Introduction:
Staying at the forefront of innovation isn’t just a goal – it’s a necessity. In the ever-evolving landscape of market research, we all understand the importance of adapting and enhancing our services to meet the changing needs of our customers. So at VisionsLive, we decided to investigate an important question: what do researchers truly want to see in an online qualitative platform?
Want to contribute to our research? Answer the 5-minute survey here.
The Quest for Client Insights
To find the answer, our first step was to devise a plan to understand our current users’ needs and preferences. This meant delving into the core of our audience’s experiences with currently available online qualitative research tools.
We explored these key themes:
- Consistency vs. Variety: Do researchers prefer using the same platform or a mix?
- Feature Analysis: What are the key missing or improvable features in existing platforms?
- Benefits of Online Tools: How do they compare to traditional in-person methods?
- Challenges of Online Tools: Where do they fall short?
- Limitations of In-Person Methods: What are the drawbacks compared to online tools?
Our aim was to gather a comprehensive understanding of the market’s needs, not just from our existing clients but also from those who were aware of VisionsLive but hadn’t used our services before.
A Quantitative Twist in Qualitative Research
As a platform whose features are focused on diving deep and getting qualitative insights through understanding behaviours and attitudes, you may not think that a quantitative study would be in our approach. However, to ensure we got insights from a vast array of professionals in our target market, we used Survey Monkey to create and design a survey. The questions built on the initial themes we identified, with multiple choice options to ensure the survey could be completed as quickly as possible. This shift was not just a methodological change but a strategic move to gather a wide spectrum of data to inform our redevelopment process. It was an interesting paradox: using quantitative methods to enhance our qualitative research tools.
Incentivising Participation: Aligning with Global Charitable Goals
To encourage participation in our survey, we pledged to plant a tree for every survey response. As we have a longstanding commitment to contributing to global charity initiatives in partnership with B1G1 (Buy One Give One), incentivising the survey in this way meant the benefits were threefold: we got feedback, respondents felt good about doing something positive, and we got to support an initiative that would help the environment. Our clients, familiar with our practice of donating a portion of fees to charity, appreciated this approach, reinforcing our identity as a business for good.
Gathering and Implementing Feedback
The responses received from the survey were enlightening, revealing not just how our current tools were being used but also what potential clients were looking for in an online qualitative research platform.
This feedback is invaluable, as it allows our in-house development team to identify key areas for improvement and new features that could be integrated to fill existing gaps in the market to help support our clients.
So: What Do Researchers Need in an Online Qualitative Research Platform?
The responses received highlighted a diverse range of needs. While some professionals favoured consistency in using the same platform, others sought variety, indicating a market for versatile and adaptable tools for different occasions. The features respondents commented on needing varied from the desire for more intuitive interfaces to advanced analytical capabilities. It showed a need for a platform that was simple to use but powerful in terms of potential outputs. This reinforced our recent decisions to develop our platform UIs and create text sentiment analysis features within our products.
It isn’t just important for our clients to conduct the research: they need easy ways to collaborate, analyse, and extract the data they get. In terms of why people currently look to use online qualitative research platforms generally, there were some clear trends.
Respondents most valued:
- Cost effectiveness
- Broader demographic and geographical reach
- The convenience of easy setup and tech support channels
Commons drawbacks were noted:
- Non-verbal cues are harder to pick up on
- Digital literacy can affect recruitment
- Potential technical issues
Knowing what attracts people to online vs in-person research is incredibly important to help us develop tools and features that can help relieve any common pain points, as well as continue to invest in the features most appreciated by our clients.
What now?
The irony of using a quantitative approach to enhance our qualitative research platforms isn’t lost on us, but with doing so, we have not only gained valuable insights but also deepened our understanding of the evolving needs of the online market research community.
Taking on this constructive feedback, our commitment remains strong: to continuously innovate and add tangible value to our clients’ research projects.
As we move forward, the insights gained will be the guiding light in our quest to provide the best-in-class online qualitative research tools, ensuring that VisionsLive remains synonymous with innovation and excellence in market research. We’re still collecting responses, so if you want to add your thoughts…
