The Power of Small Studies
As organizations wrestle with massive data sets, massive countywide town hall meetings, and massive all-company employee satisfaction surveys, we can begin to think that the only good data is, well, massive.
Hearing from everyone or as many people as possible becomes the instinct that guides all research and listening efforts. The work is wide, broad and massive, but all the energy spent going big leaves organizations missing the good stuff below the surface. This is the stuff that’s hard to put into words in a little text box on a survey, or that thing you just can’t share on the mic at the town hall meeting.
The best way to reach the realities below the surface is to get closer, more personal, or smaller. When you focus your time and resources in research on fewer participants you can develop a deeper connection and understanding that leads to insights you wouldn’t have been able to uncover otherwise.
Interviews, surveys, observations, scenario modeling, gamification, journaling - whatever research tool is at hand - we elevate small studies, with the understanding that by limiting the number of research participants, we are able to go deeper than we otherwise would be able with studies that have high participant counts. That isn’t to say that large scale studies don’t have a place. We do use them when they best fit the situation at hand. We’re presently gearing up to conduct a census project that is looking for every voice to be counted. A census requires broad coverage for understanding how many of something exists. Small-scale qualitative studies, on the other hand, are geared toward understanding individual lives in context. They show us the steps in a process, the way someone experiences a challenge through their particular set of variables.
Clients who are more used to gathering bits of information from lots of people are often curious - and occasionally doubtful - about just how good a study of 10 or 20 people can be. [Hint: They can be really, really good.] The instinct is often to use the resources clients have to cast as wide a net as possible. Depending on their goals, that instinct could actually be wasting valuable resources.
Before jumping into your next mass survey or town hall meeting, take a moment to pause and think through the data you want to gather and what you want to understand through it. Are your questions starting with why, how, and when? It might be a good sign that your organization would benefit from a smaller-scale study to get to the heart of those questions.
