Quick ways to gather data

Spending a decent amount of time gathering data is definitely something I like to do all the time, unfortunately not every project is worth that time money.

If you are a bit strapped for cash or you’re having trouble convincing your project manager to try and scrape together a few more pennies. Never fear, some cheap ways are here!

If you’re looking for a general opinion you can always create a simple survey and take it to the streets [depending on your target audience]. Although it does take a bit of effort and some time, you don’t have to survey 100 people… we’ve already established the project doesn’t need that much research. Surveying 10 people will give you some great insights into your project, or at the very least, uncover something you haven’t even thought of.

“10 different opinions are better than none.”

Google Forms FTW!!! Thi is such a simple tool to use, it has some great question types including: Short answer, paragraph, multiple choice, checkboxes, dropdown, linear scale, multiple choice grid and a few more. If you have a customer list or a list of potential users handy you can push your surveys out to the people who’s opinions matter, zee customers!

But Kurt, I don’t have any customer lists, what do I do!?!?

Without even being directly related to your product, brand or service… your customers are out there and talking!

Public forums are an absolute goldmine for gathering quick reliable data. Depending on the research you’re trying to gather, there will be a forum of choice for you. Reddit nearly has a sub for every topic you could think of from “oddlysatisfying” to “vaporwaveaesthetics” < a personal favourite of mine. If you mind the trolls by setting up some decent screener questions at the start of your survey you will potentially have thousands of willing participants.

Once you’ve gone through a filtered out those darn trolls, you’ll be left with some pretty compelling research, google forms will even display everything like you might be used to seeing in your analytics.
There you are, you now have the power to research and gather data on everything you ever work on MUHAHAHA!