I was having an interesting discussion about the status of DIY research in the MR market, when Gordon Morris from MODO Group, was kind enough to list his top DOs and DON’T of DIY research. Enjoy!

DO
1. Define what success will look like to you. If you don’t know what the outputs will be, the inputs will be just as confused.
2. Understand that success can be negative as well as positive. Learning people don’t like you or your idea is just as valuable (I would argue more so) than learning they do.
3. Keep it simple. Make sure the questions can be understood by a 10 year old, and ask one question at a time (E.g. not asking if something is different and interesting)
4. Use common words. When you work in an industry, it’s so easy to let the industry jargon slip into your questions. E.g. The footwear industry has many silhouettes, which we would call shoe styles.
5. Know your limits. Survey Monkey, etc, are great tools, but they are very basic. If you want a simple answer to a simple question, then great. If you want to do price positioning or a conjoint, see an expert.

DON’T
1. Overstay your welcome. If you’re paying nothing for people’s time, make sure you take up 2 minutes of their life or less (though in satisfaction interviews, you can go over).
2. Use DIY to determine strategic outcomes. If millions, or billions, of dollars are depending on the outcome, this is not the time to go cheap.
3. Confuse the result you want with the result you need. Every question has to be neutrally worded to make sure you get an honest response.
4. Assume Survey Monkey is the only tool out there. be mindful of the languages each solution can take. SM is actually quite limited relative to others.

MODO Group is a management consultancy based in Seattle and Tokyo, who focuses on brand development and marketing strategy. Read more about them here.

Gordon Morris is the Managing Director of MODO group, and his past positions includes Global Insights Manager at Sony Ericsson and Vice President at Research International.