Author: John Dibling

In our previous blog post, we explored a different approach to thinking about the definition of “interviewer” versus ‘”moderator.” Now, let’s delve deeper into the role of the “moderator” and why they are indispensable, especially from a client’s perspective.

Moderators, as defined in our last blog, assume a broad role that goes beyond asking questions and eliciting responses as dictated by a script or guide.

Indeed, moderating requires a multifaceted skillset.

So when your research requires looking for in-depth insights — the why behind what — you need someone who knows when to ask questions that aren’t on the script, and how to dig deeper for answers buried beneath the obvious. In other words: a moderator. And not just any moderator. To be truly effective, moderators must be part business advisor, part market insights generator, part psychologist. You can add brand guru and circus ringmaster to that list, as well. Let’s take a closer look at these roles, and why each one is necessary to maximize the value of your research.

Business Advisor Who Gets Your Industry

In addition to understanding the art of asking questions, a moderator should understand the client’s industry, market dynamics, and business objectives. Ideally, your moderator will have first-hand, in-the-trenches industry experience they can call on. Need someone who can talk confidently about molecular biology with a focus group of physicians? Make sure your moderator speaks the language. Along with industry-specific knowledge, it helps to have a moderator with enough business acumen to translate research outcomes into actionable strategies.

Market Insights Generator Ready to Dig Deep

More than reading questions off a script, a skilled moderator uncovers rich market insights in the answers they elicit. To do this, they employ a multitude of techniques to stimulate discussion, encourage participants to share their perspectives, and excavate insight beyond surface-level responses. They help reveal unspoken thoughts, emotions, and motivations, providing a holistic understanding of the target audience that powers better business decisions.

Psychologist and Empathetic Listener

Understanding human behavior and motivations is a core aspect of moderating. Moderators need to create a comfortable and non-judgmental environment where participants feel encouraged to express their thoughts and emotions openly. That requires having active listening skills and empathy, as well as a toolkit of psychological techniques that enable them to connect with participants and delve into their underlying attitudes and beliefs.

Brand Guru in the Room

Moderators need to have a deep understanding of the client’s brand, its values, and its positioning in the market — as well as a familiarity with the importance of branding in general. This brand fluency enables them to steer discussions towards brand-related topics and explore participants’ perceptions, associations, and experiences with the brand. This additionally allows moderators to identify gaps, strengths, and opportunities to strengthen the brand’s positioning.

Circus Ringmaster and Focus-Group Tamer

You thought we were joking about this one? Have you ever seen a focus group? A moderator worth her title knows how to facilitate and manage the complex group dynamics that, when unguided, can quickly derail focus group discussions. Moderators ensure that everyone has a chance to contribute (including that shy person in the corner), manage the group’s time effectively, and steer the conversation towards the research objectives. They also navigate potential conflicts and dominant participants while creating an atmosphere conducive to open and respectful dialogue. All that’s missing is the top hat and bullhorn.

The Moderator You’ve Been Missing

If you’ve been less than thrilled with the outcomes and insights generated from your qualitative research studies, the missing piece may very well be the moderator — or lack thereof. A moderator who has the freedom, skills, and experience to assume multiple roles beyond question-asker and answer-taker will seek out, find, and extrapolate the truly valuable insight you need to make decisions and move forward.

Can we add quick-change artist to our list? A truly skilled qualitative researcher will know when and how to switch between being a moderator and an interviewer to achieve research objectives and help move your business forward. If you’d like to dive deeper into the role of a moderator versus an interviewer and which one best meets the needs of your research study, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We love answering questions as much as asking them.

And keep a look out for our next blog post, in which we scrutinize one of moderators’ most vexing tools: the discussion guide.

In our previous blogs, we explored the roles of “interviewers” and “moderators” in qualitative research, shedding light on their subtle but profound distinctions. Building on that foundation, let’s delve into an intriguing aspect of qualitative research: discussion guides. Are they a blessing or a curse? Well, that’s a question we’ll navigate together.

Discussion guides are often seen as essential tools to steer interviews or focus group conversations. They aim to provide structure and ensure researchers cover all the necessary topics. In theory, they’re fantastic. In practice, they can sometimes be a double-edged sword. Here’s why.

Too often, discussion guides are treated as rigid scripts, akin to structured surveys, particularly in studies that require more of an “interviewer” approach, where predefined questions are asked to gather specific information or opinions. This rigidity can hinder the natural flow of conversation between moderators and participants, preventing us from capturing the nuanced responses that are the essence of qualitative research.

The Discussion Guide, Redefined

So, does this mean we should toss discussion guides out the window and rely on spontaneity? Not quite. Instead, let’s consider a subtle shift in how we perceive discussion guides. What if we viewed them as flexible tools that guide rather than dictate conversations? What if they were references that provided guardrails to prevent veering too far off course while allowing for organic discussions?

In more exploratory studies, discussion guides can take on a different form as “topic outlines,” something that conveys the fluid nature of the moderated conversation. This shift allows for a dynamic and adaptable approach, where the guide acts as a reference point rather than a strict script.

Imagine empowering moderators to utilize their active listening skills, intuition, and adaptability to create an environment where participants express themselves freely. This shift can enhance the authenticity and richness of qualitative research, keeping it true to its core purpose: to uncover meaningful insights.

Moreover, what if we shifted our focus from meticulously crafting discussion guides to truly understanding research objectives? Rather than obsessing over what we ask, let’s emphasize why we ask it. This shift could lead to a more personalized, adaptive, and fruitful approach to qualitative research, yielding:

1. Better Goal Alignment: A deep understanding of research objectives empowers moderators to adapt their questioning techniques, delve deeper into relevant areas, and have more targeted and insightful discussions.

2. Improved Participant Engagement: With a strong grasp of research objectives, moderators can connect better with participants, creating an environment conducive to open and honest dialogue.

3. Contextualized Analysis: Moderators who understand research objectives can effectively synthesize information, identify key patterns, themes, and insights that align with research goals, resulting in more valuable outcomes.

The question now becomes: how do we make this shift from focusing on the discussion guide to fully understanding research goals? It’s simpler than you might think, and it involves a three-step process:

1. Clearly Define Research Objectives: Start by establishing well-defined research objectives in collaboration with the client. This crucial first step ensures that both parties are aligned on the purpose and desired outcomes, providing added guidance for the moderator as they structure the research and facilitate more focused and meaningful discussions.

2. Create a Research Outline: Instead of providing a rigid, script-like, full-scale discussion guide, outline the main research components or themes to be covered during the discussions. This approach offers a loose structure that guides the moderator while allowing for flexibility, exploration, and unexpected insights as the conversation naturally evolves.

3. Pretest Interviews: Consider including three to four pretest interviews to give clients a better understanding of how the moderator will conduct the actual research. This can help manage expectations and create trust by demonstrating the moderator’s understanding of the research objectives, interviewing style, and ability to adapt on-the-fly.
By embracing this approach, you pave the way for more personalized, adaptive, and fruitful qualitative research, leading to a deeper understanding of the subject matter and more valuable outcomes.

Overcoming Trust Issues

There’s another reason clients can be reluctant to relinquish control of the discussions guide: trust issues. As experienced as a moderator may be in leading discussions, they don’t always have a deep understanding of the topic that’s being discussed — especially if that topic is highly technical, complex, or specialized. In these cases, clients may feel the need to dictate the tone and language of the discussion guide — down to the last word and punctuation mark.

This is completely understandable, especially in a new and untested relationship. By maintaining tight control over the discussion guide and using it more like a script, clients can compensate for a moderators’ lack of knowledge about the topic being discussed. But again, this can end up stifling the conversation and impeding quality insight.

Letting go of this control is an exercise in trust on the part of the client. Partnering with a moderator and research team that bring a high level of understanding, ideally gleaned from first-hand experience, of the topic can help clients feel more comfortable with releasing the reins. Pretesting interviews (step three above) can also be an effective tool in building that trust.

Let Moderators Moderate

Ultimately, as researchers we should strive for that balance between providing structure and allowing for natural conversation within the research process. By recognizing the discussion guide as a flexible tool rather than a strict must-follow script, we can leverage its benefits while preserving the value of organic qualitative research.

This approach gives moderators the ability to be more attentive and responsive to the dynamics of the discussion, enabling them to probe deeper into relevant areas and follow interesting tangents that emerge naturally during the conversation. In other words, to become better moderators. And that leads to better insights.

Thinkpiece, a business specializing in B2B qualitative market research, is proud to announce national certification as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Development Center – Midwest, a regional certifying partner of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). WBENC Certification is the gold standard for women-owned business certification in the United States.

“I look around our industry, and while many amazing market researchers are women, I see few in the C-suite of MR companies. We need representation, affiliation, and solidarity. It’s my hope that our certification and success will inspire a wave of women researchers to start their own company if they have it in their hearts.

I’m excited for the future of Thinkpiece and know that this certification will open doors and connections to help us achieve our audacious goals.” – Bonnie Dibling, Founder and CEO

The WBENC standard of certification implemented by the Women’s Business Development Center – Midwest is a meticulous process, including an in-depth review of the business and a site inspection. The certification process is designed to confirm the business is at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by a woman or women, and that the business has appropriate structure and strategic business planning and implementation in place.

By including women-owned businesses among their suppliers, corporations and government agencies demonstrate their commitment to fostering diversity and the continued development of their supplier diversity programs, which in turn empowers women as leaders and brings about a more diverse, balanced, and sustainable economy.

WBENC Certification combined with professional development and engagement in the WBENC network provides unsurpassed opportunities year-round, both virtually and in-person, for women-owned businesses to grow and expand their business and innovation through events, programming and connections with major corporations and other WBEs.

To learn more about Thinkpiece, please visit thinkpiece.com.

 

About Thinkpiece:

In the editorial world, a think piece refers to an in-depth analytical article with a forceful point of view – written to inspire and provoke thought and discussion that delves beneath the surface.

Thinkpiece builds on this concept and applies it with a focused lens to the world of B2B qualitative market research. More than simply serving up raw research for our clients to decipher, we reveal the deeper meaning hidden beneath the surface.

With moderators who came from the industries we serve, we bring an ‘insider” point of view that doesn’t shy away from complexity. And with analysts who are experts in human behavior and relationships, we add context that illuminates connection. We dive relentlessly into the research, exploring and interpreting it from every angle and multiple perspectives: as industry peers, research experts, and insatiable learners.

We take apart the research, examining each piece on its own without bias, then we put the pieces back together to reveal the whole picture that tells a cohesive story. Ultimately, we challenge our clients to think deeply and differently about their products, services, and audiences. We provoke new ideas and innovations. And we provide the insight to power better business decisions that better the world.

 

About WBENC:

Founded in 1997, WBENC is the nation’s leader in women’s business development and the leading third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women, with more than 18,000 certified Women’s Business Enterprises, 14 national Regional Partner Organizations, and more than 500 Corporate Members, most of which are Fortune 500. Thousands of corporations representing America’s most prestigious brands, as well as many states, cities, and other entities, look for and accept WBENC Certification. Through the Women Owned initiative, WBENC also is a leader in supporting consumer-oriented female entrepreneurs and those who do business with them by raising awareness for why, where and how to buy Women Owned. For more information, visit www.wbenc.org and www.buywomenowned.com.