5 ways to stretch your research budget

This elder millennial graduated university into a weak job market and tight client budgets during the peak (the bottom?!) of the late 2000s recession. Nothing to do but strap in, hold on, and get creative. Now as we take baby steps towards another “unprecedented event” and recession, I’m reflecting and sharing 5 lessons learned to help your research and insights budget go a little further for a little while.

1. Recycle your research

Ever caught yourself asking if that research brief sounds familiar? It might just be. More than a few times I’ve had clients ask me for research that sounds close to something else that we’ve already answered for them. This is a prime time to challenge your internal stakeholders to ensure their brief is pushing the insights forward. Maybe there’s previous work that has a small nugget or nuance that can help them infer what to do next. Alternatively, and this one is admittedly tougher, take a giant step back. The clues and insights you might need could be spread over multiple past research activities and they just haven’t been put together yet to tell another story or fill in some gaps. For this ask you want someone that can consume and synthesize large amounts of structured and unstructured data to identify emerging themes and disconnects in what you know, and be able to see the whitespace in what you don’t know. Pull the reports that might have even a tangential connection to the topic, put on the Do Not Disturb, clear your calendar and dig in. Bonus points for having multiple people take some or all of the reports to add another perspective and contribute to a mini-brainstorm. The added benefit is this exercise can help your team get a little clearer on any gaps in the business, products, or services that haven’t been explored and may need a refresh.

2. Skip the full report

If you’re working with a research agency, ask yourself if that final report is going to have a long shelf life. If it’s absolutely a strategic project that is going to have a lot of eyes on it or be referred to for a year or more as something foundational you want that polished report. But if it’s not going to fit into that bucket, you can request a topline report that gives you the brass tacks, without all the bells and whistles. A topline report takes some of the pressure off, can be produced in less time, and gets you to your next steps sooner. Setting this expectation with your research team at the briefing should be saving you time and money.

3. Do qualitative research

I’m going to say something extremely confident right now: In my entire career, I’ve never run a qualitative project that wasn’t then completely validated by quantitative right after. Sure, the qual didn’t tell you that 78% preferred Concept B, but the qual did tell you that that version offered the best opportunity, where it missed the mark, and what needs to be improved. You want insights, but do you really need to know an exact percentage of a sampled group of people in the population that feel positively or negatively towards something? Demonstrating a fetish for numbers, statistical significance, and being “certain” is a risky maneuver and can backfire if relied on alone. Qualitative research can be run faster, cheaper, and reach the same conclusions as quant alone, and then some.  

4. Skip the backroom

Ok you’re doing qual, congratulations! Have you thought about other ways to save costs? There’s been this long-standing misperception that “online qualitative research should be cheaper than in-person research because there’s no facility”, conveniently forgetting that moving research online still requires something to facilitate that discussion. Whether doing in person or online research you can save money by skipping the backroom. I know what you’re thinking, “But Catriona! What about my Thai food in the viewing facility?” I hear you, that stuff always hit the spot, and as a former road warrior traveling North America, that was an experience. Focus group facilities are disappearing and haven’t come down in cost either. Layer on inflation and now those meals are more expensive for you and participants. Online focus group platforms from research tech providers offer a backroom for clients to view, but now you’re paying for platform fees and tech support. You might forgo this by doing it on Teams, Meet, or Zoom. One quick note though moderating these without tech support you may have people you’ve paid to recruit not be able to get into the online group, keep dropping etc. This is where the purpose-built tech and support can actually be a little bit of insurance to protect the costs you’re incurring on recruitment and incentives.

5. Train your team

DIY. Truly, do it yourselves. There’s some qualitative research that can absolutely be done in-house if it’s done well. ‘Safe’ approaches like IDIs are a great starting point, especially for junior team members. But for the love of all that is good, upskill your team! Why? As someone who had a great mentor and has mentored researchers new-to-qual , I can tell you with confidence, practice makes progress. It isn’t natural to take notes, ask questions, listen to answers, come up with good follow-ups, think about the objectives, keep to the time to get through everything, I could go on but you get the point. Training researchers, equipping them for success, and providing feedback takes an investment of energy. But the short-term       investment can do a few things for your team: long-term budget savings on the projects you keep in-house, your team feels and appreciates you validating their potential and long-term success, in turn entrenching more loyalty, autonomy, and happiness at work. The grass is greener where you water it.      

What are some of the ways that you make your research budget stretch further? Comment if you want to see a Part 2!

How can I help you? Have questions? Interested in innovative qualitative skills training for your team? Book a free 45-minute call and let’s keep the conversation going.  

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