Revelation is Growing Up
Posted July 30th 2010 by Steve August
The end of June marks the end of Revelation’s fiscal year and so I find - in a slightly counter intuitive way - that the middle of the year is a good time to look back and take stock of our progress. As I walked into our over-stuffed office this morning and looked around at all the energetic, coffee loving people (along with two dogs) it is clear that Revelation is growing up. It was only two years ago at this time that Revelation’s team consisted of just three people: myself, CTO Dan Herrera, and lead interaction designer Michael Felix.
We’ve Come A Long Way In Two Years
We’ve come a long way since then. I’m happy to say that Dan and Michael are still with us, ensuring that Revelation remains on the cutting edge of technology and user experience. But we’ve grown in so many ways from when we first began offering our online qualitative platform and introducing “in the moment” qualitative research.
Concierge Level Customer Service
Rachel Bell, our Director of Customer Experience, joined Revelation in August of 2008 and has designed concierge level customer service, Helping Hands. Helping Hands that gives our customers a turnkey experience to their online qualitative research programs. Learn more about Helping Hands.
Global Reach
Revelation is now available in 14 languages enabling researchers to conduct in-depth immersive studies simultaneously in an array of countries around the world. To compliment our multi-lingual capability, Revelation offers a suite of translation services to ensure your projects go smoothly! Check out our languages.
Going Mobile
In May 2010 we took ‘in the moment’ research to a new level with Revelation Mobile for iPhone. Our breakthrough technology captures and records consumer behavior in real time and allows researchers to tailor mobile studies and an extension to their Revelation projects. To join our Mobile Beta Program click here.
Great Research Thinking
Embedded into our culture is the desire to contribute to furthering market research method and practices. We’ve been making our humble contribution by hosting “Great Research Thinking” seminars that are designed to share industry best practices and thought leadership, and we continue to attend and present at conferences.
Thank you
Our success is a tribute to the whole team at Revelation, but as importantly to our customers who put their faith in us every day. We’d like to say thank you! We appreciate your trust and faith and will continue to work very hard to earn your business. For those of you who have not tried Revelation we hope you’ll give us the opportunity to work with you in the near future and join us on our journey of creating next generation market research.
In spite of all that we have accomplished, we feel we are still just getting started. While June marks a year ending, July marks the beginning of another and we are excited by what is to come over the next year. We look forward to the opportunity to share our latest developments with you.
Have a great summer!
Revelation Extends Beta Release of Revelation Mobile for iPhone
Posted July 12th 2010 by Michael Felix
Due to customer request, we have extended the Beta Program for Revelation Mobile for iPhone. Revelation Mobile is an iPhone App that provides true in-the moment experiences. If you have not yet signed up for the Beta or have questions please complete this form.
Breakthrough Technology
Revelation Mobile captures and records consumer behavior in real time and allows researchers to tailor mobile studies as an extension of their Revelation Projects.
Seamless Integration
Revelation Mobile seamlessly integrates with our reporting and analytics tools – easing the transition into this uncharted medium.
Features of Revelation Mobile (beta version)
- Diary-style activities to track consumer purchases, behavior, and consumption
- Photo uploads that enable participants to capture their environment
- Open- and closed-ended prompts for quick barometers and deep probes
Benefit – Make a Difference!
As a participant you have the opportunity to shape the future of our mobile applications. The data we collect will lay the groundwork for mobile research and design management.
If you are interested in viewing screenshots and video of Revelation Mobile, please visit http://www.revelationglobal.com/mobile.
The Challenge of "Big Data"
Posted May 27th 2010 by Steve August
One of the big side effects of the online (and now mobile) qualitative research revolution is that we are able to collect vast amounts of information. We can study hundreds of people anywhere in the world in the same week. We can tap into social media feeds that deluge us with massive amounts of small bits of naturally occurring conversations. The amount of data we can collect is truly staggering.
But collection is only half the battle. And in reality, it’s not what we get paid for. At the end of the day, we get paid to answer business questions. So the big, lurking issue is not all of the wonderful new ways we can collect information. It is how we can find meaning in the new era of what IIT Institute of Design professor Kim Erwin calls “big data.”
If this issue resonates with you, then I encourage you to attend our next Great Research Thinking webinar on June 1st at 12PM Eastern/9AM Pacific, featuring Rosie Campbell, Director of Campbell Keegan, who will present “Inside Language: Telltale words, family stories, and how to spot totem poles.”
Click here to join us.
Revelation Launches Beta Release of iPhone App for Qualitative Research
Posted May 19th 2010 by Rachel Bell
We are happy to announce the public beta release of our mobile app, Revelation Mobile. Our breakthrough technology captures and records consumer behavior in real time and allows researchers to tailor mobile studies as extensions of their Revelation projects. Its seamless integration with other reporting and analytics tools eases the transition to this unchartered medium. This limited public beta release will lay the groundwork for mobile research design and management.
“We are tremendously excited by the ability of app-based mobile research to capture ‘in the moment’ customer experiences, but there is still much to understand in terms of both technology and best practices,” says Steve August, CEO and Founder of Revelation Inc. “With this beta iPhone app release, Revelation has a platform that will help researchers discover and develop cutting edge mobile research methods.”
Features of the Revelation Mobile beta version include:
- Diary-style activities to track consumer purchases, behavior, and consumption
- Photo uploads that enable participants to capture their environment
- Open- and closed-ended prompts for quick barometers and deep probes
Our limited public release scheduled until June 30, 2010. There will be an incubation period before we launch our official release.
Additional resources: Download the official press release below. If you are interested in viewing screenshots and video of Revelation Mobile, please visit http://www.revelationglobal.com/mobile.
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| Revelation Mobile Public Beta Press Release.pdf |
Revelation Now Available In Fourteen Languages
Posted May 13th 2010 by Josh Goldberg
Revelation has expanded its language capabilities to include Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, and Greek.
Responding to customer demand, we have once again expanded it’s language capabilities. Our Web-based qualitative research technology is able to turn over data much more efficiently and quickly than traditional focus groups or in-person interviews. With our experience running projects in six continents, Revelation is growing in order to serve market research in Asia-Pacific—an area of the globe that is seeing consistent expansion in the market research sector.
“With the growth of qualitative research online, demand for access to in-depth qualitative insight is taking off in Asian markets and in Brazil,” says CEO, Steve August. “We want to provide our clients with the tools they need to capture consumer insights in these markets.”
Revelation offers concierge-level supporting services to guide researchers through the challenges of international project management. Service packages can include developing recruitment strategies to fit to the objectives of a specific project or market, providing tried and true incentive strategies and recommendations, managing participant communications, and handling translations for any one of the fourteen languages it supports.
Revelation supports the following languages: Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Bahasa Malay, EU Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Greek, Italian, and English.
Revelation Reviewed
Posted May 10th 2010 by Steve August
Tim Macer, Founder and Managing Director of meaning ltd., wrote a review of Revelation’s software on Research Magazine. We’re very impressed. Tim included perhaps one of our favorite pull quotes. He writes,
“Going online clearly cuts out the waffle, as respondents draft their responses carefully, and consider what they are saying. The result is data that is relatively easy to analyse with very little padding to cut away.”
Emphasis is ours.
To see the rest of the review, click here.
Why Market Research Needs More Art
Posted May 8th 2010 by Steve August
This past March, I had the privilege of traveling to London to attend Market Research Society’s Annual Conference. I spent the whole week in London attending the conference and taking meetings. And while I very much enjoyed the conference and meeting new and old friends, the things that stuck with me are two encounters I had with, well, art. Let me explain.
I arrived on the Sunday before the conference and decided to do some sightseeing. As I wandered through the various exhibits in the Tate Modern, I realized that the art that really resonated with me were the pieces distilled a moment of meaning, mood, or observation down to a single expression. It didn’t matter if the media were oil paint, mechanical pencil, two-dimensional or three. Somehow great visual art has a way of visually expressing something about the human condition that is difficult to express in words. And, true to my research geek self, I started to think about this in the context of our mission in research. Isn’t our ultimate goal to reveal and communicate customer understanding to our clients? Standing in the midst of some of the world’s great art, I wondered. How could market research tap in to the power of art to communicate what we learn about consumers to our clients?
Fast-forward two days. After the first of what would prove to be two great days at the MRS conference, the MRS is hosting an evening after event in a bar, but there’s another intriguing event happening at the same time. A group called the Research Liberation Front (RLF) put on a parallel event called “Raiders of the Lost Art” around the corner from the MRS event. It promised to be an art gallery "providing a showcase for all the creativity and treasure that the world of research has produced… We’re talking work lovingly prepared by participants; collages, videos, mood boards, diaries etc., something put together by an agency, be it a hero chart, a slide from a presentation etc., or something produced by a client! Ultimately, we are looking for anything, nothing is too small, too big or too weird – we are raiding the industry for lost treasure as the RLF asks, is this ART?"
Given my trip to the Tate Modern, how could I not attend this event!? So I went and enjoyed it immensely. As promised the RLF, led by merry research provocateur, John Griffiths, had in fact created a miniature gallery filled with everything from mood boards to riffs on Monopoly to videos. You can see a video of the event here.
You may notice that one thing that was very conspicuously missing: PowerPoint.
The more I think about my two encounters with art in London, the more I am convinced that market research needs more art. We spend so much time collecting and creating our insights and understanding, yet all that work can go for naught if it isn’t presented in a way that, like great art, distills and elegantly communicates its meaning. It is a big challenge in a Powerpoint world, but one well worth taking up!
What’s Next in Great Research Thinking?
Posted April 5th 2010 by Josh Goldberg
On April 13, Andrew Vincent will come in for the second installation of our Great Research Thinking webinar series in 2010. His talk “From Insights to Action: Maximizing the Impact of Research” will start at 12:00 PM ET/9:00 AM PT. Registration can be found here.
As much as we value excellent research, it simply is not enough. Insight must be actionable. Key take-away points include:
- Developing practical strategies to ensure, monitor, and measure insight adoption
- Understanding how your end-users make decisions
- Framing and positioning your insights for the greatest impact
For speaker bios, webinar descriptions, and videos of previous GRT events, please visit GRT's homepage.
Steve August Kicks Off ESOMAR Webinar Series on Social Media
Posted April 5th 2010 by Josh Goldberg
Steve August, founder and CEO of Revelation, will tag team with Niels Schillewaert on April 29 to give a Pecha Kucha presentation, "Social Media: A transformational technology or hype?”
ESOMAR will host this free 40 minute webinar that will kick off a four part series looking into social media from different research perspectives. Register for Steve’s ESOMAR webinar here.
What are you getting from this webinar?
Over the past five years, social media - the phenomenon formerly known as Web 2.0 - has tremendously impacted how people find and use information, connect and interact. While market research has begun to embrace social media in earnest, exploring a number of different models – from eavesdropping on online conversations to creating online communities to adopting traditional methods to new technologies - it is still early days, and questions about methods, practice and effectiveness are still very much in play.
Thinking About Mobile Research
Posted April 5th 2010 by Steve August
With all the excitement and hype surrounding mobile research technology, this is a good time to step back and think about where mobile and qualitative market research stand.
The introduction of the iPhone (and its accompanying app model) ushered in the beginning of mobile’s second act—Mobile 2.0, if you will. Regardless of your opinion of the iPhone and Apple, it is hard to deny that the iPhone has changed the nature of the mobile experience. Before the iPhone, the data side of mobile experience centered on text messaging (a surprisingly efficient way to communicate and the forbearer of Twitter), push e-mail (again text-based), and clumsy, slow WAP browsing.
The iPhone broke the mold by providing an expandable pocket computing experience, delightfully unifying in one device the functions of communication, entertainment, and information consumption. With the iPhone setting the pace for this new mobile experience, others quickly joined in: Google’s Android, RIM’s Blackberry Storm, Palm’s Pre and, more recently, Windows’ Mobile 7. It’s a brave new world for mobile—and for research.
Given mobile’s pervasiveness and its possibilities as a research platform, there is a lot of excitement in the research community. Revelation is no exception. We think research through mobile represents the opportunity to access the “final 5 yards” of the customer experience—whether it is at the checkout line, the camping trip, or the office.
But before we get to this new utopia of research there are a few important challenges to explore. Like any medium, it takes time and tinkering to understand what mobile is good at and good for. Because research via mobile apps is still so new, there's a lot about it we don't understand quite yet. Things like distributing apps, understanding the participant experience, and best practices are for creating research activities that fit the limited bandwidth and less than snappy performance of mobile devices.
There’s a lot to explore and discover, but no matter where mobile takes us, I think the most important thing to remember is that technology is not methodology. Technology is merely a medium through which we can express methodology to ultimately serve the mission of understanding people to answer business questions. That was true of the telephone, the Internet and now mobile. Ultimately, it's the strength of the methodology more than the technology, something we here at Revelation always keep in mind as we begin to explore the brave new mobile world.
Calling Young Professionals: QRCA scholarship
Posted March 15th 2010 by Josh Goldberg
Stumbled across this the other day. I wanted to share a nugget of good news for young professionals in the research industry.
QRCA is extending a scholarship to a young professional to waive the costs for registration and travel to its annual conference, which kicks off in Philadelphia on October 13 and lasts until October 15. The application deadline is June 4.
For more information about QRCA’s application and the criteria for eligibility, please follow this link.
Revelation believes in continuing education. Revelation believes the research industry’s ever-growing cache of tools, methodologies, and applications raise serious questions and the cost of growth should be prohibitive to no one. Revelation encourages all young professionals to apply.
Please pass this information along to young, promising professionals who might have interest in attending QRCA’s annual conference for free.
The February edition of the Revelation Dispatch is hot off the presses! Inside this month's issue you'll find:
- Information about the latest additions to our Great Research Thinking (GRT) webinar series. Ray Poynter will present "The Case for NewMR" on March 2nd, and Andrew Vincent will give his talk on "Insight Integration" on April 13th.
- Our Activity of the Month: the Product Eulogy. Find out how product eulogies can help researchers get at the heart of a consumer's affinity for a product.
- What Market Research Software Companies Can Learn from "Avatar." Revelation CEO Steve August explains.
Click on the PDF below for the full issue.
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| Revelation Dispatch February 2010.pdf |
Activity of the Month: Product Eulogy
Posted February 23rd 2010 by Rachel Bell
A eulogy activity can be a powerful way to get at the heart of a consumer’s affinity to a product. In a eulogy activity, participants are asked to write about what the loss of a product would mean to them and how they might replace it. You can even opt to include a video segment. This can yield some very powerful results.
Here’s an example where participants were asked to eulogize a kitchen appliance: Imagine that as of tomorrow, your food processor no longer existed. Pretend that all food processors have vanished and that you’ll never see or use one again. No more slicing, grinding, or shredding. Please think about and respond to the following questions.
- Write a brief eulogy for the food processor. Reflect on its life and accomplishments, and how it will be remembered. What might you say at its funeral?
- Once you've written your eulogy, please make a short video of yourself delivering the eulogy and upload it here.
- Who will miss the food processor the most? Who will miss it the least?
- What or who might take its place now? And what is the one thing you can tell us about food processors that others might be surprised to hear
- Lastly, what do you think caused the food processor’s demise?
This activity comes to us courtesy of Jon McNeill of Hall & Partners. If you have an activity you would like to submit for an upcoming Revelation newsletter, please email us at info@revelationglobal.com.
What Market Research Software Companies can Learn from “Avatar”
Posted February 23rd 2010 by Steve August
James Cameron’s “Avatar” is a certified phenomenon, taking months to surpass his previous all time box office leader, “Titanic.” Having seen the film in 3D, I can report there’s really no mystery as to why “Avatar” is such a hit. The movie immerses the viewer in both the world of Pandora and the story in a way that makes it feel more like a theme park ride than everyday cinema.
As odd as it might seem, since I saw the movie and subsequently learned more about how it was made, I kept thinking that the making of “Avatar” holds some important lessons for makers of MR software.
1. Technology must serve the purpose, not be the purpose.
Starting way back in the 1950’s, 3D movies were predominately created as novelty films. 3D technology was used as an excuse to have filmgoers experience things flying at them or jumping out from the screen usually at the expense of plot, story, dialogue, acting, all the things that go into making a good film.
In “Avatar,” Cameron used the 3D technology primarily to create stunning depth of field views of the world of Pandora. This plays perfectly to the idea of avatars and the immersion of the characters into this world where the audience is taken along for the ride. The number of gimmicky moments of objects flying out at the audience is kept to a minimum, and used only when it really adds to the scene and story.
How often have we all used software that has flashy graphics and interactions, yet those very same flashy graphics seem to only get in the way of what you are trying to accomplish? Ideally, technology should disappear into the user’s experience.
2. Don’t take technology at face value.
Cameron knew he wanted to do “Avatar” in 3D, but he wasn’t satisfied with the experience delivered by even state of the art 3D systems. Knowing that this was critical to the experience he wanted to deliver, Cameron went to Sony to see what could be done. Sony created a special line of cameras to suit Cameron’s specs, and the rest is history.
I’ve seen this happen more than once in the past decade in the MR industry. A new technology or phenomenon emerges in the wilds of the Internet and it gets adopted almost note for note for MR. Forums, chat rooms, blogs, communities, and Second Life are all wonderful things, but it’s crucial to step back and look at them from the core MR mission to find the best applications. The biggest leaps happen not from a note for note application, but from a re-interpretation of technology to enable researchers to fulfill their mission more efficiently and effectively.
3. Little details can make a big impact.
Watching a scene of people strolling through the Pandoran forest, I was struck by a tiny detail that is foreign to most computer-generated landscapes: bugs. As the characters walk through the forest, you can see bugs flitting about. The bugs are too small to see any real detail (even on an IMAX screen), but clearly they are there, and thousands of half-formed incandescent critters have a huge impact on the setting.
In software, the little details can have a big impact as well. Beyond, the basic issues that need to be navigated, how you get from one place to the next, how clearly information is presented, and how your code performs, little details and touches can greatly impact the sense of responsiveness both to purpose and to the users “touch.”
At Revelation, we constantly strive to create the experience of delight for our customers. While we may not be crafting the biggest movie of all time, these lessons from “Avatar” are on our minds every day.
Thought Leaders Converge on Great Research Thinking Webinar Series
Posted February 19th 2010 by Josh Goldberg
We are happy to announce two new additions to Revelation’s Great Research Thinking (GRT) webinar series.
- On March 2nd, Ray Poynter will give his talk, “The Case for NewMR.” Registration for this event can be found here.
- On April 13th, Andrew Vincent will present, “Insight Integration.” Registration for this event can be found here.
These complimentary, hour-long events will begin at 12:00 PM ET/9:00 AM PT, and will end with Q&A sessions.
For speaker bios, webinar descriptions, and videos of previous GRT events, please visit GRT's homepage.
Revelation Sales up 240% in 2009
Posted February 16th 2010 by Michael Stapleton
Next generation qualitative tools provider Revelation has reported a 240% growth in sales in calendar year 2009 versus the previous year. The company says the increase was driven by surging demand for both its cutting edge online qual research platform and high-touch online field support services.
"We are extremely pleased with our results," says Revelation CEO Steve August. "In the face of a very difficult environment for the market research industry and the overall economy, Revelation is seeing robust growth."
During 2009, Revelation continued to expand platform capabilities, expanding languages supported to include traditional and simplified Chinese, Thai, Bahasa Melayu, EU and Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, French, and German. The company also released upgrades to the research platform's video capabilities and added enhanced group discussion features.
Additionally, the company expanded its service offerings to include Helping Hands Project Setup and Participant Management, Helping Minds Guide Development, and People Provider best of breed participant recruiting service.
Hitting the Road: Conference attendance list
Posted January 29th 2010 by Josh Goldberg
We're taking a sprint around the field as spring looms. Here are some conferences we plan on attending in the upcoming weeks.
- Pharma Market Research Conference in Parsippany, NJ on February 1 and 2, 2010.
- Re:think 2010: The ARF 56th Annual Convention + Expo in New York City, NY on March 22 and March 23, 2010.
- Research 2010 in London, UK on March 8 and 9, 2010.
Don't be a stranger. Let us know if you're attending any of these events. We'd love to see you there.
Revelation has released the last issue of the Dispatch for 2009. This month's features include:
- The December Activity of the Month: Getting To Know You. Read about why Getting to Know You activities are a great way to kick off a project.
- A step-by-guide for including videos in your projects. We explain the importance of recruiting, engaging and supporting participants, and how to best set up video projects.
- Snap or Shoot? That's the Question. When is it better to use photography or video in your study?
Click on the PDF below to read more.
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| Dispatch-12-2009.pdf |
Activity of the Month: Getting To Know You
Posted December 4th 2009 by Rachel Bell
Kicking off a project with a "Getting To Know You" activity is the most effective way to get a project off to a great start.
"Getting to Know You" activities serve several different purposes in a project. First, they enable you to learn a little more about each participant – home, family, hobbies and interests – in an easy warm up activity. This first activity is the participant’s first interaction in the project and provides a 'low risk' assignment that enables the researcher and technical support team to help participants address any technical issues. Second, showing a video or photo of the research team is beneficial and can really set a great atmosphere by showing there’s a real person on the other end of the line. And lastly, the researcher can use this first activity as a low effort 'first touch' with participants. Researchers don’t need to spend much time analyzing any data from the activity and can quickly acknowledge that they’ve read the participant’s answers and welcome them to the project.
In this activity participants are asked to answer a few open-ended questions and post photos. These photos could be of their family, home, friends–basically, photos of people, places and things that are important to them. I would encourage you to share a bit about yourself here – either a photo or introductory video. Here's an example "Getting To Know You" exercise taken from a past Revelation project. We introduced the activity this way:
I'd like to start off by learning a little about you. What do you do during the day? What are your hobbies? And what does a typical weekend look like for you?
Tell me about the other people and pets who live with you.
I'd like to get to know your environment a little better as well. Please upload photos of you and your home and any photos of family members, friends and pets you think would help me get to know you better. Anything else you'd like to add that would help me get to know you better?
Personal motto, favorite coffee drink...anything that you'd like to add? Thanks!
Why qual researchers may be over "online" - and why that's a good thing.
Posted November 30th 2009 by Steve August
At the ESOMAR Qual conference in Marrakesh two weeks ago, I was struck by a subtle, but striking, evolution that seems to have taken place. I've attended three out of the last four ESOMAR Qual conferences and when I started back in 2006, online was a novel thing. So novel that it seemed that people felt that it was a method in itself. So many presentations made "we did it online" as their major point. This year in Marrakesh, things were subtly different. Online was present in nearly every presentation. Yet, researchers were not really calling attention to it. It was almost a matter-of-fact - "we did this bit via online, but the big thing is what we did methodologically." It seems that now that online is becoming mainstream, researchers are starting to treat online for what it really is: a medium that supports many qualitative methods and provides an amazing reach into people's lives. This is a good thing. We are making progress.
