This occasional blog reflects my current thinking, venting about pet peeves and things I’m working on right now. Your comments are welcome. – Robin Maurice Wedewer
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust What is Confirmation Bias? Confirmation bias is our unintentional tendency to seek or interpret information in ways that confirm what we already think or believe. Confirmation bias is sometimes called my-side bias or confirmatory bias. Confirmation…
Do you have the information you need to make the important decisions you face? How helpful was your most recent research project with helping you understand the context for your deliberations and evaluating your alternative courses of action with fact-based information? If your answer is “No!” and “It wasn’t helpful at all!” then it’s time…
Focus Takes Practice I have been practicing meditation every morning for 18 months. While meditating this morning I thought about what kind of cheese to put on my veggie wrap at lunch, wondered what happened to Sharon, my best friend from seventh grade, and reminded myself to update my subscription to the Wall Street Journal.…
Why Asking Members What They Want Doesn’t Work “What product or service can the Widget Association provide that would make a significant difference to you and your work?” What a great question, right? Associations want to give members what they want, so let’s just ask them! Unfortunately, the responses to this type of question are rarely, if…
Survey Design, Invitations, Timing and Other Tips that Boost Participation I worked with one client who was resigned to one percent response rates on her organization’s surveys. There was little I could do to convince her that we could move the needle. On the other end of the spectrum, I worked with one association executive who was…
How Many Survey Responses Do You Really Need? You don’t need thousands of survey responses to be confident in your research. Even so, nearly every association I have worked with invites all members–as well as past members and non-members in many cases–to participate in their surveys. On one recent project a client invited all 100,000…
10 Questions to Ask Before Launching Your Member Survey Clarity is critical. It’s especially critical when you plan on spending thousands of dollars–and your members’ valuable time–on a member survey. Unfortunately, some associations maintain a bi-annual member survey schedule (good) without having a clear idea of what they want to learn (not good). As a…
The new 2015 panel book for VetMEDResearch is now available. With more than 3,000 veterinarians and other clinic staff, VetMEDResearch is one of the largest veterinary research panels in the U.S. …
“Probe” is such a weird word. It sounds so…medical. So invasive. Space aliens use probes. But probes are also important in interviews and focus groups. The first response you get from an interview or focus group participant is hardly ever 1) unfiltered and true 2) clear 3) thorough and detailed 4) meaningful. Probes are needed…
VetMEDResearch, our veterinarian research panel, is expanding into Canada. Read more about it here.…