Blogs tend to be a little less filtered than traditional magazines and newsletters. And that is exactly why I like to read them. In the market research space, there is no shortage of blogs. But I do find myself regularly checking these 5 (I’ll post a part 2 on other faves next week):

MR Heretic’s “Market Research Death Watch blog.” First, I just love the word “heretic.” Consistent with the name, the blog posts fresh, unforgiving looks at market research. Always worth a read. My only complaint: wish he posted more often! From a recent post, “The experimenters are labeled heretics by those with a vested interest in the status quo. The MR dinosaurs can see the comet hurtling toward them, but they refuse to evolve while the money is still flowing into their pockets.”

From Vovici (Vovici blog),  honest observations of market research trends, obviously based in lots of experience. This blog also shares useful data. Check this article out—you ‘ll see what I mean: LINK.

“Bad Research; No Biscuit” (blog link) posts wonderful critiques of online questionnaires and related topics. I don’t know who this person is, but I think the blog is great. Love the screen shots from actual surveys so that we can all ridicule the bad research together. Hope I never see one of my clients’ surveys here!

Zebra Bites by Katie Harrris (who also is on Twitter) covers qual research topics, with a good dash of sharp thinking about research communities as a recent focus. I also like her format: she tends to post short pieces that make a strong observation and then asks the important questions. She makes me think.

Compete’s blog. OK, this is more tidbits of actual research data than a blog about research…but I like it. The folks from Compete post frequently about current topics. What’s the buzz on Droid? They blog it here: LINK.  Pretty generous data sharing.

MRB, the Market Research Bulletin. Calls itself, “a member driven online bulletin board.” But to me, it often reads a lot like a blog; timely articles, current topics, with a focus on news from the market research industry…but some commentary as well.

Others have been excellent, but not updated in months You know who you are….

So what research-related blogs do you read?

[Hey, are you located in Massachusetts? I am hosting a seminar in Burlington on 12/8 for people interested in learning about online questionnaire design: http://researchrockstarclass.eventbrite.com/]

Want to help plan Research Rockstar’s next online class topic? If so, please take this little one-question poll. Hey, I have to practice what I preach, don’t I?

BTW, this is a free poll from Vorbeo. Cool site, amazingly simple tool.

[I welcome any and all comments! Every 2 weeks I randomly select a commenter to win a Rockstar Mug: PIC. Next drawing is 10/23.]

I hate bar charts.

Well, maybe “hate” is kinda strong. But you know what I mean.

A market research report that consists of 100 bar charts and pie charts is boring. And while I’d love to think market research has some socially beneficial aspects, curing insomnia is not what I have in mind.

Often, people get stuck in a rut. You get used to asking questions a certain way, you get comfortable with particular scales, and you develop styles—even templates—for reporting research results.

If your audience is falling asleep, or you are just looking for a more compelling way to convey a study’s “so what” results—consider shaking up your visual displays.

Michael Lieberman (@StatMaven for you Twitter folks) and I were talking about the issue of compelling visual displays a few months ago. He and I decided that between the two of us, we could put together some practical, real-world visual displays for market research reporting. Displays that intuitively convey complex ideas. Displays that showcase research actionability. Displays that simply make looking at data a little more interesting.

Thus we created the free eBook, “Marketing Research Insights: 22 Visual Displays.” Available on Scribd (LINK), the book is divided into sections such as Research process, Customer satisfaction, Competitive analysis, Win/Loss research, Brand awareness and more. Each display is accompanied by a very brief description of how it can be used.

Now for all of you Tufte fans: Tufte is great. Gorgeous books. Inspiring concepts. But not all that relevant to most market research projects (oh, the hate mail I will get!). Sorry, but it’s true.

If you have any questions or comments about the eBook, please leave them here, or email us: KKorostoff@ResearchRockstar.com or Michael@MVSolution.com.

Tip: if you have not read an eBook on Scribd before, I recommend you use the “book” view option. Once in Scribd, in the lower left corner of your window, you will see the words “view mode.”  I suggest you select “book” from the dropdown list. For me, it makes for easier online reading.

As you can see, the web-site updates are complete! What do you think of the new look and new features? Please give me your feedback here, by phone or by email.

For those of you who buy Research Rockstar classes, the biggest news is that I have simplified the process of buying and watching them. Now, access to classes is based on memberships. Four membership levels are offered, starting with Free. Yes, Free. The higher the membership level, the more stuff you get.

As a Rockstar member, you get access to a members-only page where you will see various courses, eBooks, and templates listed. Just click to view a class (no more downloading huge files!). Or, click to download a PDF (for eBooks and templates). And view classes as many times as you wish.  New classes are added monthly, sometimes even weekly, so check your membership page periodically.

I want to thank the team at Men with Pens for making the updated site look so great.  You guys rock!

If you have been planning a research project involving customer interviews lately, you may have found yourself debating: should I hire an outside market research agency, or use in-house resources?

It’s a debate I hear a lot lately. Even clients who have hired research agencies to do interviews in the past are now considering the in-house option.

And the reasons aren’t just money-related (though that is a factor).  Two additional reasons for choosing the in-house approach include:

1.    The desire for near-real-time feedback.
2.    The need to create direct learning opportunities.

When handling customer interview projects (or IDI projects, if you prefer) in-house, you do get the benefit of fast feedback. The folks making the calls may be right down the hall from you, and it’s easy to pop in and ask for updates.  As issues come up, you and the interviewers can choose to modify screening criteria, update the interview guide, or escalate discoveries—and do so very quickly.

And the learning opportunity for those folks actually conducting interviews? It is fantastic. And that’s true whether the interviews will be conducted by executives, middle managers or other staff. There is nothing like talking to even just 5 or 10 actual customers one-on-one to create deep, impactful insights.  More often than not, after people conduct their first customer interviews, I hear them say things like, “I never knew our customers thought that!”

Risks Ahead

Yes, the benefits of doing interview projects in-house are huge. But so are the risks.

The biggest risk: alienating clients. Folks who have not been trained to do customer interviews may have trouble asking questions—and listening to responses—in a purely objective way. Clients get annoyed if they feel they have been nice enough to cooperate with the research request only to feel manipulated or misunderstood by a company representative.

Another big risk: underestimating the amount of work involved. If you have never done in-house interviews before, you may not realize how much time it takes. You may need to write a screener. And then there’s an interview guide itself to create. Then recruiting and scheduling the interviews. Don’t forget arranging for recording and possibly transcribing. And how about reading and synthesizing the results in a way that can be shared? It really does take a lot of time and skill.  I have seen clients embark on these projects, confident that they can do them, only to have the project turn into a never-ending-nightmare because the staff involved simply could not take enough time away for their primary responsibilities to make it happen in a time-efficient manner.

So just be sure to consider the alternatives. There are market research agencies and freelancers that can handle customer interview projects very well—and have the skills and resources to do them professionally.

Be Honest with Yourself

So if you’re thinking about having non-researchers help out with customer interviews, it is certainly viable. And has some real benefits. But watch out for those common roadblocks, or the money you save on an outside agency could end up being more than risked with customer fallout and excessive staff time.

[Interested in learning more tips to manage in-house interviewers? Interested in training non-researchers to conduct research interviews? Check out Research Rockstar's latest online tutorials:   Training Volunteer Interviewers (Free!) and  Conducting Research Interviews: 12 Tips for Stress-Free Interviewing ]

In your organization, do you have a growing number of non-market researchers doing market research? You know what I mean: people using free or low-cost tools like Survey Monkey, Zoomerang and Wufoo to collect data without the sanctioning of the research department? Or those gathering customer insights from Twitter, Facebook, or their own personal blogs?

You are not alone.

It’s rampant. And the genie is out of the bottle.

Of course, if it gets out of hand, we have to be concerned about:

• Annoying customers too many research requests. Especially those that may be redundant.
• Inconsistent standards, such that data from different efforts cannot be compared.
• Poor questionnaire design, leading to misleading data, or worse data.

You get the drift.

So what to do? Try to stop it? I don’t think so.

Look, you now have a volunteer army of market researchers (even if they don’t know it). They are data collectors, insight mavens and customer listeners. GREAT!

Yeah, I know the familiar arguments: “…it takes training,” or, as someone tweeted to me recently, “…just because you could pull out your own tooth doesn’t mean you should.” Uh huh.

Look, I know it’s uncomfortable. We market researchers take a lot of pride in our skills, discipline and experience. But the genie is out of the bottle, and it isn’t going back in.

So we have a choice:
1.    Deny, complain, prohibit. (good luck with that)
2.    Find a way to leverage the trend in a sensible way.

So we should let it run rampant?

Does this mean we should sanction all DIY customer surveys? Encourage sharing of all market insights gathered from social networking sites?

No, of course not.

• We still have to make sure our valued customers are not over-surveyed, or subjected to bad questionnaire designs.
• We must make sure research is coordinated (no redundant studies, please).
• We have to help people understand what results are anecdotal versus reliably conclusive.
• We must make sure confidential information is protected (training people on what information is confidential and should not be shared or even hinted at on social media forums, etc).
• We need to make sure suitable data is shared, and shared appropriately.

And that’s where training and policies come into play.  With a little planning and common sense, success is absolutely feasible.

Embrace the Chaos!

[Research Rockstar now offers a one-hour online course to help you turn unsanctioned market research into useful insights.  Check out, "Leading Your Volunteer Army: Turning Unsanctioned Research into Market Insight Gold." Or email info@ResearchRockstar.com]

You’ve just spent weeks, maybe months, executing a great primary market research project. You created a final report that just sings (insert angel chorus sounds here). It’s full of insights and fresh perspectives that could save or make real money for your organization.

Any nobody is reading it.

Ouch.

Why not? Is the issue motivation? Is it just too hard for your audience to prioritize taking the time to read the report?

Or is it skill? Are they uncomfortable reading market research data? Or unsure how to tackle a report efficiently?

In my experience, a little training can go a long way in these situations. So I created a free tutorial, “10 Tips for Reading Market Research Reports.” A 10 minute edition is on YouTube, and the full, 23 minute version can be downloaded as a Flash file from the Research Rockstar store. Did I mention that it is free?

Please send these links to any colleagues you have who may be dragging their feet. With these 10 tips, they’ll learn great tactics for reading a market research report so that they can get what they need from it,  easily and efficiently.

Link to YouTube edition.

Link to Flash version download.