John Henry and Poptarts

When I first started to learn about Big Data, I worried that I would become the John Henry of data collection.  I am a supervisor and interviewer for a market research and public opinion research firm.  I have conducted tens of thousands of telephone interviews on a wide variety of topics.  I am able to get people to spill information because I have a pleasant voice and know how to ask sensitive questions without sounding shocked or judgmental.  I have learned how to probe for clarification of vague answers without irritating survey participants.

Vast amounts of data now exist about our opinions, beliefs, tastes and preferences from Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.  The software and hardware used to collect and analyze this data is becoming more sophisticated and robust.  It makes me wonder whether clients will be willing to pay for telephone surveys and focus groups if they believe they can acquire the information they need more cost-effectively by dipping into the river of information that flows through the Internet every second.

Walmart learned several years ago how to make use of their own records to run their stores more efficiently and profitably.  They learned from looking at sales records that they had better have plenty of Strawberry Poptarts in stock when a hurricane is moving toward the coast because that is what their customers want to stock up on when they are preparing for a hurricane.  More recently, investors have started to monitor Twitter and Facebook feeds to gauge attitudes about particular stocks.  As the field becomes more sophisticated, I can imagine many ways that analysis of Big Data could make telephone polling and focus groups obsolete – but not completely.  Some questions can be answered only by getting a representative sample of a population on the telephone and asking them specific questions.

One of the things I learned while researching Big Data is that those who expect to use Big Data to make business decisions expect a shortage of “data engineers,” or people who can figure out where to find relevant information and draw conclusions about it once it has been gathered.  Working in market research and public opinion research should be good preparation for a career as a data engineer.  Conducting interviews requires critical thinking skills in order to obtain information that clients can use to make decisions.  An interviewer has to determine whether a response actually answers a question, whether it is clear, and whether it is complete.  If not, the interviewer needs to ask appropriate follow up questions such as:

Ø      Why?

Ø      How so?

Ø      What do you mean by that?

Ø      Why is that important to you?

Ø      What can you tell me about that?

Ø      Such as?

Learning how to ask these questions in the appropriate context should be good training for anyone who wants to gather information from social media.  A business collects information because they need it to make decisions.  Understanding what kinds of decisions need to be made and where to find accurate information to make those decisions will require the same kinds of critical thinking skills required for conducting telephone interviews.

I can help anyone in Columbus, Ohio who would like to acquire the ability to ask appropriate questions in a real world setting.  Call or email me:

John C. Stevens

Saperstein Associates

(614) 261-0065

jstevens@sapersteinassociates.com