We recently set up and managed a global online bulletin board in ten different countries, in order to generate new product ideas and marketing solutions for a client. Full respondent engagement combined with total moderator immersion resulted in a deep exploration of the respondents’ working environment and daily activities. Hannah and Daisy share and discuss what continuous online engagement can offer over traditional qualitative research. For more information about SKIM's webinars, visit www.skimgroup.com/webinars.

1. Online moderating around the clock
Hannah Baker Hitzhusen
Director Healthcare
Daisy Lau
Project Manager
Healthcare
Abigail Joffre
Today’s webinar host
#SKIMwebinar
Share your thoughts online:

2. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Why, when and how
to make use of online
bulletin board?
How to get the most
out of it?
2
Marcel
pimp!
How do I get the most out of …
online bulletin boards

3. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Help our client identify white space in their
category
• Global leader providing cleaning
and hygienic products and
solutions for businesses to create
a healthy workspace
• To understand employees’
behaviours and needs in the
workplace
• Guide the development of new
products and solutions

4. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Why global online qual?
• Developing global AND country-level insight
• Immediate access to target audiences along with participation
and buy-in of local stakeholders
• Compressing the time for insight across multiple markets
4

5. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Why Online Bulletin Boards?
• Creative, interactive & comfortable
• Flexible in time
• Client involvement
• Customized questions
• Multimedia touchpoints
• Quant exercises possible
• Semi-ethnographic results

6. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
What are online bulletin boards?
• Moderated online discussion group
• Not a free-for-all
• Participants recruited and invited as
in traditional qual research
• Moderated as in traditional qual research
• Like other online discussion forums,
they are hierarchical or tree-like in structure

7. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
However, these advantages are accompanied by
significant challenges and we have learned
important lessons

8. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Project Scope
Two
weeks
Ten
countries
120
respondents
7,200
pages of
transcripts
Daily
synopses
60% in languages
other than English

9. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Time is not always on our side

10. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Time is not always on our side
• Time zones vary across countries, moderators, country clients,
global clients
• Challenge of managing and including a global client team (with
country-specific stakeholders) in the process to provide strong buy-in
and insight throughout the process

11. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Customize timing to countries
• Recruiting and timelines vary by country
• Some countries, like Columbia and Brazil take longer to recruit and
the respondents start on the board more slowly
• Stagger the recruiting time to start all countries at the same time,
or conversely start all at the same time but be flexible in the
timing of when the countries end and when questions and
exercises occur for each country
• Allow longer response times in some countries

12. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Customize recruitment to countries
• Over-recruit for each country, as necessary.
• China: not at all – 100% participation
• Brazil: 50% loss
• Think about using custom recruit, instead of panel recruit
• Incentives—everything is relative

13. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Customize content to countries
• Developing global exercises and questions
• Will all exercises work for all countries?
• No, they won’t - Especially in Asia Pacific, some projective exercises
are considered silly
• Moderators, if they are native speakers, can customize exercises and
explain further as necessary for each country
• We see differences in social and work behavior norms
• Differences in ability and willingness to self-report by uploading
pictures and videos

14. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Get the idiom right – native language moderators
make a difference
Thank you for agreeing to
participate in our bulletin
board
„Meu nome é Mario e o nosso
objetivo aqui é lhe fazer
diferentes perguntas sobre o
seu ambiente de trabalho, e
tornar o seu envolvimento
neste projeto, interessante e
divertido!
Le forum en ligne n'est pas
un espace de discussion en
temps réel. Il n'est pas
nécessaire de rester
connecté à chaque instant de
la journée!
Sie müssen sich allerdings
mindestens zweimal am Tag
einloggen. Auch dies ist in
erster Linie deswegen, weil
wir Sie immer wieder darum
bitten werden, eine kreative
Übung zu absolvieren.
Außerdem ist es gut, wenn
Sie nachsehen, was es
Neues an der Pinnwand gibt.
Всего на форуме нас 15–20
человек, которые будут
делиться различной
информацией.
Nuestra cartelera está
conformada por personas que
están en situaciones similares
a la suya, en todo Colombia.
Hay otras nueve carteleras
que se están llevando a cabo
en todo el mundo.
We are eager to understand how
your views here may (or may not)
be different from those of people in
other countries.

15. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Engage participants where they are
• Build and maintain a personal relationship
• Start with easy and exciting task
• Show the bigger picture to stimulate discussion
• Individual follow-up creates comfortable
atmosphere
• Easy to use platforms ensures important
information is not missed

16. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Online qual enables multimedia responses.
It’s great, yet challenging…
Without native moderators, images may be interpreted incorrectly

17. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Participants like the change of pace of our
MaxDiff exercises
MaxDiff exercises are also good because they are less affected by
cultural/country variations so you can use the results comparatively and
as a rollup across regions and globally.

18. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
It has been fun though at the
beginning. I liked the shift in
questions (…) using a variety of
tools, and thinking 'outside the box'.
It definitely got me thinking about my
health around the office this past week,
let's hope I don't wind up catching a
cold now!
This is the first time that I have participated in an
online discussion board, and I think that it is a
useful tool.
It was really interesting to see what different people found important. We all have
different histories and experiences with health and our responses show this.
Engaged respondents = good data

19. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Communicate, communicate, communicate
Debrief
session
with client
Moderators
debrief
sessions in
SKIM

20. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Ultimate payoff: country personas to guide and
encourage brainstorming
“I always start my day with a cup of
coffee…In my ideal workspace,
there will be lots of windows...I
wish I can have more natural light
in my current workspace…Health is
important to me because…I‟m very
anxious about getting sick during
flu season…I think it will be helpful
if my employer can provide me
with…”

21. SKIM Webinar ―Online moderating around the clock‖
Questions

22. Go to www.skimgroup.com/webinars
for today’s presentation slides and more!
Hannah Baker Hitzhusen
h.baker@skimgroup.com
+31 10 282 3545
@twitter
Daisy Lau
d.lau@skimgroup.com
+31 10 282 3526
@twitter
Abigail Joffre
a.joffre@skimgroup.com
+31 10 282 3559
@SKIMgroup
#SKIMwebinar
Share your thoughts online: