Technology news and reviews for qualitative and market researchers

Alexa Conversations
"Alexa, what's today's date?" It's a common question asked of the reported 100 million Amazon Alexa devices sold. Yet until now, any conversation has been somewhat stilted and needing to be prefaced by "Alexa". Top Tools
We've been trawling tech developments that we think fellow researchers might find helpful, rather than threatened by, and these are the results. Transforming transcription
As a researcher, finding a reliable, cost effective and accurate transcription service can seem like a difficult task. The cheaper machine services can be inaccurate and incorrect, while human transcribers tend to be more accurate, but can be out of many people's price ranges. Fragments
I love choice. I love the fact that, as a qualitative researcher, there is such a diverse variety of technologies and methodologies available to me today. Music to work to
Distractions, whether smart phones, colleagues, or office snacks, all make it increasingly difficult to focus on work. Small wonder then that food and drink innovations geared to boosting productivity and focus are entering the market, and now it's music streaming's turn. New slant on incentives
Clients appreciate the service that a field agency brings, but possess little interest in what goes on behind the scenes to provide it, least of all the time-consuming but necessary task of paying incentives. AI is Useless for Qual
Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are changing how people do quant research, digital marketing and data analytics. But it's not relevant for qual research. Or is it? Time to rethink new product testing
One of my pet peeves when it comes to new product testing is just how often we end up relying on mood boards or wordy feature lists to bring new ideas to life. How much can you really tell from a couple of mocked up pictures or a few sentences? And is this about to change?