During contextual interviews, it’s easy (and natural!) for stakeholders from different disciplines to observe only what matters most to them. Executives will focus on one aspect, marketing will focus on another. Design sees one thing, engineering sees something different. They may become disparate vantage points, while the most meaningful insights are in fact assembled from multiple vantage points coming together to form something larger and more meaningful – not just the tusk or the ear, but the whole elephant. 

We overcome this challenge by grounding these points in the voice of the customer, ensuring we capture every angle of the customer story to foster alignment. Read on to learn how we generate transcripts for every interview to slow the conversation down!

Since 2013, we have conducted in-depth interviews with research participants based in 35+ different countries. Not surprisingly, in most of these cases English has not been the respondent’s primary language. What has surprised us, however, is how many of these research participants have wanted to speak English during our conversations. As thrilling for them and flattering for us as it may be, the reality is when it's not their native language, research participants often struggle to hold conversation in English at emotional and essential levels of discussion; where content generation becomes most critical.

Don’t risk compromising your customer insight. Learn the second of two keys to success that have enabled us to achieve our clients' objectives overseas.

At STORYLINE, several our clients have teams around the world – which means we are often tasked with taking our team and methods abroad to support their efforts in-region. While the cultures, environments and local cuisine may change, our goal of uncovering rich, quality insights for them via design-focused methodologies does not!

Conducting in-depth qualitative research outside the U.S. introduces great opportunities, but also barriers that we must overcome to deliver on our promise of quality content. In this post, we share the first of two keys to success that have enabled us to achieve our – and hence, our clients’ – objectives.