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We are in the midst of a couple projects that require in-depth telephone interviews (IDIs) with senior executives for B2B research. With every new project, we start wondering whether new technologies and tools can make the work better. For IDIs, however, I am always struck by how perfectly our old tools work. If you ever…
I was the kid who skipped recess to help grade quizzes; the graduate student who delayed getting a degree because it meant the end of school; the professor who told students that he was now in the 33rd grade and still loved school. Even now I can’t resist reviewing great opportunities for more coursework and…
The title for this post quotes one of today’s New York Times editorials. It perfectly captures something essential about our work that we need to trumpet as loudly as we evangelize the power and benefits of research. Data can’t do everything. In fact, the bigger the data, the less it can do relative to the…
“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways,” wrote Oscar Wilde in The Critic as Artist. That’s just the problem for market research and consumer behavior. Few design aspects of products, packages, brands, logos, advertising, and environments are more subjective than color. Which…
Versta Research recently partnered with a consulting firm to complete an eight-month study about when and how employers have the strongest impact on worker satisfaction. The research found several critical moments in the life cycle of an employee—from the moment they begin considering employment to moment they leave for new opportunities—that dramatically shape how engaged,…
It is good to use multiple survey questions to measure a particular attitude or opinion, and for many years experts on survey design recommended reversing the wording on some questions to get a stronger and more valid measure. For example, if we want to measure retirement confidence we might ask respondents how much they agree…
Who says that Olympic sports are the only way to bring nations and people together? In 2013, statistics will unite the world as governments, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations from 111 countries around the world work together via global seminars, conferences, and educational activities to celebrate and promote statistics. The International Year of Statistics is the…
I’m not sure if this cartoon is funny. Maybe I’m just not cynical enough (ha! my friends are laughing already!) But I can’t think of any managers or clients for whom I’ve worked that are like the pointy-haired boss in this episode. I have never been asked to provide tons of data that look so…
As we begin the New Year 2013 (and as Versta Research enters its fifth year in business!) my colleagues and I are thinking less about the hottest trends that dazzle, and more about a few rock-solid resolutions for the market research industry that would make research more valuable, relevant, and useful compared to last year,…
Ever worried that you might have missed something important, funny, useful, or downright insightful here at the Versta Research Blog? Fear not. For our 2012 year-in-review, we compiled, among other useful statistics, the traffic analytics from our website. Here is a list of the top five published articles or posts that our readers viewed in…