Blog Posts Archives - Page 4 of 6 - Grey Matter Research & Consulting

Dec 17 2012 Like It or Not

In research, too often we’re concerned with whether consumers like or dislike things. There are far more important issues we should be evaluating.

Analysis , Brand , Branding , Qualitative , Questionnaires

Oct 22 2012 Let’s Stop Demonizing DIY

If Home Depot didn’t put contractors out of business, and desktop publishing didn’t kill the graphic design industry, why are we so worried about DIY research?

Bad research , DIY , Innovation

Sep 21 2012 Get into Their Shoes before Getting into Their Minds

Before you put any questionnaire in the field, take the survey yourself as a respondent. You’ll be surprised what you find.

Bad research , Bias , Questionnaires , Respondents

Aug 07 2012 The Black Hole of Research: Dull but Critical

Are you paying enough attention to the boring part of the research that can destroy your project?

Data quality , Field , Fieldwork , Online research , Panels , Phone research , Qualitative , Recruiting , Vendors

May 21 2012 Specific Time Frames in Question Design

Nuance is critical in questionnaire design. One nuance missed by many is the appropriate use of time frames when asking people about their activities.

Bad research , Context , Data quality , Questionnaires

Apr 23 2012 Biasing Your Research by the Act of Doing Research

Longitudinal studies can influence how people respond to your questions simply by the fact that you have researched them before. And if you’re not careful, this problem can come about even when you’re not doing a longitudinal study.

Bad research , Bias , Data quality , Focus groups , Online research , Panels , Quality

Mar 19 2012 Biased Research, No Matter What the Methodology

In a world where any methodology choice can introduce some bias to your data, it’s imperative to understand how your findings may skew because you chose phone over online (or online over phone, or river sample over panel sample, or any other choice you made).