Feedback - Research Access

A New Approach to Research in the Public Sector

September 20, 2011 By Joshua Hoffman Leave a Comment

A recent survey caught my eye, not for the content of the survey itself, but for what it signals about a shift in the way research is conducted in the public sphere.

As it turns out, according to this survey, people favor sick leave for public employees. You’re shocked, right? But the real story is the platform: CityFeedback (full disclosure: CityFeedback is part of SurveyAnalytics, which is run by our senior contributor, Vivek Bhaskaran.) Traditional research and feedback mechanisms, particularly in the public sector (federal, state and municipal governments) have relied on the telephone. Telephone surveys conducted on the part of the government, or telephone calls that citizens would have to place in order to lodge a complaint, make a request, and so on.

CityFeedback leverages more modern approaches to collecting data from residents, including applications for mobile devices, including the iPhone and Android platforms. One of the most significant benefits of such an approach as I see it, beyond the growing preference of electronic communication over making a phone call, is the ability to capture contextual data along with the feedback (exact location, photos, etc.) Now, when a resident wants to report a pothole, they’re report is rich with contextual information that aides the city in their response. Additionally, municipalities are able to conduct more cost-effective, direct outreach to residents, gathering their views and opinions on any number of current issues.

Have you seen this sort of technology put to use in your locale? As a resident, would you want to use tools like CityFeedback to connect with your local government? Share your thoughts in the comments, or find us on Twitter (@researchaccess).

Filed Under: Featured, Innovation, Market Research, Mobile Tagged With: CityFeedback, Feedback, Mobile, public sector, smartphone

Feedback with Operational Context

August 24, 2011 By Vivek Bhaskaran 1 Comment

Romi Mahajan recently opined aloud, as he usually does, about the need for context when it comes to feedback. His two main points of contention were temporal (when) and situational (where). While I agree, both these pieces of metadata are extremely relevant while embarking on a feedback initiative, I think he is missing the elephant in the room: operational context.

Consider this: An airline decides to collect feedback across the board. Flyers, QR codes, email invitations, iPad based physical surveys. The full court press. All data is collected and tagged with both timestamps and location identifiers. The piece that will complete this picture is customer identifiers. Business or Casual customer? Route information. Plane size. All these attributes provide operational context.

Let’s consider another example: A software company, collecting feedback over the web. Cross-linking data from surveys to customer tiers. What about length of the customers overall experience with the company? The company has deep website behavioral data with Omniture or Google Analytics. So what about combining the two and running regression analysis or developing customer persona’s using CHAID analysis?

While there are no “turnkey” solutions other than paying Medallia, Attensity or Satmetrix $125k (and yes – they can do it all for that price point) – simple things like appending custom variables to surveys can get you 80% of what you need at 1/10 the price. (OK, maybe 1/5.)

Point being, when collecting feedback, think about the customer’s context.

On a related note – my company is working through a project for the Washington State Ferries, here in Seattle, where we are planning to put QR codes (with routing information encoded) on all the ferries that the Department of Transportation operates here. This will give us the operational context, beyond than time and location, for users to give feedback. The location component becomes intrinsic to the data collection process because we plan on using smart phones to collect the feedback.

If you have a project, like the WSDOT and would like for to collaborate, please feel free to email me – vivek[dot]bhaskaran
[at] surveyanalytics [dot] com.

Filed Under: Market Research, Mobile Tagged With: Best Practices, contextual feedback, Feedback, Market Research, Mobile, operational context, QR Codes

Feedback Without Context

August 23, 2011 By Romi Mahajan 1 Comment

Feedback without context is crap. Feedback with context is a priceless gem.

Which do you prefer?

Let’s play out a few scenarios. I’ll make them facetious and hyperbolic to make a point.

Feedback Scenario 1: You are a “Voice of the Customer” (VOTC) person employed in a large company that makes software. You get a piece of feedback that says “software is difficult to deploy.” You mark the customer as “dissatisfied” and create an atomic statistic. You then add up a bunch of these and you get your “analytics,” and present your model to the boss. The boss asks, “what do we need to do to fix this?” What do you say? What do you really know about the context in which that comment was delivered?

Feedback Scenario 2: You are a VOTC person employed in a large company that makes software. You get a piece of feedback that says “software is difficult to deploy.” This time, however, you have the exact time and location when the customer gave that feedback. You also have a full view of that person’s previous comments and comments he gave in other venues. You also know that the time-stamp corresponds to a period in which this customer was having huge hardware issues and in which there was a huge security threat roaming the web. You present this to the boss. The boss asks “what do we need to do to fix this?” What do you say? Do you feel more armed to clearly identify the problem and to find a contextual solution?

We all understand that feedback and its incorporation into the business process is key to any company’s sustainability but all too often, we collect decontextualized, atomic feedback and attempt to, valorously, act on it. And all too often we miss the core point- that all information has to be combined with wisdom to be material.

So next time you evaluate a feedback “tool” or “system” ask the tough questions around context.

Filed Under: Featured, Market Research Tagged With: context, contextual feedback, Feedback, feedback process, Market Research

Pottermore: Gamification gives you more – A case study

August 10, 2011 By Betty Adamou Leave a Comment

[Editor's Note: This post was originally published on our sister site, GameAccess.com.]

The Harry Potter books and movie franchise has made millions of people extremely happy across the world and of course has made JK Rowling a bob or two, but in answer to many peoples hopes, there is more coming from Harry Potter – not another book or movie but a website that dedicates itself to Harry and Hogwarts where you can become part of an online community to continue the story.

Even if you’ve never read a Harry Potter book or seen the films, this is still a great example of Gamification that everyone can understand. It doesn’t even matter that this website is www.pottermore.com or about Harry Potter. Indeed, it could be called www.beatrixpottermore.com or evenwww.thesixthsensemore.com. The point is that someone came up with the great idea of using Gamification to continue the longevity of this brand and continue to engage its consumers and hey, even make some money. (There is an online store)

How Pottermore.com works:

Pottermore.com works using the same elements of Gamification which we saw in my first blog ‘What the hell is Gamification?’ It uses goals, rules, a feedback system and voluntary participation – Jane McGonigal.

GOAL: There are two goals to Pottermore.com. Initially the goal is to sign up to the site quickly and join the online community. In order to do this you must find an answer to the clue posted on the website. If you’re lucky enough to get to register, then there are more things to do within the website itself i.e ‘goal’s.

“Share and participate in the stories, showcase your own Potter-related creativity, and discover additional information about the world of Harry Potter from the author herself….with subsequent stories unveiled over time”.

RULES: You can only register if you find the answer to the clue to begin with. If not, you can’t join on right then. When registration is closed, you must wait until the next registration opens. In this case, that will be October 2011.

FEEDBACK: Feedback is instant in that fans will be able to quickly use the website once registered, read more stories on Harry and share stories. Also:“Points can be won for houses by casting spells and mixing potions, users will be able to comment and add their own drawings and content – and Rowling herself will be dropping in “as a normal punter” now and then.” – The Guardian

VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION: The only incentive to join is the joining itself.

This website allows fans to still be part of the Harry Potter brand and offers even more scope for engagement than the books or films because the site is interactive and collaborative and allows fans an opportunity to be creative. “..a lucky few can enter (the site) early and help shape the experience” –JK Rowling.

JK Rowling shares a video on YouTube about Pottermore which will help you understand more about the Gamification of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5DOKOt7ZF4

In my opinion, this kind of Gamification will become increasingly commonplace over time. I think Gamification is an intelligent tool to use as part of a marketing campaign before, during or after a product/service launch. We’ve already seen that Gamification is used for movies and books with Pottermore, but other brands have used Apps to do this too. Watch GameAccess.com for our next blog which will discuss three free Apps which utilize Gamification as part of a bigger brand.

Filed Under: Gamification, Innovation, Market Research Tagged With: Feedback, gameaccess, Gamification, goals, Participation, Pottermore, Rules

A New Look

March 11, 2011 By Joshua Hoffman Leave a Comment

Research Access has a new look – and of course, we want your feedback!

We’ve updated our theme to provide a cleaner layout, more information directly on the homepage, quicker access to the most sought-after topics, and more. We hope these updates provide an improved reading experience, and more information right at your fingertips.

We wouldn’t be market researchers worth our salt if we didn’t ask for your input and feedback. Do you like the new design? Are you experiencing any problems? Are there any changes or features you’d like to see in the next update? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments, or drop us a line on Twitter (@researchaccess).

Thanks!

-Josh

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Feedback, Research Access

Some Prerequisite Reading

February 7, 2011 By Joshua Hoffman Leave a Comment

I had a fascinating conversation last week with David Boulton, founder of Learning Stewards and an expert of educational and organizational learning systems. Mr. Boulton and I had a lengthy talk about the role of feedback in learning: not only as we grow and progress through traditional educational systems, but also as we move into the business world, where hopefully, we continue to learn.

I’m going to tell you much more about our conversation in a longer post coming up soon, but first I wanted to give you something of a homework assignment (appropriate, I think, given how much we’re going to talk about learning!)

My conversation with Mr. Boulton was brought about by a post on his website called “The 3 Laws – The Role of Feedback in Learning Oriented Systems.” This post – and it’s beautiful in its simplicity – should be required reading, not only for every market researcher, but for anyone who ever wants to benefit from the answers that market research can provide. Go read it now.

Also worth your time are a series of short videos that Mr. Boulton has shared on YouTube, encompassing his core ideas about how we learn, why it’s important, and the role of feedback in the process.

Take a look at this material in the next few days, and I’ll be back with more about my conversation wtih David Boulton, which caused me to come to the conclusion that we have no idea how to listen.

Cheers,
Josh

Filed Under: Market Research Tagged With: David Boulton, Feedback, learning

The Social Enterprise: Barely at Operational

November 17, 2010 By Romi Mahajan 1 Comment

I recently attended the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, CA, an industry event focused around what people are deeming “the social enterprise,” and I noticed an interesting transition afoot; namely the transition that takes place when a business idea goes from conceptual to operational. Put simply, this transition occurs when a business idea or model makes the leap from being sold as a vision of what could be, to being sold as a process which businesses are incorporating into their methods of conducting business.

Eventually, for these ideas to gain real currency, they have to be institutionalized. In other words, they have to become part of the air that enterprises breathe.

From conceptual to operational to institutional. That is the evolutionary chain of an idea.

How Crowdsourcing is used at FEMA

November 4, 2010 By Joshua Hoffman Leave a Comment

One of the most interesting and seemingly impactful uses of crowdsourcing technology seems to be taking place within governments. (We’ve talked about this before with Bev Godwin of the GSA and Haley VanDyck of the FCC.)

Recently, Craig Fugate, Administrator of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) posted to the White House Blog about how FEMA is using crowdsourcing and public challenges to engage the public, gather input and feedback, and generate new ideas.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Government, Market Research Tagged With: Challenges, crowd sourcing, Crowdsourcing, Feedback, FEMA, Government, Public Comment

DiscoverText aims to reinvent Text Analytics

November 1, 2010 By Vivek Bhaskaran Leave a Comment

I got introduced to Stu Shulman – a Political Science Professor out of UMASS-Amherst through a common friend in DC – as I was making the rounds in DC for our IdeaScale Federal Government business. I got hooked to what he was doing with Text Analytics and the sheer volume of research he has done within the academic community and how he’s going about bringing all that research (funded by your and my tax dollars) to the commercial space. Stu is also the CEO of DiscoverText and is taking the plunge into entrepreneurship. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Information Technology & Politics.

DiscoverText was just launched on November 1st, and I think it has the power to make a dent in the text analytics marketplace. I’ve been in the feedback space for quite some time, and I can tell you from first hand experience, open-ended text analytics and sentiment analysis is not an easy problem to solve. In fact many tools claim to do it, and very few are good at it. More importantly text analytics has to be effective. With the sheer volume of text data on the internet today (tweets, facebook updates, blog comments) – this is a treasure trove of data that is waiting to be mined.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Market Research Tagged With: discovertext, Feedback, response analysis, text, text analysis

A New Approach to Research in the Public Sector

Feedback with Operational Context

Feedback Without Context

Pottermore: Gamification gives you more – A case study

A New Look

Some Prerequisite Reading

How Crowdsourcing is used at FEMA

DiscoverText aims to reinvent Text Analytics

Research Access Podcasts

Subscribe by Email

Authors

Search

“Like” Us On Facebook

Follow Us On Twitter

Add Us to Google+ Circles

Most Popular Posts This Week