

Emma: So, before Shopify, I had a really interesting job, actually. I worked at a company that other companies outsourced this company to run their background checks on people that they were thinking of hiring. So, I was in the investigative interview team of that company. And I would phone people’s references, and the previous employers, or educational institutions, in some cases, and interview them about these people, basically trying to suss out what type of employee they would be, and if it was the type of employee that this future employer was looking for. So, yeah, it was really interesting. I think it caught a lot of people off when you’re more used to the average reference interview of like, “Were they productive? Were they nice?” And we really tried to get in there because these companies were very concerned about making sure they’re hiring the exact person that they’re looking for.

[01:26]

Jamin: So, our topic today is the art and science of a good question. It’s hilarious that you started your career in really framing out questions, and asking the right one in order to get the accurate response, I guess. Not like it’s leading, but you just needed to know if it’s a good fit or a bad fit. And then you moved into UX Research at Spotify. How did you wind up in research?

[01:49]

Jamin: So, how did you wind up in UX Research?

[01:51]

Emma: So, that was interesting, too, actually, because I started at Shopify in the Account Management sort of team. And that was the team that was spun up when we first launched Shopify Plus, now they’re called Merchant Success Managers. But, basically, your job was to work with these enterprise clients as their Account Manager and make sure that they were taken care of. You were answering their questions if they wanted to sort of stress the platform or take it to its most complex, interesting, unique performance. Then, you were the one that was trying to facilitate that between the Shopify Plus merchant and the engineers, or the data scientists, or whoever you needed to make it work in the back end. So, I learned a lot about Shopify and how it worked because most of these people were looking at how to make it work differently and in new ways. And, through that, I wound up speaking to our UX teams a lot because I was learning all of these things and there were really interesting insights and anecdotes, and I wanted to be able to share them. But I also knew that these were sort of our, they’re the loudest people because they have that direct line, so you’ll hear their voice the loudest. And it was just one-offs; none of these could really be generalized to a larger population. And I started to be more interested in finding patterns, and the themes, and talking to more people. And then I, I guess, outgrew my role and became much more interested in the UX research aspect of things. So, Shopify, being such a great company to work at, really kind of took me under that wing. I had UX Researchers mentor me and then I just naturally grew into the role.

[03:30]

Jamin: The mentorship part is really interesting to me. And I know it’s a little bit off-topic, but I just want to touch on that because I have actually seen that as a void or maybe an opportunity inside of consumer insights. Was there some formalized plan along that, or was it more just organic?

[03:46 ]

Emma: No, there was definitely a plan because I left my- It was an internal transfer, but I left my position and it was managerial at that point. So, I left my Manager position to become an intern on the UX Research team. To which my parents were like, “Oh, god, what are you doing? What is UX Research?” My mom, oh my gosh, she couldn’t stop calling it XXX research for the longest time because UX was this [CROSSTALK].

[04:09]

Jamin: Oh, my God, that is epic.

[04:12]

Emma: I know. It wasn’t in her vocabulary, so she was just telling people, “Oh, my daughter is, I think, it’s XXX research.” I was like, “Mom, stop.”

[04:18]

Jamin: Please stop saying that.

[04:19]

Emma: Stop it. [CROSSTALK]

[04:27]

Jamin: I have been in market research since 1996. And it wasn’t until, I swear to God, last year, so 2019, my dad got a survey, and he’s 82. And he says, “Oh, look, I got a survey,” in his email. And he says, “Is this what you do?” I am either like outsourced technology help, right. So, my computer won’t start, one of my family members calls me or it’s marketing.

[04:50]

Emma: Oh, that’s so funny. 20 years later, “Is this your job?”

[04:55]

Jamin: Yeah, right.

[04:57]

Emma: That’s really funny. I actually, so my degree is in Marketing, so I had some market research experience just from doing internships and stuff over university. And, yeah, it was really cool, I think, to start to learn the UX research aspects of things after some market research past.

[05:15]

Jamin: That’s very interesting. So, gosh, there’s a whole can of worms there on the difference between market research and UX research. Do you have just a short bit on that?

[05:24]

Emma: No, I am not the one to answer that. I have been- It was university days, I am so far gone from it. I am sure that it’s developed in so many ways, I would not want to give a definition of market research.

[05:37]

Jamin: You know what’s funny about that is I am actually doing an interview on that exact topic later this afternoon.

[05:41]

Emma: Oh, awesome. I will listen to that interview when it’s released.

[05:45]

Jamin: Yeah, it’s gonna be fun. So, questions, there’s this group. I don’t know if you’re a Doctor Who fan or listen to that. He always starts with, the hero of the show always starts with like, “Well, you’re asking the wrong question,” right. So, in order to get to the right answer, you need to have a framework of what the right question is. And, in this context, how I’m really thinking about a question, it’s centric to, at a tactical level, with a respondent, right. So, framing out for them, and I’ll just stop talking in one second. But just the difference of like, “Do you find this product interesting?” Versus maybe more coming around the back door of, “Which of these products do you find interesting,” or something along those lines. So, I am interested in, from your perspective, what do you see as the elements of a good question, a well-crafted question that a respondent can answer correctly?

[06:36]

Emma: So, I think good interview questions or these direct questions that you’re asking a participant or a respondent start with your bigger question, your research question. And I don’t want it to get confusing here of what’s what. But before you can start to formulate your discussion guide and understand exactly what it is you want to ask these people when you’re face to face with them, you have to have your research question and your research objective in mind. So, the research question here is, essentially, seeking to understand why something is happening. Or what is happening? You’re looking to uncover a process, or a need, or a challenge that someone is experiencing. So, an example would be, “What are the biggest challenges people experience when it comes to taking public transit?” And that would be your research question from which you derive all of your interview questions. And you had a really good point about not asking these pointed, direct questions that you just directly ask because, half the time, people won’t actually know the answer or they won’t have the answer. But I have learned over the years that if you ask somebody a question, they will answer your question. So, whether they make it up, or they exaggerate, or whatever it might be. If you ask them something directly, they’ll give you a direct answer. And you can’t always be certain but that is true or that they are not just telling you what they think you want to hear. So, your interview question, it’s there for you to collect evidence and you have to take different angles. You have to go sideways or, like you said, take the backdoor. If your research question is around the biggest challenges people experience when it comes to taking public transit, your interview question shouldn’t be just asking somebody if they like to take the bus, your interview question could be asking them to walk you through how they got to work last week. And to kind of take these roundabout ways to understand the environment that it is you’re researching.

[08:45]

Jamin: I really think that’s a nice counterpoint, “Do you like to take the bus,” versus “Tell me about how you get to work.” There’s this journey mapping that happens, at that point, which then places the participant or the respondent in kind of an emotional state similar to what they experience when they actually went through that activity.

[09:07]

Emma: Yeah, exactly. And then they’re actually thinking about the context. And they’re, hopefully, if you’re a really good interviewer they’re experiencing how it felt. So, you’re not always just asking the frontal lobe, top of brain, then, “Hey, do you like taking the bus?” “Sure, I take the bus. Yes, I like taking the bus.” You’re getting them back into their experience. You’re placing them situationally so that they can start to tell you about their experiences and their feelings with more texture.

[09:39]

Jamin: A good question places them situationally, that’s a pullout quote, for sure. The other side of it is, “Do you like to take the bus?” So, what are the common mistakes in framing interview questions?

[09:51]

Emma: So, again, asking directly. A common mistake, though, and I am sure if you’re interviewing other people for this, they’ll say it, too. But I am going to say it because I still see it all the time, and I still see myself start to do this. But it’s asking questions that aren’t open, and neutral, and non-leading. Which, of course, that’s Interview Training 101, don’t ask a loaded question, don’t ask a leading question. But I think I have started to see, I think it’s because we’re so naturally inclined to demonstrate that we understand another person or that we’re listening to this other person, or we’re connecting with them. And, in  normal day to day conversation, we signal that to somebody else by expressing a shared or a mutual understanding. But when that happens in an interview, what winds up happening is you’re suggesting their answer or you’re putting words in their mouth. So, if the question is common mistakes, it would be asking those leading questions. And it can be really uncomfortable, but you have to strip your questions down as much as possible. And you have to get over looking smart in front of other people and be OK sitting there and asking just what might feel like a really dumb question, but giving them the opportunity to fill in the space with how they actually think, and feel, and process this.

[11:09]

Jamin: And the filling in the space part is really interesting because we have a tendency to want to do that in a conversation or in an interview because you want the other person to succeed, on both sides. How do you combat that as you’re doing interviews?

[11:30]

Emma: So, that, to me, I think the biggest struggle there is staying silent, being quiet and letting them answer the question, or elaborate on the question. A lot of people will jump to the next question to sort of get along with it or fill the space. We’re really uncomfortable with silent spaces. So, I have heard of a few ways of getting around it. I have some colleagues that will actually just count. I don’t know what that number is, but they’ll pick a number and they’ll sit and count to eight in their head, and then they’ll let themselves speak. I do a lot of meditation, so when I am in an interview, I’ll keep my feet planted on the ground. And, if it starts to feel uncomfortable or I start to feel like I just want to fill the space, I’ll actually just take some deep breaths and concentrate on the feeling of my feet on the ground, and it’ll really ground me. It’s like a little, mini, quick meditation. And then I also diffuse my energy out of that area. And, once again, it becomes space for my participants to fill themselves.

[12:34]

Jamin: The other challenge- By the way, I just grounded my feet.

[12:36]

Emma: Oh, good. Me, too.

[12:43]

Jamin: I love that. I love that. The other thing that you referenced is this desire, as humans, to connect with one another at an emotional level, right, so that’s very important to us. And yet, sometimes, that can get in the way of truth, right. Have you seen- In other words, we want to agree with one another is what I am trying to get to. Have you seen that play out in interviews, from a respondent perspective, where they’re just like trying to like the thing that you’re putting in front of them because they want you to feel good about yourself?

[12:51]

Emma: Yeah.

[13:16]

Jamin: And then how do combat that?

[13:20]

Emma: Of course, you see that all of the time. And it starts with you, the interviewer, I think, it’s easy to be unaware of the signals we send because they are so subtle. But just things like nodding your head, or shaking your head, or your facial expressions; every tiny, tiny movement, the other person, often unconsciously, is watching as a way of receiving feedback about how well they’re performing. So, to combat that, I make sure that I am very neutral, again, grounding myself really helps. I say thank you when they answer a question, which feels weird because I think we’re inclined to say like, “Oh, that’s super-interesting.” Or, “Oh, weird. OK, the next question.” But that’s influencing it, that’s giving them feedback about how well they have done or how interesting or correct they have been. So, if they answer a question, I just say, “OK, thank you,” and then I’ll move on. And you feel a bit like a robot, you feel a bit silly, but your job as the interviewer isn’t to be their friend or to really connect with them. Your job is to collect evidence to support the research question that you’re asking. [CROSSTALK] It helps to, I’ll add, it helps being a researcher and not the designer. And I’ll often start my sessions by saying, “This is a piece of work that I am looking into on behalf of the team here. I didn’t do this myself or these aren’t my sketches. So, there is no right or wrong answer and you can’t offend me.” I just kind of start it off with like, “You’re not going to upset me if you tell me this is garbage.” If anything, you are going to be helping us much more if you do.

[14:55]

Jamin: Tell me the baby is ugly.

[14:57]

Emma: Yeah, exactly.

[14:59]

Jamin: The worst question you’ve ever seen. We have all got them, right?

[15:01]
Emma: I know.

[15:04]

Jamin: And it could, I am assuming this is, there’s two lenses. One, it could be you have actually done or the other is, and probably more probable, is you have been exposed to as a respondent or a participant.

[15:13]

Emma: Oh, my gosh. I receive, I’d say, questions that I get in emails, I always send them to fellow researchers and be like, “Look at this garbage.” But I’ll speak about interviews because that’s what we’re talking about. And I’ll speak about myself because I did this a lot when I started out and I still, when I write my questions, will notice if I am doing it and try and undo it. But it’s anything in the future, so we really want to ask people to predict things in the future. It seems like a good way of finding out information. So, a really simple example would be, “How often do you picture yourself using this?” Maybe in the interview, you have exposed that this is something they are interested in, and they think it would be very helpful. It would ease all of these pains and challenges that they have. And then you want to say, “OK, well, how often do you think you would use it?” But people cannot give you a realistic idea about the future; they don’t know, they will make it up. Like I said, if you ask somebody a question, they will answer that question. But it probably won’t be true because they don’t know well enough if they’ll use something or if they’ll do something in the future. I think an example I use a lot is if somebody asked me what I was going to eat for lunch tomorrow, I can’t actually- I can give them a guess but I can’t actually tell them. But if they asked me what I have eaten for lunch every day this past week, I’ll give them a much better indication of what I might eat for lunch tomorrow or what my lunches look like. So, yeah, probably that, asking people to predict instead of basing the question in past behavior.

[16:48]

Jamin: And then having to use math and intuition to be able to get to future outcomes.

[16:54]
Emma: Yeah. In research, you hear this trope all the time, but it’s like don’t- God, now, I am going to screw up the quote. But it’s something like, “Don’t ask people what they do – watch.” You want to observe behavior in research. You don’t want to ask them to tell you their behavior, it makes so much more sense to observe it. So, in an interview, the closest you can get to that is to ask them to describe past behaviors that they have done because you know those to be true.

[17:17]

Jamin: Yeah, absolutely. Gosh, I really like that. And that caught me a little bit by surprise, I was not thinking it was going to go that way. That’s actually something that’s very, very insightful. And I have done that quite a bit, being completely transparent. I thought it was going to go a little bit more into grids or more into the- Maybe my bent is more quant, right, so my exposure is- I literally just saw this yesterday. I got a survey, it was on a scale of 1 to 10, how accurate was our delivery? And I swear to God, that is the question. And I am like, “It’s such a silly question [CROSSTALK].”

Jamin: It doesn’t.

[18:30]

Emma: No.

[18:31]

Jamin: It’s so interesting this and- But I’ll tell you what’s interesting, so this is what I find very interesting, and now we’re totally off-topic. But this inclusion of NPS at the activity level, where now we’re, everybody who’s buying stuff is being exposed to an NPS question, probably weekly. And it’s starting to inform our culture so that I asked somebody, it happened in our stand up two days ago. He happens to be Finnish. And then I said, “How was your day, or whatever, yesterday?” Just like the small talk before. And he goes, “I would rate it an 8.” And I am like, [LAUGHTER] I am like, “What happened? What happened?” But what was interesting about that is then, of course, I couldn’t help myself, I had to dive in. And, he said, “Well, the problem is that, in American culture, if you say good, that means something very squishy but, for me, it means something a lot more absolute. And so, I am trying to quantify it for you in a language that we’ll understand so that you can have an accurate idea.” Which is really hilarious, on so many levels. But I thought it was interesting that you are seeing this change in how we relate to one another at a human level really being dictated by this intrusion of NPS in our lives.

[19:58]

Emma: That’s so true. Yeah, that’s a light way to say it. It’s the sledgehammer of NPS [CROSSTALK]. The problem with NPS, though, we have actually kind of said the same thing here because NPS asks you to predict future behavior. “Will you recommend this to a friend?” Such a better question would be like, “Tell me about the last time you recommended a product to your friend.” And it feels super roundabout, you are like, “No, but I want to know about my product. And I want to know if they’re going to be loyal and a brand evangelist.” But they don’t know that, so you can’t ask them that, you need to infer it from their behavior.

[20:31]

Jamin: Oh, my gosh. There’s this, I’ll try and find it. I heard IBM gave a talk on NPS and the flaws, one of their head Researchers, and it was fascinating because they have been doing it for a long, long time and at a massive scale. And, anyway, so totally divergent, sorry about that. Emma, thank you so much for being on the Happy Market Research Podcast.

[20:45]

Emma: Hey, thanks for having me. This was fun.

[20:50]

Jamin: My guest today has been Emma Craig, UX Research Lead, Shopify. Everybody, have a great day. If you found value, please take time, screenshot, and share on social media. Tag HappyMR.com or whatever, enjoy your day.

MRx News

Leanplum Appoints a new Chief Executive Officer

CMNTY, a connected market research platform for qualitative and quantitative data collection, launches MoodBoards, a way for your community members to co-create ideas and share thoughts and feelings with you. 

In today’s mergers and acquisitions, Wipro Digital, the digital business unit of Wipro Limited, acquires Rational Interaction, a full-service digital customer experience company.

In human capital news, Leanplum closes $27 million in funding and appoints George Garrick as President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as appoints Sheri Huston as the CFO. 

Leger, the largest Canadian-owned market research and analytics company, hires Isabelle Blanchet as Vice-President of Customer Experience. 

GutCheck, a pioneer in agile audience intelligence, adds Rob Wengel to its Board of Directors.

His role will help GutCheck enhance its partnerships with clients and closely align its business to client needs.

In jobs, GitLab, a complete DevOps solution, is looking to hire a remote mid or senior level UX Researcher. 

Find Jamin Online:

Email: jamin@happymr.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil

Find Us Online:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch

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Website: www.happymr.com

Sources: 

CMNTY: https://www.cmnty.com/blog/moodboards-brainstorming-visual-analysis/   

Wipro Digital: https://wiprodigital.com/news/wipro-digital-acquires-rational-interaction-enhancing-customer-experience-offerings-and-boosting-digital-marketing-capabilities/ 

Leanplum: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/leanplum_leanplum-raises-another-27m-shakes-up-its-activity-6636313666033721345-WPgu 

Leger: https://leger360.com/press-release/isabelle-blanchet-appointed-vice-president-customer-experience/

GutCheck: https://www.gutcheckit.com/press_release/gutcheck-adds-former-nielsen-and-kantar-executive-to-its-board-to-accelerate-growth/ 

GitLab: https://about.gitlab.com/jobs/apply/senior-ux-researcher-or-ux-researcher-manage-4654965002/

This Episode’s Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback provides the tools to help UX teams to interact with real users, in real time, and in real contexts. It’s Lookback’s mission to humanize technology by bridging the gap between end users and product teams. Lookback’s customers range from one man teams building web and app experiences to the world’s largest research organizations, collectively ensuring that humanity is at the core of every product decision. For more info, including demos of Lookback’s offering, please visit www.lookback.io

MRx News

GreenBook Releases the 26th Edition of the GRIT Report

The Happy Market Research Podcast publishes a new episode on how to ask research participants a good question. The episode discusses seven things that you can do to improve your research results, and features guests such as Emma Craig, UX Research Manager at Shopify; Zoe Dowling, SVP of Research at FocusVision; and many more. 

Ginny Valentine Badge of Courage Awards, which recognizes bravery in market research, announces the judges for the 2019-20 international awards. Judges include:

  1. Pippa Rose, Senior Manager of Consumer Insight at BT
  2. Deborah Campbell, VP of Consumer & Marketplace Insights at Verizon
  3. Finn Raben, Director General at ESOMAR
  4. Sue van Meeteren, Founder & Director of Jigsaw Research Limited
  5. Rebecca Brooks, Founder & CEO of Alter Agents

GreenBook releases the 26th edition of the GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report, featuring data collected from Q3 and Q4 of 2019. The GRIT Report dives deep into topics such as the adoption of emerging methods and satisfaction levels with suppliers. 

In human capital news, Syno International, a consumer data provider, appoints Per-Erik Kärnekull as Head of EMEA and Aivaras Mockus as Chief Financial Officer. 

Find Jamin Online:

Email: jamin@happymr.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil

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Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch

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Sources: 

Happy Market Research Podcast: https://happymr.com/how-to-ask-research-participants-a-good-question/ 

Ginny Valentine Badge of Courage Awards: http://www.ginnyvalentine.com/

GreenBook: https://www.flipsnack.com/GRITarchive/2019-grit-insights-practice-report.html

Syno International: https://www.synoint.com/new-hires/ 

This Episode’s Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback provides the tools to help UX teams to interact with real users, in real-time, and in real contexts. It’s Lookback’s mission to humanize technology by bridging the gap between end-users and product teams. Lookback’s customers range from one-man teams building web and app experiences to the world’s largest research organizations, collectively ensuring that humanity is at the core of every product decision. For more info, including demos of Lookback’s offering, please visit www.lookback.io

MRx News

Verdane Acquires Confirmit

In today’s mergers and acquisitions, Verdane, a Northern European specialist growth equity investor, acquires Confirmit, a global solutions provider for customer experience, employee experience, and market research. Verdane is the major investor in Dapresy and will merge the two companies.

Trax, a provider of computer vision and analytics solutions for retail, acquires Qopius, a provider of AI-based in-store technology solutions in Europe. 

In human capital news, Elizabeth Real joins Strativity Group, a customer experience, and transformation firm, as its new President.

Nielsen grows its media management team by hiring Sean Cohan as Chief Growth Officer and President of International; as well as by promoting Peter Bradbury to Chief Commercial Officer of U.S.; and Karthik Rao to Chief Operating Officer of Nielsen Global Media.

Maru/Matchbox appoints two — Brian James as Deputy CEO and Chief Client Officer of Matchbox North America; and Brent Snider as Deputy CEO and Chief Revenue Officer of Matchbox North America.

In jobs, Cranbrook Search Consultants is looking to place a Director of Business Development in the SaaS Platform, DIY space of market research and insights. 

Find links to these stories in our show notes. For more detailed commentary, be sure to signup for our weekly newsletter at www.happymr.com

This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback is the leading software that enables researchers to interact with users, in real-time, and in contexts. Built from the ground up by some of the original Spotify engineers, Lookback is the best in class video screen share platform for User Experience and Market Researchers. Check them out at lookback.io. 

And that’s your daily briefing of marketing research news.

Find Jamin Online:

Email: jamin@happymr.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil

Find Us Online:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch

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Website: www.happymr.com

Sources: 

Confirmit: https://www.confirmit.com/Company/News/press-release-insights-2020-announcement-k2a/

Quopuis: https://qopius.com/news/trax-acquires-qopius-to-accelerate-digitizing-physical-retail/

Strativity Group: https://strativity.com/strativity-group-names-elizabeth-real-new-president/

Nielsen: https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-releases/2020/nielsen-makes-senior-appointments-further-builds-out-media-management-team/ 

Maru/Matchbox: https://marumatchbox.com/press_release/marumatchbox-north-america-leadership-appointments/

This Episode’s Sponsor:This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback provides the tools to help UX teams to interact with real users, in real-time, and in real contexts. It’s Lookback’s mission to humanize technology by bridging the gap between end-users and product teams. Lookback’s customers range from one-man teams building web and app experiences to the world’s largest research organizations, collectively ensuring that humanity is at the core of every product decision. For more info, including demos of Lookback’s offering, please visit www.lookback.io.

MRx News

Kantar’s CEO Steps Down

David Shanker launches David Shanker Consulting. A consultancy focused on executive coaching, client strategy, customer engagement, and sales team development.

OfficeReports, a survey reporting automation platform, releases Report Builder. The solution can be used for ad-hoc survey report generation and for creating automated report templates for tracking surveys. 

SurveyMonkey, a global survey software company, raises more than $15 million for nonprofit partners. With its Contribute platform, SurveyMonkey offers charitable incentives of 50 cents per completed survey, providing donations for partner charities of the respondents’ choice.

Our sister podcast, Happy Market Research Podcast, has been nominated for the MR Podcast Award. Voting ends on March 31 and the winner will be announced at IIeX Austin in April. 

In events, IIeX Europe will be taking place next week from February 25 to 26 in Amsterdam.

Meanwhile, back in the states, Insights Association will be hosting its Las Vegas Combined Chapter Conference from February 26 to 28.  

In human capital news, Eric Salama has stepped down as the CEO of Kantar and will be on garden leave until the end of June. The Executive Committee will lead the business until the appointment of a new CEO.

Duarte S. Simoes de Almeida joins Measure Protocol as the Finance Director. He will head the company’s core financial business functions and strategic planning.

Find links to these stories in our show notes. For more detailed commentary, be sure to signup for our weekly newsletter at www.happymr.com

This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback is the leading software that enables researchers to interact with users, in real-time, and in contexts. Built from the ground up by some of the original Spotify engineers, Lookback is the best in class video screen share platform for User Experience and Market Researchers. Check them out at lookback.io. 

And that’s your daily briefing of marketing research news.

Find Jamin Online:

Email: jamin@happymr.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil

Find Us Online:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch

Facebook: www.facebook.com/happymrxp

Website: www.happymr.com

Sources: 

David Shanker Consulting: www.davidshankerconsulting.com 

OfficeReports: https://www.officereports.com/blog/archive/officereports-launches-report-builder-for-fast-survey-reporting-in-microsoft-office

SurveyMonkey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/newsroom/surveymonkey-raises-15m-for-charitable-causes/ 

Little Bird Marketing: https://info.littlebirdmarketing.com/mr-podcast-award 

IIeX EU: https://iiex-eu.insightinnovation.org/

Insights Association: https://www.insightsassociation.org/conference/double-down-insights-2020-las-vegas-combined-chapter-conference

Kantar: https://www.kantar.com/company-news/CEO-transition-update 

Measure Protocol: https://www.measureprotocol.com/blog/duarte-s.-simoes-de-almeida-joins-us-as-finance-director

This Episode’s Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback provides the tools to help UX teams to interact with real users, in real time, and in real contexts. It’s Lookback’s mission to humanize technology by bridging the gap between end users and product teams. Lookback’s customers range from one man teams building web and app experiences to the world’s largest research organizations, collectively ensuring that humanity is at the core of every product decision. For more info, including demos of Lookback’s offering, please visit www.lookback.io

Happy MR Podcast Podcast Series

Ep. 301 — How to ask Research Participants a Good Question

In this episode, we’ll hear from insight professionals at top brands and consultancies on their top tips for asking a good research question to participants as well as common mistakes and how to avoid them.

Stay tuned for the following weeks to hear the individual episodes of our referenced guests.

This episode is in collaboration with Lookback. In conjunction with this episode, Lookback published, “The Art of Moderating Research,” and “7 Tips on how to ask the Perfect Questions.

Referenced Guests:
Harry Brignull, Head of UX Innovation at Smart Pension

Emma Craig, UX Research Manager at Shopify

Zoe Dowling, SVP of Research at FocusVision

Josh LaMar, Principal Researcher & Co-Founder at Authentique UX

Find Jamin Online:

Find Chueyee Online:

Find Us Online:

Music:

Additional Links:

This Episode’s Sponsor:
 
This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback provides the tools to help UX teams to interact with real users, in real time, and in real contexts. It’s Lookback’s mission to humanize technology by bridging the gap between end users and product teams. Lookback’s customers range from one man teams building web and app experiences to the world’s largest research organizations, collectively ensuring that humanity is at the core of every product decision. For more info, including demos of Lookback’s offering, please visit www.lookback.io. 


[00:02] Jamin Brazil: In this episode, we’ll hear from insight professionals at top brands and consultancies on their top tips for asking a good research question to participants as well as common mistakes and how to avoid them.  

[00:25] Emma Craig: So, a really simple example would be, “How often do you picture yourself using this?” Maybe in the interview, you have exposed that this is something they are interested in, and they think it would be very helpful. It would ease all of these pains and challenges that they have. And then you want to say, “OK, well, how often do you think you would use it?” But people cannot give you a realistic idea about the future; they don’t know, they will make it up. 

[00:54] Jamin Brazil: Thanks for tuning in! You’re listening to the Happy Market Research podcast, I’m Jamin Brazil, the show’s host. In this episode, we’ll hear from insight professionals at top brands including Shopify, as well as leading User Experience and Market Research professionals. If you are involved in consumer insights from either a practitioner or buyers perspective, this episode is for you. I’m joined by our Executive Producer, Chueyee Yang. Chueyee, how are you? 

[01:20] Chueyee Yang: For some reason, I keep yawning and I don’t know why.

[01:47] Jamin Brazil: Before we get started, I want to give a big thank you to our sponsor, Lookback. This episode is brought to you by Lookback. Lookback is the leading software that enables researchers to interact with users, in real-time, and in context. Built from the ground up by some of the original Spotify engineers, Lookback is the best in class video screen share platform for User Experience and Market Researchers. Check them out at lookback.io. 

[02:12] Chueyee Yang: Last bit of housekeeping. It would be amazing if you’d stop this episode… right now…and rate us on whatever app you use to listen. Great! Let’s get started. For this episode, we interviewed four research professionals who have thousands of research projects under their collective belts. 

[02:31] Jamin Brazil: Sorry executives and heads of revenue, we gave the real researchers the spotlight for this one. Before we get into the elements of a good question, let’s talk about some of the biggest mistakes researchers make when composing a question. 

Mistake 1: Leading Questions. Leading questions came up a lot. Here is Josh LeMar, a well-known User Experience Researcher. 

[02:56] Josh LeMar: I think that the biggest mistake is to either ask a leading question or to frame it too narrowly first. We’ve talked about framing narrowly first, so I guess we could talk about leading questions now. Which are things like, tell me how amazing this product is. That’s an over-exaggeration, but it can be much more subtle too. Like, if you’re only asking about the positive aspects of something or you’re saying, oh, this is a really great feature, isn’t it? Well, what did you just do there? You told the user-you primed them, number one, to say, I like this feature, and then I created this tag question like, isn’t it? Don’t you agree with me? You should agree with me because I’m the smart one here. You just made the user feel dumb, and then you also told them exactly what you want to hear. So what are they gonna do? They’re gonna tell you what you want to hear because they want to make you happy. And it’s so important as a researcher, to be very neutral and to ensure that you’re not letting too much of your own feelings ever come out. Because as soon as you start letting on like, this is really dumb, isn’t it? Yeah, I don’t really use this, but we need to test this for our client. Can you just tell us that thing? You’re throwing out the whole study data if you do that because it’s too leading, you don’t want to lead them on to the answer. The answer is what they think, not what you think.

[04:15] Jamin Brazil: All of our guests talked about leading questions one of the most common mistakes made when interviewing a participant. For kicks, let’s listen to a 2-minute excerpt from Yes Minister, an English TV Series originally airing in the early 1980s, on leading questions. This is a comical bit that serves as a clear example of the importance of being thoughtful about your study design and the questions you ask. 

[7:04] Jamin Brazil: This excerpt is especially on point considering 2020 is an election year in the United States. As you are exposed to data, from both sides, try and be thoughtful about processing it versus blindly adopting the implications. Mistake 2: Double-Barreled Questions. Connected to leading questions are double-barreled questions. Zoe Dowling, SVP at FocusVision talked about these. As described in Wikipedia, “It is committed when someone asks a question that touches upon more than one issue, yet allows only for one answer. This may result in inaccuracies in the attitudes being measured for the question, as the respondent can answer only one of the two questions, and cannot indicate which one is being answered.”

[07:49] Zoe Dowling: Double-barreled questions. How can you really answer that? You’re leading me into- it’s the basics. It’s you’re leading me into this response. I can’t respond to it the other way. We’re all the time- it’s like I can’t respond to that at all. I- none of those apply, and we don’t give any- we don’t give- we’re constructing these questions to allow, and this is actually more on the quantitative side because at least on the qualitative side, people ask- you get to some sort of response, whether it’s what you want or not. People will give their opinion because it’s open ended. Whereas in a closed ended survey question, you’re dictating the whole frame of it. The question you’re asking and the responses they get. And it’s like no, that doesn’t apply to me. You’re not getting to my opinion, and I think those are some of the things you see frequently and we’re all guilty of it because you, the person that’s designing the instrument, you’re bound by your own parameters and how you’re viewing it and how you’re framing it.

[08:38] Chueyee Yang: Tip 1: Keep it Conversational. In addition to double-barreled questions, Zoe outlines the need for us to talk in conversational, human, terms. 

[08:57] Zoe Dowling: I think the fundamentals remain the same, whether you’re asking a question in a survey or constructing it for an interview. I mean obviously there’s some fundamental differences. If you think about- the first thing are you gonna be understand? Talk in everyday language. I think too often we want to frame- we either bring in the world that we’re in, be it the actual industry. We’ve got particular language jargon that we’re using. Or you might think that I need to be so incredibly specific that you end up creating this very convoluted, the way it’s constructed question that is anybody gonna- you’ve just said it. We read in headlines. So do our participants. They scan. In fact, very often in a survey, they actually just go straight to the answers to determine that the question was and how they’re going to respond. So it’s been clear. It’s been concise. And I think that kind of works for both sides, qualitative or quantitative. Because if we’re qualitative, you’re gonna take the question and you can probe. You can go deeper and you’re gonna take it all from there. But if you start with something that’s very convoluted. Then, well, you’re probably not gonna get to where you really wanted to go in the first place. That would be my overarching thought. We sometimes over engineer our questions.

[10:07] Chueyee Yang: Keeping things simple can be the best way to connect the intent of your question to the participants. Here is an example. If we want to know how much people like my new electronic coffee mug that keeps the liquid hot, we could ask, “Most coffee makers produce a cup of coffee that is 170 degrees. After you poor the coffee into a mug or other preferred drink container of choice, how does the change in temperature of that coffee’s life cycle impact your enjoyment level?” Versus, “Thinking about your last cup of coffee. What do you think about it cooling off?”

[10:43] Jamin Brazil: I have programmed so many surveys that use the first option over the last. Part of the issue here is surveys and discussion guides are often written by a committee and as my late grandfather used to say, a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Okay, let’s look at some more tips to frame a good question. Tip 2: Use Common Terms. In full disclosure, I made a big mistake in my first interview with Emma of Shopify. Here was the question I asked her, “Key elements of a good question?” The way I framed the question was ambiguous. This created confusion. She didn’t know what we were talking about. Was the elements specific to research objectives, or a question in a survey, or a question in focus group, or a user experience study. It is so easy to assume your participants are starting with the same framework as you are. Nomenclature, colloquialisms, phraseology, mindset … these are just some of the things we need to think about. 

[12:01] Chueyee Yang: Tip 3: Know why you are Asking Each Question. So, the updated question we asked was, “What are the key elements of a good participant question?” 

Having only been in research for a year, I found this episode really useful, especially when listening to Harry Bringnull interview. For those that don’t know, Harry is the UX specialist who first coined the term “dark patterns.” Dark Patterns are tricks used in websites and apps that make you do things that you didn’t mean to, like buying or signing up for something. Harry mentioned that in order to ask the right questions, you have to ask yourself why you’re having this study and what your goal is. After you answer that question, you can move on to creating a good question for participants. 

Tip 4: Start Broad Then go Narrow. Another point Harry made was about starting diagnostic questions broad and then narrowing things down…

[13:02] Harry Brignull: I think it’s very easy to focus on the small details of the research. And researchers can feel very safe when they focus on small things, like the recruitment, specification, exact wording of the questions. But in my opinion, what defines good research and then it sort of cascades into the questions is the overarching research objectives. So what are you doing the research for in the first place? And if you don’t get that right, the questions are inconsequential. And if you do get it right, the questions become much easier to write anyway. So what do I mean by that? Basically it’s very common, particularly when you got a new job or if you’re a junior researcher to have someone come along and for example, a product manager or product director or someone in management try and tell you the objectives in advance of what you should be doing your research on. And managers tend to be very feature-focused, so they’re probably going to be very specific and have a very narrow brief about the one thing that they care about at that point in time. So for example, imagine you’re a researcher and you’ve got a new job and the team you’re joining has never done any user research. And your manager, or product owner or whatever comes along and says, “I want you to do some research on this particular dashboard that we’re building for [INAUDIBLE] This dashboard is used by this one particular user type.” Let’s say you’ve got six user types and it’s used by one of them. So if you go and do that research, you’ll probably make that person happy. But you’ll still be kind of in the dark about the big picture. So what about the other five user types that we talked about there? What about the broader user needs? What were the most worrying or the least understood things about the problems that your product is trying to solve for users? And besides, often these sort of senior manage-y type people, they don’t really know what good user research is anyway. So really, like I was saying earlier is really a lot of the job of the researcher is to teach the people around them how they can be engaged with in a constructive way so they don’t get approached with very tightly defined research questions that are overly scoped basically. So I’ve got a metaphor here. If you think of your problem space as being like a dark cave. Using research is a bit like a flashlight that shines a beam into the cave so you can see what’s going on. The first time, if you did go climbing or go exploring and find a big dark cave. The first thing you’re going to want to do is shine your torch, shine your flashlight around the cave to try to work out what’s in there. You’ll probably do it quite quickly right just to make sure that you’re safe and there’s no big surprises like a bear or something. And then once you’ve done that, then you might have a more focused beam and shine it at something else. You might feel like okay we’ve covered all that, we’ve done our first pass. Now we can focus on that really exciting structure over there, the stalagmites and stalactites or something like that that you really point with being there and get really interested and focused on it. So I guess a bit of a tenuous metaphor there, but I think it’s really, really important to always start broad. Otherwise you can end up getting really deep into something and missing the points on how. Because human life is multilayered and it’s always good to start out with the broadest possible way and then zoom in gradually rather than zoom in first and kind of miss out on some big thing that you should be working on.

[16:14] Chueyee Yang: Similarly, Josh LaMar, the previous research manager for Outlook says…

[16:27] Josh LaMar: I think that the way that you frame a question is very, very important because you have to be at the right level. And what I mean by level is that, if you start off an interview by saying like, well, tell me how you check your email on the weekends, you’ve just scoped it so narrow and really, you might be interested in something else. I was the research manager at Outlook for several years, so I can use email as a really easy example of things that I’ve done research on a lot. So it’s really important to start very broad and then move into the specific. And an example of a broad question might be, tell me how you communicate with your friends and family, much more broad than just email. And then as you start getting into it, you’ll find more interesting things. The framing is so important because when you frame too narrowly, you put this box around the user. And the user thinks, I think that they want to hear just this part, and so they only share the things that are in that box. But when you add a broader box from the beginning, then everything else is open. And you might find something that’s even more interesting just by asking a broader question.

[17:30] Chueyee Yang: Harry’s framework of a cave is exactly how we should think about our research. When writing your discussion guide or survey, start with your assumptions and then get rid of them. The less you know, the more you will understand the context of the participant and their opinions about your research topic. 

[17:48] Chueyee Yang: In line with starting broad and then narrowing in on your research question. I loved the tactical example of how Emma Craig, of Shopify, breaks this point down.

[18:00] Emma Craig: I think good interview questions or these direct questions that you’re asking a participant or a respondent start with your bigger question, your research question. And I don’t want it to get confusing here of what’s what. But before you can start to formulate your discussion guide and understand exactly what it is you want to ask these people when you’re face to face with them, you have to have your research question and your research objective in mind. So, the research question here is, essentially, seeking to understand why something is happening. Or what is happening? You’re looking to uncover a process, or a need, or a challenge that someone is experiencing. So, an example would be, “What are the biggest challenges people experience when it comes to taking public transit?” And that would be your research question from which you derive all of your interview questions. And you had a really good point about not asking these pointed, direct questions that you just directly ask because, half the time, people won’t actually know the answer or they won’t have the answer. But I have learned over the years that if you ask somebody a question, they will answer your question. So, whether they make it up, or they exaggerate, or whatever it might be. If you ask them something directly, they’ll give you a direct answer. And you can’t always be certain but that is true or that they are not just telling you what they think you want to hear. So, your interview question, it’s there for you to collect evidence and you have to take different angles. You have to go sideways or, like you said, take the backdoor. If your research question is around the biggest challenges people experience when it comes to taking public transit, your interview question shouldn’t be just asking somebody if they like to take the bus, your interview question could be asking them to walk you through how they got to work last week. And to kind of take these roundabout ways to understand the environment that it is you’re researching.

[20:04] Jamin Brazil: The context of the participant when consuming or experiencing the thing you are measuring is 100% vital. In the way a breaks doesn’t matter without a car, we have to put our participants in the context of their consumption and then drill down. This is much harder than simply reducing your research to an Net Promoter Score or similar likert scale. While NPS is far easier, it is less effective at uncovering hidden truths. 

[20:29] Chueyee Yang: Tip 5: Protect Your Participants. It is also important to protect your research participants from your internal stakeholders. 

[20:42] Harry Brignull: I remember once doing some research and you have the stakeholders in the room. And one of the stakeholders would rap his fingers on the table like this when the user didn’t answer the question. Yeah we were doing some research on time tracking companies in Munich. Because the tech was like a stumbling piece of tech that you kind of had to be in the room to see working. So that didn’t go. It’s basically sometimes you need to keep the stakeholders far away sometimes. And I often find that, I know some researchers like to have a chat window open and like to let some people ask some questions during the research. I absolutely will not abide that as the research they can all get lost. They can write notes and stuff and I’ll talk to them afterwards. But having that extra channel of input while you’re trying to run an interview, it’s just mind meltingly annoying.

[21:29] Chueyee Yang: Exactly. While Harry’s example sounds like it came straight out of an episode of the office, this is a real issue. If I was a participant, I’d want the interviewer to treat our conversation like a date where I have their full attention…not me sitting across the table from someone who is swiping on their phone after asking me a personal question. 

[21:53] Jamin Brazil: Tip 6: Leverage Past Behaviors to Inform Future Usage. Now, we are going to cover the importance of leveraging past behavior to inform future outcomes. 

[22:05] Emma Craig: So, a really simple example would be, “How often do you picture yourself using this?” Maybe in the interview, you have exposed that this is something they are interested in, and they think it would be very helpful. It would ease all of these pains and challenges that they have. And then you want to say, “OK, well, how often do you think you would use it?” But people cannot give you a realistic idea about the future; they don’t know, they will make it up. Like I said, if you ask somebody a question, they will answer that question. But it probably won’t be true because they don’t know well enough if they’ll use something or if they’ll do something in the future. I think an example I use a lot is if somebody asked me what I was going to eat for lunch tomorrow, I can’t actually- I can give them a guess but I can’t actually tell them. But if they asked me what I have eaten for lunch every day this past week, I’ll give them a much better indication of what I might eat for lunch tomorrow or what my lunches look like. So, yeah, probably that, asking people to predict instead of basing the question in past behavior.

[23:08] Jamin Brazil: It is so easy, as a researcher, to ask a simple question around projected or expected usage and then extrapolate that for your client to use in their models. Tip 7: Run a Pilot Before Your Study. Before we end this episode, one of the tips that came up is from the old days of research. Prior to the internet, recruiting people for research was very very hard and expensive. To avoid a project going into a FUBAR state, we’d often run a pilot project. This took a bit of time and was about 10% of the total budget but it served to ensure that we were asking the right questions in the right way to answer our research objectives. 

[24:31] Chueyee Yang: In the next episode, we’re releasing the long-form interview with Emma Craig, Lead UX Researcher at Shopify. 

[24:40] Emma Craig: The interviewer, I think, it’s easy to be unaware of the signals we send because they are so subtle. But just things like nodding your head, or shaking your head, or your facial expressions; every tiny, tiny movement, the other person, often unconsciously, is watching as a way of receiving feedback about how well they’re performing. 

[25:01] Chueyee Yang: Happy Market Research is hosted and produced by me, Chueyee Yang and Jamin Brazil. 

[25:08] Jamin Brazil: Special thanks to our referenced guests…

Emma Craig, UX Research Manager at Shopify

Harry Brignull, Head of UX Innovation at Smart Pension

Zoe Dowling, SVP of Research at FocusVision

Josh LaMar, Principal Researcher & Co-Founder at Authentique UX

To subscribe to the podcast, go to iTunes or check out the Happy Market Research website at happyMR.com. You can follow us on Twitter at @happyMRxP. Thank you for listening and see you next week.