Moderators as Experienced Guides
In the role of guides, how can moderators determine the most productive direction for interviews and focus groups? Can we — like Gandalf — sniff out the passages to avoid, and steer the discussion to a more fruitful path? Yes, with the right industry expertise, I know we can.
Technology much like Tolkien has created a world I can immerse myself in and I have never really left. Before I was a moderator, I had a career as an applications systems engineer. I lived and breathed technology and luckily for me I still do. My understanding and experiences allow me a certain amount of peer-to-peer proficiency around the technology we research and the language of the technologists we’re speaking with. It also gives me the ability to “smell” when the conversation may be heading in an unhelpful direction, and to steer the discussion back toward a path that’s more germane.
A moderator who also happens to be a technologist can tell when a participant may be diving into a rabbit hole and bring them back out before they fall too far down. That moderator will also understand the topic well enough to know which questions and follow-up questions to ask to keep the conversation moving on a productive path. They’ll be able to concentrate the discussion on the relevant specifics — say the potential for edge computing to address large latency issues versus the larger, muddier, unspecified cloud — to reach those useable nuggets of insight faster.
Sensing When the Air is Foul
A tech moderator who’s knowledgeable about the topic at hand can also sniff out those instances when a respondent may not be the right fit for the study or entirely credible in their responses. This in turn can save valuable time that might otherwise be spent interviewing more qualified individuals who can provide more valuable insight.
One more thought: by tapping into our inner Gandalf, moderators can help steer clients in a more constructive direction as well. Clients who are close to their technology may be overly focused on the granular at risk of overlooking where the true insight might be found. They can also be more rigid about sticking to the original discussion guide, at the expense of allowing more organic conversations that can reveal surprising findings.
A moderator with a confident grasp of the topic can suggest alternative routes that may yield better results, recommend less traveled paths that lead to more rewarding insight, or adapt on the fly when it’s clear that a change in direction is needed. Gandalf may be ancient, but he was certainly fast on his feet.
