We recently connected with Katrina Noelle and have shared our conversation below.

Katrina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

Quantitative research is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors and patterns with results that are projectable to the population/segment/target market in question. Qualitative on the other hand, is used primarily to answer the ‘why’s’ and gain depth of understanding about that population/segment/target audience. And it’s how brands uncover the reasons behind, beliefs about and motivations for their customers’ behaviors, needs and preferences.

While qualitative tends to have a reputation of being cumbersome, expensive and/or time-consuming, there’s much to be lost if companies leave it behind! We at KNow encourage brands to find ways to fit qualitative insights into the learning process. Our guidance is for teams to think creatively to design efficient and effective methods so that the richness of understanding that comes from qualitative exploration isn’t omitted.

But how do you start? Start small! Dip your toe in the water by adding a small qualitative component to your next study or customer outreach. Don’t just ask your Satisfaction or Net Promotor Score questions, ask your customers ‘why’ they feel the way that they do and you’ll reap the benefits!

And it’s not difficult to do – any brand with customer outreach/communication can gather qualitative feedback on their experiences. If you have a customer segment to explore, be sure you have an opted in mailing list you can email with an invitation. Consider how you can use your website, social media accounts, newsletters, labels, etc. to reach out to those you’re curious about.

Note: If you’re curious about non, lapsed, disengaged, or competitive customers, you’ll likely need to reach out to 3rd party to recruit, schedule and interview them. No matter how you recruit qualitative participants, you’ll need a 3rd party researcher to conduct the fieldwork and analysis components; they bring project design, moderation and analysis expertise to the table without in-house bias.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I opened the doors of my first consultancy, KNow Research in 2003 with energy, determination and focus towards the goal of consistently delivering quality insights.  Over the years, that goal has driven the expansion of the agency with a continued focus on methodological innovation.  We support insights managers and marketing teams in retail, financial services and any organization looking to open new doors by helping them keep key qualitative insights in the mix.

It also lead to the launch of my second company Scoot Insights in 2015.  My Co-Founder Janet and I saw the opportunity to use our qualitative research skills to combine customer insights with client expertise to help decision makers crack crucial business decisions.  We serve executive teams by helping them keep the voice of the customer central when making decisions for the organization.

Both agencies also give me the opportunity to empower and support talented women on my team, in my network of expert partners and through my supplier relationships.  I always look forward to partnering with organizations who also find people fascinating, and who value collaboration in the pursuit of getting to know them and helping their voices be heard by the brands that impact their lives.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The summer of 2018 brought growth, changes and an opportunity to pilot a few initiatives at KNow Research. Our aim was to refresh our techniques, including opportunities for participants to creatively express themselves and for our team to explore diverse deliverable options.

By then we had conducted thousands of intercepts for our retail clients, learning from shoppers in-situ about their needs/wants/reactions to products, messaging, campaigns, layout and brand expansion possibilities. We walked away from each intercept project with a wealth of knowledge in a very efficient amount of time within a reasonable budget with authentic participants.

However, we struggled with how to bring this approach to clients outside the retail space (it’s hard to imagine how we would stop people passing by and ask them about their insurance needs or where we find people to talk about healthcare!). So, we created Booth® Insights, in which intercepted participants to give feedback on a topic of interest at a centrally located pop-up location on a ‘learning wall’ and in a short interview.

Clients appreciate visiting the booth, watching the ‘learning wall’ grow and receiving a video highlight reel of key takeaways from the exploration around the topic of interest and we were on our way.

And then 2020 happened…

We suddenly weren’t able to rely on physical foot traffic but we knew there had to be a way to get that energy and get that spontaneity – that richness of insights – some other way, digitally. Pivot #2 resulted in the digital version of Booth® Insights. That development process took a lot of innovation and trial-and-error and partnership with our clients, but the main achievement was that the digital approach is still giving a quick and engaging way to listen to participants about a topic.

My personal take away from the whole experience was that it shouldn’t take a pandemic to have us examine what we’re doing, and figure what new, better, different things we can/could/should do!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I recently read and fell in love with Small Giants by Bo Burlingham. The book was originally written in 2006 and so when it was recommended I admittedly had my doubts on how applicable it would be to me now. But amid the references to fax machines there was plenty inspiration for founders who are looking to build businesses that are great, not big. It concentrates on concrete stories from companies who prioritize being great at what they do, creating a great place to work, providing great customer service, making great contributions to their communities, and finding great ways to lead their lives. It’s a must-read for founders and leaders.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.knowresearch.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newsfromknow/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrinanoelle/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kat_noelle
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@knowresearch