Photo of cut out technique

Using découpé to find the story in the data

Découpé, or to give it its anglicised name ‘cut up technique’ is a creativity device that dates back to at least the 1920s, but was popularised in the 1950s by William Burroughs (the beat writer and artist). More recently pop stars such as David Bowie have made it famous as a device for creating the narrative of songs. The cut up technique can be a great way to find the story in the data when analysing market research information, particularly for teams trying to transition from traditional reporting approaches to a more narrative style. Here is one example of how to make this transition: Create a standard market research report, reporting the key questions, using the key breaks, addressing the key topics in the research brief. For each output (which often means a PowerPoint slide if the analysis has been delegated or automate), write a comment about what the main message on the page is. Put each comment onto a separate piece of card or paper (making a note of which slide number each comment links to). Now shuffle the cards and then on your own or as a team, try to arrange the cards in a way that creates […]

Image of a mobile phone

Are you up to speed with mobile research? Probably Not!

I hear lots of people saying they are doing mobile research properly, but when I look at what many of them are doing, it falls well short of what I think is acceptable, and incredibly short of what we should be achieving with mobile market research. The Good News In the GRIT study we see some evidence of good news. One of the questions asked late in 2016 asked about which techniques were in use for market research. Key mobile-related answers included: Mobile Surveys 74% Mobile Qualitative 44% Mobile Ethnography 34% Indeed, the values for Mobile Surveys have been so high that this year’s GRIT survey asks about Mobile First Surveys. The Bad News There are three key elements to the bad news: Most online surveys are not optimized for mobile (see the chart below from Research Now). Many clients and researchers do not seem to be aware of the lack of representation they are creating by not fully embracing mobile. The additional benefits of mobile research are only being accessed by a tiny proportion of projects – because research has become stuck in a PC First mentality. Data from Research Now (Global Figures), this chart was shown by Sue York […]