International Research Best Practices

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]International research is often a large scale, multi-tier effort. Bypassing the logistics of traditional methods, online techniques dramatically hasten the process while also making it more accessible. Important, since on-demand and iterative research is a rapidly expanding field. Often vital when considering a product’s total market, international research brings crucial insight to how products may be localized or, alternately, honed for global appeal. Connecting our clients with a pool of over eleven million participants from eight countries, Discuss.io is well aware that efficacy and efficiency intertwine. From initial screening all the way to analysis, best practices both provide direction and affect study outcomes. These are some basics to ensure productive and accurate assessments.   

Have Clear Business Objectives

Just as with most studies, clear business objectives are essential when beginning. This can start as a general idea, but further definition is often necessary. Objectives help guide the entire study, but are particularly crucial for initial planning phases. Even online, project leads must consider a number of variables. Techniques, respondent screenings, and analysis all find direction through the study’s business objectives.   

Have Clear Target Markets

Selection of target markets receive plenty of direction through business objectives. Depending on the broadness of the objectives’ scope, there may be multiple options. Researchers not only need to consider each target’s relevance, but their overlap. Will answers from one group be identical to another? Avoiding such redundancies help keep studies efficient and insight applicable.

Do Background on Cultural Norms

Target does not always denote region. In particular, large scale studies include participants from numerous areas. Norms can drastically affect how sessions play out. As with all qualitative studies, participants are most eager to share with researchers who are sociable and welcoming. Cultural norms also can affect how local sourcers approach recruitment: like their respondents, most organizations also observe traditional greetings, national holidays, and other elements of cultural identity.

Find References for Local Assistance

Discuss.io’s techniques streamline the entire research process. However more accessible and immediate, however, international studies specifically require assistance from sourcing partners, translators, transcriptionists, and other services. These elements can make or break a study. A common way to avoid inconsistency is going through a single source to find all contributors. Not only does this simplify logistics, it also smoothes collaboration between each of the services.

Set Clear Research Milestones

Integral for charting progress, milestones also help shape the direction of research. In particular, on-demand and iterative methods further use milestones to set new paths of inquiry. Transparency, of course, is essential for to make the most informed decisions. Excellent for guiding the course of research, milestones also serve an important, and obvious, function: to define a standard for when findings will go to the client.

Turnaround radically shortens when using online techniques. Important, as customer opinions are changing at the speed of their bandwidth. Platforms like Discuss.io enable researchers to reach milestones in record time, essential for both finding relevant insight and maintaining dynamic campaigns. Learn more by chatting with us or checking out our demo.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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