We’re done apologizing. Last week someone got in touch about attending the Qual360 conference in DC this spring and they were offering a discount, so I took a look. After scrolling through the program and the featured speakers, I was left wondering why on earth anyone would still be spending a thousand dollars to go…
Brief reflections on 2021, our plans for the future, and our faves from the cusp of 2022. Hi. 2021 ended for our little team with a grim flourish of grief, illness, and other forms of bad news, so we’ve all been simply trying to recover from that before we could even begin, really, to think…
We’re trying to create the conditions for a truly representative sample in market research – want to help? The tl;dr – we’re building a qualitative research recruitment panel that is designed to be inclusive and accessible from the ground up. If you or someone you know would like to join that panel, and be connected…
What marketers take for granted about how people make decisions; why it took the pandemic for researchers to adopt remote methods; the value of the beginner’s perspective Only a day late this time (and we’ve switched to Substack, because, well, we want the option of alt-text on images, and not every newsletter platform even offers…
As you probably already know, The Difference Engine conducts qualitative research, and we’ve spent some time over the past few months discussing industry trends & patterns and analyzing our own methods for running research. In a recent conversation, we concluded that there is not much information out there about how to run inclusive and accessible…
Today’s lesson: Emotional Leakage and Facial Recognition Software in Market Research There are lots of ways that facial recognition technology can be put to use; but one industry that has already demonstrated a lot of interest is the marketing business. Advertisers, market researchers have dabbled in facial recognition both for creative executions, and for understanding…
A note about a thing you don’t need to worry about and a technology you don’t need to use. I recently stumbled upon an article in Axios about how the $15 minimum wage is unpopular with swing voters. It suggested that President Biden might abandon including the proposal in stimulus because it would face too…
Chuck Schumer has imaginary friends OH MY GOD DO USER RESEARCH DON’T SOLELY RELY ON PERSONAS https://t.co/g6VDC7e4hY — Dan Hon (@hondanhon) February 16, 2021 This pictured text is from a profile from 2007 in The New Yorker by Jeffrey Goldberg. Let’s just quote the thing: Schumer says that he is accompanied everywhere he goes by…
With a brief explanation of why you absolutely should I had such a good time explaining how to do observational research, that I thought I’d also take a moment to explain how to do secondary (a.k.a., “desk”) research. In my view, you can’t even begin to frame or reframe the problem to be solved until…
The first in a limited series about what brand & communications strategists should do *before* they write a creative brief Author’s note: Yesterday I wrote a series of tweets about this, but thought it might be useful to assemble them in one short article, and address some of the feedback I got, as well. Thanks…