Surveying Surveys

Photo of employee David Kennedy

4/18/13

What hot wing sauce can teach us about scales

Years ago, my brother and I used to devour hot wings.  Emphasis on hot. While I don’t always default to the hottest option now (age = wisdom?), I still opt for sauces on the hotter end of scale.  But those scales seem increasingly far from standard. Sauces used to be fall under mild, medium, and […]

By David KennedyRead More

Corona Insights employee Kevin Raines

4/11/13

You Can Survey Too Much

Last week, the Wall Street Journal wrote a piece called, “Dear Airline, Here is the Problem…” about airline customer surveys and how they’re used.  We enjoyed the article and wanted to share our key takeaways: The airlines sample judiciously to develop statistically reliable data with minimum intrusion on their customers.  This is a more sophisticated […]

By Kevin RainesRead More

Photo of employee Beth Mulligan

3/28/13

Times, they are a-changin’

As recently as a couple of years ago, we were keeping our distance from online panels for research.  We even blogged about it.  But things have been changing.  And now evidence is starting to accumulate that online polls can rival (or even exceed) traditional polling methods in accuracy.  A recent article in The Atlantic provides […]

By Beth MulliganRead More

Corona Insights Logo

2/12/13

DIY is no substitute for expertise

A great deal of strategic thinking and expertise goes into our work here at Corona Insights. With the abundance of DIY researcher tools (e.g., SurveyMonkey), more and more companies and organizations opt to do research themselves, perhaps not realizing the value outside experts can provide to their project. So it was nice when a recent […]

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Corona Insights employee Kevin Raines

2/7/13

Here’s to people who fill out surveys

We got a present today – an Economic Census form! Yes, after 13 years of waiting, Corona Insights is part of the selected sample for the 2012 Economic Census.  Maybe other companies wouldn’t be so excited about getting a 9-page form that starts off with the statement, “Your Response Is Required By Law”, but we […]

By Kevin RainesRead More

Photo of employee Kate Darwent

2/4/13

The Power of Numbers

Numbers are an interesting thing. We all have an innate sense of quantities, but numbers are a culturally agreed upon format for representing those quantities. When we are trying to convey quantitative information to other people, the choice between “7 days” vs. “1 week” or “100 out of 300” vs. “1 out of 3” often […]

By Kate DarwentRead More

Corona Insights employee Kevin Raines

11/9/12

Unusual Questions Asked in the U.S. Census

Kevin recently taught a class on how to use U.S. Census data, and did a little historical research on census questions. He discovered a few questions asked in the past that may seem a little odd today, though they likely were quite relevant during their particular time period. They’re paraphrased below. 1. 1850 Census – […]

By Kevin RainesRead More

Photo of employee David Kennedy

10/19/12

Beer and politics

While we typically steer clear of politics here, preferring to remain the unbiased, neutral party, we do not steer clear of items related to beer. Four years ago, I posted a blog post about the numerous alternative polls being used to predict the election, from Halloween masks to cookies. This year, instead of showing more […]

By David KennedyRead More

Photo of employee David Kennedy

10/18/12

Asking survey questions that measure what you are trying to measure

It’s a common problem seen in market research – asking one question to imply the answer to another. Sometimes it’s unavoidable- when writing a survey, you can’t show your hand and let participants know the information you are really looking for. However, too often interpretations and decisions are made not by faulty data, but by […]

By David KennedyRead More

Corona Insights Logo

3/15/12

Looking at survey responses by audience

First, let me say, “Happy March Madness” to all of our followers as the men’s NCAA basketball tournament kicks off today.  We’re all in the office working today at Corona—still settling into the new space—but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about the tournament every once in a while, right? Here’s a graph from ESPN.com […]

By Todd StoltenbergRead More