Qualitative Research

June 11, 2020

Virtual Conversations, Real Answers

Driving actionable insights, from online qualitative research.

Virtual Conversations, Real Answers
Manisha Dikshit

by Manisha Dikshit

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The choice to embrace digital is not ours any longer” – Anonymous 

As a qualitative researcher, I am always excited about meeting people, interacting with them, observing their behavior, and listening to them to understand their lives and to uncover the truth. Face-to-face interactions help to understand the granularity of a person’s life, their behavior, and their needs. But what does one do when, like in current times, face-to-face interaction is not possible? When social distancing is the norm getting under the skin of human needs and emotions only leaves virtual/remote research options before us. 

And what if this gets more complicated because the target group comprises people like women from mass/low-income households, housewives, or part-time workers who are not familiar with the use of digital tools at work? Can these low-tech consumers participate and share effectively using remote tools? What kind of output would we get in such a case? 

We were confronted with these questions when a client wanted to refine ideas among Singaporean women.

Despite the questions, following the principle that some research is better than no research, we had a go-ahead from the client to try online sessions.  Innovation loves constraints and it was time to get creative and enhance empathetic thinking in addressing the challenge of getting real answers from the women.

Let me take you through how we tackled the challenges we faced.

We looked at 3 key elements in addressing the constraints of remote conversations with a population that may not be so digitally savvy.  

Trust

In face-to-face sessions, there are many tools available for moderators to establish trust. By forming connections with participants and enabling an environment of open communication between participants, moderators can create a safe environment. In a virtual discussion especially with the less tech-savvy, connections take longer to establish especially between participants. It was also important to establish trust in the process for both the participant and the researcher. 

Building Trust Begins Before the Actual Session 

We enhanced the recruitment stage with two additional aspects.  First, we provided a short written guide with key features to familiarize women with the platform. The second was an ‘introduction session’ conducted a couple of days before the actual group. This session enabled us to get to know each other. Participants were able to get comfortable with the technology and it allowed us to ensure that they had the right equipment (tablet at the very least, laptop/PC ideal, headphones, and something that is easily ignored but important – a bright and quiet corner at home). Most of all, the introduction session allowed the moderator and participants to bond with each other. It was important, to be honest, and explain the reasons for conducting research online and acknowledge that things could go wrong. In a way, the group had already begun! (I love this opportunity to talk to participants before the ‘formal’ sessions so much that it would be a great additional step even when conducting face-to-face sessions).

Keeping the User at the Center When Selecting Software/Technology Builds Trust 

There are several online tools and platforms to choose from. It was important to use something that would be easily accessible, easy to use, and have at least some of the important features we needed e.g. video recording, screen-sharing, and enable interaction through features like annotations. We used Zoom. We discovered that post-COVID-19 most respondents had some level of familiarity with virtual platforms to communicate with families/friends. And if the moms needed help, guess whom they called out for – their children, who were at hand to help mom!

Enabling Structures

Using constraints to push the boundaries of discussions

Keeping the participant’s attention and energy levels are much simpler and easier in a face-to-face discussion. There are projective techniques and energetics. Using digital tools for collaboration was difficult as these are not part of the women’s daily life. So we needed to be inventive about ensuring engaging conversation and enabling women to express themselves. It was not just about retooling the way we conduct such sessions but rethinking them entirely. This included: 

  • Breaking the rhythm through play e.g. use of the Random Wheel during introductions so there was some excitement/ surprise 
  • Simple group exercises like Picture Sorting to create group bonding and get to deeper feelings more effectively 
  • Using the environment to understand the women and their lives better, e.g. asking them to show us their favorite brand for the category we were researching and explain their reasons for this. 

Intimacy

Ensuring a level of intimacy among participants

We decided to conduct the virtual sessions among the four participants. A face-to-face discussion can accommodate up to six respondents as comments flow easily. But the remote discussion is more punctuated so we thought four participants would be the best size. A smaller group meant more sessions had to be conducted but it was a big gain in terms of more time to explain the questions, clarify what the respondents were saying, and to conduct more engaging interactions.

In Conclusion

These sessions challenged us as researchers and facilitators. The effort proved useful and insightful. Although virtual conversations do not enable dialogue in the same deep way that face-to-face conversations do, virtual conversations throw up some real answers.

Going forward remote sessions are likely to be the reality of researcher’s lives. We need to be able to use the tools effectively and across different segments of people. So the question becomes how might we design and embrace research for better insights using virtual tools. Some ideas to consider: 

  1. Re-frame the questions remote research can answer: and how and where it fits into decision making. Face-to-face interactions allow us to get deep with our conversations more easily in a shorter time. When answering business questions through virtual discussions we may have to adopt more iterative processes to allow for incremental small steps rather than deep learning  in an intensive way 
  2. The use of a mix of methods is now even more relevant: If we use a mix of remote interactions (interviews, focus groups, diaries) we can get a more nuanced understanding of consumers 
  3. Re-think how we design group interactions: Face-to-face discussions can ensure in conversation. For engagement in a virtual setting, we need to design for engagement by using play and effective frameworks for collaborative discovery
  4. While effective listening is easier in face-to-face interaction, as facilitators we have to work harder to enhance our empathy skills by building attention and energy for remote facilitation.

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coronavirusdigital transformationonline researchqualitative research

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The views, opinions, data, and methodologies expressed above are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official policies, positions, or beliefs of Greenbook.

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