I attended the annual QRCA conference last week. I was referred to the QRCA by Susan Abbott, an earlier reviewer of Innovation Games and a member of the QRCA. She suggested that I submit a talk. I did, and it was accepted. I was both thrilled, and frankly, a little anxious. After all, these people are the first-rate pros of Qualitative Market Research — how would they react to someone with my pedigree (a Masters in Science in Computer Science and Engineering from Michigan) talking about qualitative market research? As it turns out, they embraced both me and Innovation Games.
Before going there, I should discuss why it is important that product managers engage in qualitative market research. The simple answer is that if you’re not engaging with your customers you’re not going to know that what they need. If you don’t know what they need, you’re going to eventually miss the mark and fail to create compelling product and service offerings. This may take a long time (20 years or more if you’ve played your patent cards just right) but eventually you do need to talk with your customers. You say “Requirements Gathering” and I’ll say “market research”. You say “Usability” and I’ll say “Qualitative Research”. And we’ll both be happy, so let’s get on to the conference.
Right off the bat this conference was different from other conferences I’ve attended. The first item on their schedule was a “First-timers & Ambassadors meeting” in which they put the first-time attendees (people like me) into the main room and welcomed us to the conference. Ambassadors were present to help us network and talk with us about our interests and how we could make the most of the conference. This was a great idea, and it really set the right tone for the conference.
I speak at a lot of conferences, and my travel/work schedule is such that I don’t often get the chance to attend many of the great sessions that exist. I was fortunate, however, that I had time on Wed Sep 27th to attend Dr. Sharon Livingston’s presentation Projective Techniques: Discover The Magic Of Waking Dreams For Ground Breaking Qualitative Insight. Dr. Livingston is President of The Livingston Group, a qualitative research, brand equity and positioning, and new product development consultancy. I was especially motivated to attend Sharon’s talk, as she had helped me tailor my Innovation Games talk to better meet the QRCA professional.
I found her talk to be a fascinating experience. My favorite exercise was the use of a psychodrama structure designed to get access to what people are really thinking. Check out the following picture, which explains the technique. The “drama” part comes when you have people act out the various boxes and thought bubbles. This really brings the technique to life.
Sharon’s talk helped reinforce the many ways in which qualitative market research is used. She had stories of work her firm has done ranging from helping doctors talk to their patients about chronic constipation, to testing actors for believability when selling soap (shifty eyes? people don’t buy), to determining which photos tell the right “story” for an advertising campaign. Since I’m a software-enabled product person, these ideas tend not to occur for me. I don’t don’t think Innovation Games would be particularly useful in getting answers to these questions, which reinforces why QRCA is such a great resource.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend any sessions on Thu the 28th as I had a work-related engagement with an Enthiosys customer who is based in Atlanta.
On Friday, I attended Steve August’s talk on Immersive Research. Steve is a principal at KDA Research here in San Francisco. They use a variety of technology based tools to help them conduct their research. I liked the different approach that these tools provide when compared to Innovation Games, and of course it left me wondering how other qualitative techniques can be adapted to the web.
My own talk was on Friday afternoon. The room was packed, which I like. My goal was to skip the slide deck and give the participants a taste for as many games as possible. In the end, we played Prune the Product Tree, Remember the Future, Buy a Feature, Spider Web, and 20/20 Vision.
It was a little chaotic, but the overall event was a lot of fun. But you really should attend a conference because you’re going to get something out of it, not just because it is another boondoggle. In the case of the QRCA, you should consider attending if your a product manager because you’ll gain some ideas on how you can better understand your customers and therefore drive your innovation strategy.
