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When should you be using online qual tools?

I’ve spoken to a lot of researchers and agencies about online qual research this year, and while there are those that have quickly  embraced it and reaping rewards, most remain interested but hesitant.

I regularly meet the same obstacles…

‘I’m interested but when it gets down to it, I know where I am with a traditional focus group’

or

‘We just can’t seem to find a project where we feel it’s relevant to use an online methodology’

For me, this boils down to a misdirected comparison between online qual and traditional workshops and focus groups. Essentially, online qual is a new paradigm, with it’s own unique set of benefits. It isn’t simply a cheaper or easier alternative to face-to-face research methods.

At Dub we believe there are a few of the key objectives that drive the choice to use an online methodology:

1. Exposure and Reflection – do participants need to be exposed to stimulus before a live workshop, and do you want them to respond in a more thoughtful and creative manner?
2. Creative Expression – do you want participants to be more creative in their expression and response to a task?
3. Ethnography – are you looking to gather deeper, richer insights into the day-to-day lives of respondents, without a physical intrusion
4. Collaboration – do you want to work ‘with’ respondents, and allow them to assume the role of designer, innovator, tester etc, and have a greater role in the development of new products and services beyond validation

If you’re nodding right now and/or saying yes to yourself, then our online tools and methodologies will deliver inspiration results to your research needs and creative challenges.

Heroes is a talent business that helps its clients (businesses and agencies) find world-class innovation, creativity, branding and communication expertise on an as-needed basis - a kind of ‘talent on-tap’ offering. The talent - known as the Heroes - include such luminaries as Stephen Bayley, Kevin Duncan and Alistair Fee among others.

The business owners wanted to tackle how talent businesses operate by creating a powerful knowledge base and collaboration tool that delivered greater connectivity, networking and knowledge exchange. Despite counting some of the UK’s most prestigious creative and problem-solving minds as their asset, they were disparate and disconnected.

Working closely with the business owners, we designed a solution using an existing professional grade forum and KM  software package. Known as the Green Room, we customised the interface and functionality and created a communication and file-sharing structure that focused on three core area; Community Discussions, Work Opportunities and Idea Development.

Community Discussions
By engendering greater network connectedness, and turning some of the weaker ties into stronger, more collaborative ties, we created an online community of creative and branding experts. Community Discussions was a place where hot topics and general issues shared by the community through their work could be discussed, and where knowledge that could help solve briefs was located.

Work Opportunities
An innovative development was to provide a forum upon which not just briefs for talent were shared and discussed, but also a place where end-client briefs could be brainstormed and where participation could be activated.

Idea Development
We found that the Heroes themselves were an entrepreneurial group of individuals, so set about creating a space where their own business ideas could be cultivated by groups of like-minded and ‘interested’ collaborators. The collective intellectual property that was generated became a valuable asset to the business and it’s individual stakeholders alike.

Not only did the Green Room help innovate a traditional talent business, it provided a powerful collaboration tool the likes of which many of the Heroes themselves had not witnessed in their professional lives, but had become commonplace in their own social networking activities. We made full use of these behaviours such that the Heroes were able to adopt the new tool with ease. Heroes' new connectivity also brought about a new sense of belonging, companionship and a sense of 'we', which, when working on a contractual-basis, is often lacking.

Here’s what our client had to say about the experience, which naturally we’re rather pleased about;

Dub has been a very positive transformational force for my business.  Not only have they worked on a consultancy basis to create a culture of understanding around the complex issues of on-line networking, they have also worked very hard to create a networking structure that answers the needs of my business.  From the outset of this project, Dub has explained in a clear and jargon-free way the opportunities and potential downsides of setting up an web-based network.  In a sector in which it is easy to be dazzled and left bewildered by the technology of the process and to lose sight of the desired outcomes, dub have always been reassuringly 'non-techy', non patronising and yet have managed to operate at the forefront of the sector without making me feel left behind in my own project.

Throughout the whole project the dub men seemed to be as committed and enthusiastic about making my project work and work well as I was.  I never got the impression that  this was just another gig for them.

Dub does service, they do hard-nosed technical fulfillment and they do very sound consultancy. They are also good people to be around and a pleasure to talk to over lunch - not something I have ever said about anybody who has provided me with a technically-based service before!