Some good advice for Clients attending focus groups - Women's Focus Groups: Eight Traps to Avoid - by Jen Drechsler.  She seems a little annoyed with Clients who don't really listen.  I fully understand this :).

There are eight traps to beware of during qualitative research. If you hear yourself saying any of the following, you should stop for an immediate reality check:

1. "She's not our customer"

. "The moderator didn't get to..."

3. "They don't know what they want"

4. "They are just saying what they think we want to hear"

5. "She's a professional"

6. "What did we learn?" (usually asked within seconds of the group ending)

7. "We already knew this"

8. "My wife always says that"

And ends with some advice :

"Break the glass and dare to sit in the room where the research is happening. Don't take copious notes. Rather, sit quietly and listen.

Take heed not to shake your head when one of the participants disagrees with your favorite idea. Try a smile every now and then. She has given you her time (albeit for a small fee); the least you can do is be interested in her life. Remember, she pays your salary. "

 

 

10:38:14 AM    comment []  trackback []

Thanks Judith, for this link!

Bolt.com.

Right now there are 17, 827 people online over at the Bolt.com 'hang out'. Where categories range from Movies & TV to Sex & Dating, Gaming, Music, Style, Sports, American Idol, AIM Icons, Quotes, Ringtones, Game Revolution, Quizzes, Horoscopes, and TAG.

According to their about: "...  Bolt is the #1 youth hangout on the Web, bringing together 4.5 million young people each month to exchange ideas about everything from final exams to the war in Iraq. Bolt is the basement, park, college dorm, sidewalk café or the 7-11 parking lot - it's a place where young people come to meet others and talk about everything. Authenticity is at the core of all that we do... "

Bolt is located in Soho, NYC and is led by Aaron Cohen, CEO. They recently released a study on 'Youth Happiness' (pdf file link) with the subtext that it "Turns out High School and College Kids Are Actually Pretty Happy" with 67% of 15-22 year olds counting themselves as happy to very happy. Who knew?  [The Social Software Weblog]

Raj, Vikram ... are you listening? 

10:24:23 AM    comment []  trackback []

Two weeks ago I was at this small Korean eatery in Bangkok, enjoying a fantastic meal. 

Throughout the meal though I was intrigued by the young lady at the counter who was glued to her computer screen.  From her actions, I could tell she was browsing a lot, typing in stuff, then sitting back and reviewing it, and smiling. Then back to more writing.  And smiling. I told my husband then she looks like a blogger!

When we walked over to the counter to pay for our meal, I couldn't resist peeping at her screen ... and what I saw there looked so much like a blog ... except it was in a language I couldn't understand.  So curious me asked her what it was that she was doing, and she said she said "blog" !  I was thrilled - there I was, a visitor from India in Bangkok, meeting a Korean blogger .  So unexpectedly.  She spoke very little English and I speak no Korean .... still we smiled warmly almost as if we were sharing a secret of sorts. 

She then pointed to the right panel and showed me a list there and said "friends in Korea - we talk too", holding up her hand to her ear, and I immediately recalled having read somewhere about a deal between Daum and Skype, and was curious to know whether she had something like a Skyperoll on her blog from which she could call any of her friends.  I said the word Skype to her with a questionmark but she didn't seem to have heard of it.  We exchanged email ids, blog urls, smiled again and then I left.  Of course Hemant got the brunt of beaming "would you believe its...." all day from me!   

10:08:24 AM    comment []  trackback []