Extra Support: Watching the clock

With the GutCheck tool, moderators are given 30 minutes to get through their objectives. We’ve even included a timer that flashes yellow at 10 minutes left and red at 5 minutes left. Yet it’s common for moderators, even those who are very experienced, to lose track of time. In those instances, the best thing you can do is follow your objectives, not feel pressure to stick strictly to your guide.

Regarding both objectives and stimuli, the guide is often broken into sections of questions. So, in a case where a moderator might be showing 3 separate concept statements and then gauging reactions, the moderator can anticipate 3 separate sections of questions. It should be the moderator’s prerogative to watch the clock to give roughly equal amounts of time to each section.

For example, assuming that we devote 3-5 min to an introduction and a wrap-up/conclusion, a moderator is roughly left with 20 minutes of time to cover their objectives. If you know you have 3 pieces of stimuli to get through with probing, you should watch the clock and allow ~7 min of attention to each. During those 7 min, moderators should focus on answering objectives rather than sticking to the guide verbatim. This may mean skipping other portions of the guide – and that’s ok.

One way to make this easier on yourself might be to keep a printed out guide, with questions highlighted by objective, near you while you moderate. This way, you can get a feel for your pacing as you start to conduct chats on a new guide!

For more tips on online moderating, check out our support page. Happy chatting! B-)

Searching, Renaming and Cleaning Up Your Online Interviews

As our users start to play with our app and get comfortable with the tool, they tend to discover little features we don’t always have time to talk about in live demos or quick overview videos. A few of these involve organizing their completed transcripts by using the search function, renaming them, and taking notes.

1. Searching. This is an easy one that makes organization much more manageable. To find specific transcripts, type key words or phrases into the search bar and click ‘search’ (hitting enter will not trigger the search function). This will help you find specific verbatims, suggestions, or other information without having to read every single interview. 

Extra Support: Analyze as you go

I like to cook. A lot.

Actually, I like to put ingredients together in a tasty way. I can do without the chopping and the cleaning up. 

But when I was a little girl, my mother taught me to prepare ahead of time, and then clean up as I worked. So after I used the cutting board, I would take a few seconds to wash it off. Or after I had mixed in the bowl, I would clean the bowl out before proceding to the next step in the recipe.

I think the same rule of thumb could benefit researchers doing their own interviews. Services jobs have become very popular over at GutCheck, mainly because our clients don’t have the time to do a large volume of research on their own. And we’re happy to help out! But researchers really can benefit from doing the interviews themselves, and aggregating data as they collect it. The GutCheck tool allows moderators instant access to their transcripts. We also allow you to add notes:

I like to add verbatims as notes as I chat, leaving me less grunt work when I have 10 or 20 transcripts in the end. Not only does it minimize final analysis, but chatting and pulling quotes as you go also means you’re getting better insights, since they are real time. Patterns emerge more quickly, and working so closely with the data might mean discovering a pattern so clear, you can quit chatting and start reconfiguring your concept, package or message as you go.

Clean up as you cook! Just as the meal tastes better when your kitchen’s clean, your data is more accessible when you organize it along the way.

Extra Support: Eyeballing the details

After a call with a client, I was reminded of that moment in 5th grade when my teacher made sure I was close-reading a quiz. I bet you’ve been there too. He or she made one of the questions very long, and somewhere in the text wrote, “answer this question with YES to receive credit.” Half the class skimmed the text and then complained when they got it wrong. Remember?

The same goes for proofing your discussion guide, and briefing your moderators. When clients choose GutCheck services, our team usually writes a guide, has them approve it, then uploads the finalized guide to the app. Two sets of eyes are important on the guide, especially when the topic is very industry-specific, with language, services, or products not necessarily used everyday. When both the client and the service provider are diligent in their proofing and approval, errors can be caught early on to avoid any lost time.

Additionally, open communication from all parties is imperative to a successful project. If you have an industry-specific project, be sure to let the GutCheck team know what areas need to be addressed and defined more than others. Take the time to explain concepts to our team, so that we feel confident in chatting about them with everyday consumers. Though it may mean a longer kick-off call or preparation, you’ll see better results with thorough explanation ahead of time!