I’ve had a lot of people ask me “what’s your specialty” or “what’s your favorite type of research?” Without a doubt, my answer is less than traditional: it’s a type of project that I like to call research as sport.
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with many brands to develop strategic messaging while their product was still in the process of being created. It is a perfect example of “building the plane while flying it,” and I couldn’t love any type of challenge more.
This practice is extremely common within the tech space, since new digital products are constantly being created and existing products are in a never-ending process of being optimized.
I refer to this type of research as a team sport because it requires a similar real-time agility and decision-making process that professional athletes display in the middle of a match. It is hyper-iterative and super-collaborative, and it requires product designers, marketers, and strategists to think nimbly and react quickly to adjust their approach in the moment.
The idea of iteration focuses on optimizing both the messaging themes and the product prototypes based on consumer feedback. For example, over the course of 5 consumer groups, the team meets to discuss and apply the learnings from the prior group directly to the messaging themes and prototypes to be discussed in the next group.
This iteration continues until the point of saturation is reached when consumer feedback is less and less focused on any gaps that need optimizing and more and more focused on the benefits that they’re observing.
With this type of research, the focus group observers are every bit as involved as the research participants themselves. It is an artful and highly-strategic game of actively listening and considering how to best apply the learning at a fast pace.
Of course, as with any high-paced process, this approach can be messy and even sometimes a bit passionate as team members work through differing ideas as to how to apply the learnings. But at the same time, open-aired debate serves a unique function that compels teams to come together, sharing their views openly and quickly to make updates in service of the consumer.
From what I’ve experienced, this method of product and messaging research leads to highly impactful results, creating ideas that are more elevated and products that are more refined than any of the team would have believed possible going into it.
There are several reasons why this method produces such remarkable outcomes:
- Short Time Frames are incredibly effective at spurring creativity. There’s nothing quite like an impending deadline to force clarity and prioritize the changes that are most impactful – without over-thinking it.
- Multiple Perspectives from cross-functional teams working together in the same work sessions, each providing an expert POV, creates a collaborative dynamic that leads to more cohesive output than siloed work.
- Focused Thinking from the entire team, without distractions, to solve the challenge at hand allows for quicker iteration and ultimately makes the expedited turn-around possible.
- The Consumer Decides, rather than any one department or member of the team. When the entire team rallies around creating the most impactful message and product from the consumer’s point of view, everyone wins.
Do you have an upcoming product or messaging challenge that you think might benefit from this approach to consumer feedback? Give us a shout! We’d love to brainstorm with you.