The Research about Research

The methods of research discussed in the book, and the ones that seemed to be used the most in the work place, are that of interviews, focus groups and surverys. Alot of tips and information on these research methods could also be found online.

This career builder blog provides tips for conducting a research type interview. This blog provides some great tips and pointers on how to conduct an interview of a professional in a field you are interested in joining. Many of the tips on setting up the interview, conducting the interview, and follow up activities were the same as those provided by the book. One interesting point this blog talks about though is to allow the conversation to go off topic and follow an interesting “tangent.” This may help you learn more interesting and helpful information in your continued job search.

This next link provides more useful information on setting up, conducting, and analyzing information obtained from focus groups. The tips this link provides agree with the book, while also providing some more in-depth comments. Some of the most useful of these was the tips about getting more than one moderator or observer. Having more than one allows for: incorporating more people into these focus groups, obtaining the most information, and incorporating multiple viewpoints to reduce the impacts of biases.

The most additional information I found was surrounding the topic of surveys. Almost all of the websites I looked at surrounding this topic agreed with and provided very similar information to the book. One additional tip I found helpful was to pre-test your survey. This article states that you should give your survey to co-workers or a small group of your intended audience and get their feedback about how good it is at getting the information you need. Another article I found addressed what survey type was the most effective. The author of this post believes that an online survey is probably the most useful because it provides customers with a faceless, anonymous way to answer. This makes it more likely that the customers will respond, and provide the most honest responses. Any additional tips or information you may want can also be found by google searching “tips on surveys.”

Research is something that all of us are going to have to do at some point in our professional lives. Knowing how to conduct the three most important types-interviews, focus groups, and surveys-will ensure success for your business career.