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Yearly Archives: 2018

Top Spots Where Researchers Turn for Help

Top Spots Where Researchers Turn for Help

Resources and Recommendations, Survey TipsBy Joe HopperDecember 31, 2018

There are two things that make me most proud of my company, Versta Research. First is the work that clients pay us to do, because we put so much thought, care, and rigor into delivering the insights they need. Nothing goes out the  door without me feeling like we’ve “owned” the work completely, and I…

A Christmas for Research Nerds

A Christmas for Research Nerds

Data Collection, Funnies, Public PollingBy Joe HopperDecember 24, 2018

A few weeks we wrote about launching surveys over holidays, and we quoted research noting that there is scant evidence for the widespread assumption that holidays periods should be avoided. Lest you now find yourself working over the Christmas holiday trying to squeeze in the last round of data collection getting input from every last…

Survey Respondents Are Not Strategists

Survey Respondents Are Not Strategists

Data Collection, Survey DesignBy Joe HopperDecember 19, 2018

So why are we asking them to do our jobs? I ask this question a lot when we execute surveys for marketing and business strategists. They’re smart people who want us to synthesize lots of data into compelling stories for their business clients. They love to assemble data into dashboards, visualizations, and grids. But they…

Please Don’t Mix Your MaxDiffs

Please Don’t Mix Your MaxDiffs

Data Analysis & Analytics, Methods & Tools, Survey DesignBy Joe HopperDecember 12, 2018

Customizing MaxDiff exercises by piping in text from previous survey answers might seem like a good idea, but analyst beware: if you are estimating individual-level scores using hierarchical Bayes or latent class analysis, you must split the data into subsets before you calculate the scores. Your results will be nonsense otherwise. Here is the scenario…

Yes You Can Launch Surveys over Holidays

Yes You Can Launch Surveys over Holidays

Data CollectionBy Joe HopperDecember 5, 2018

For some reason, nearly everybody in research believes that holidays are a bad time to ask people if they will participate in research. I am reminded of this because at Versta Research we have some big studies that launched just before Thanksgiving, and we have some big ones coming up just before and during the…

Don't Waste Your Money Boosting Response Rates for blog

Don’t Waste Your Money Boosting Response Rates

Data Collection, SamplingBy Joe HopperNovember 28, 2018

Extremely careful researchers work hard to make sure their surveys reach broad and representative samples of their target populations. This usually involves multiple attempts to reach out via multiple phone calls, e-mails, or letters of request. Since statistical models of inference presume 100% response rates within random samples, the goal is always to get response…

What Research Nerds Are Thankful For

What Research Nerds Are Thankful For

Methods & Tools, Resources and RecommendationsBy Joe HopperNovember 22, 2018

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on all things that make our lives rich and rewarding, and my friend and colleague Henry (the farmer for whom I work on Saturdays) got me thinking about what I am thankful for in my work specifically, and in a new way. He asked us to think about who…

Here’s One Research Vendor to Avoid

Here’s One Research Vendor to Avoid

Resources and Recommendations, Topics in MarketingBy Joe HopperNovember 14, 2018

I never speak ill of competitors. In fact, I like them and value them. Whenever I am able to partner with them, I learn a great deal, and they make my work better. So this article might seem like a departure, except I’m not sure if this company is a competitor. I will refrain from…

How to Write Surveys: 25 Best Practices

How to Write Surveys: 25 Best Practices

Survey Design, Survey TipsBy Joe HopperNovember 8, 2018

In our fall newsletter we purposely glossed over the “standard” best practices in writing surveys that one typically reads about in text books or learns in research methods classes. We wanted to give you a deep-dive into our own five last steps in writing a questionnaire that focused on advanced topics like randomization, programming logic,…

A Good Methodology Page Sways (Some) Readers

A Good Methodology Page Sways (Some) Readers

Presenting ResearchBy Joe HopperNovember 1, 2018

What do you do when faced with a skeptical audience of business executives who are predisposed to disagree with your research findings? It is tempting to leave out the boring methodological details of how your research was conducted, who you interviewed, your assessment of the data’s validity and reliability, and so on (“Toss all that…

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