Highlights from TMRE 2011

On Tuesday November 9th, our CEO Matt Warta gave a presentation at The Market Research Event regarding the evolution of new technology in the qualitative research world. Matt was joined by Katy Thomas, PhD, who was representing one of GutCheck’s earliest and best partners: (r)evolution.

During the session, Matt asked the audience to write their comments on two key topics:

1. What are the most significant barriers that keep people from exploring new technologies for their qualitative projects?

2. At next year’s TMRE conference (2012), what are the new technologies that audience members will have started to explore.

The responses from the attendees were fascinating, mainly because the comments were so diverse. Here are some highlights…

BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENT NEW TECHNOLOGY

>>The number one barrier noted for keeping people from exploring new technology was simply the need to get familiar/comfortable with it.  Over 21% of audience participants noted that response.

>>After familiarity, nearly 11% mentioned either security, quality concerns, getting moderators familiar with using it, and the perceived loss of capturing emotional/non-verbal feedback online.

WHAT’S NEXT TO EXPLORE IN 2012

>>The only answer mentioned frequently was simply “I don’t know/unsure”.  To us, that shows that there is still a significant amount of education needed to help qualitative researchers understand al of the options and how to use them.

>>Several respondents did mention exploring mobility with qualitative research efforts in the coming year, as well as concurrent qualitative interviews online.

>>While there weren’t clear winners, we loved some of the focused responses.  Here are some of the specific projects on the horizon for our audience members in 2012:  Bulletin boards with multi-media integration, Skype for face to face IDIs, concept exploration/optimization in multiple international markets, video ethnography, and hybrid in-person/online qualitative studies.

Thanks to all of the audience members that took the time to provide us with feedback. We think that 2012 will be a pivotal year for growing new/online technology into qualitative research and look forward to see all of the innovation to come.

What barriers do you find to implementing new technology in market research? What technologies will you be exploring throughout 2012?