The participant experience was crucial to crack in the formative years of building the platform. It hasn't let us down, nor participants, but perhaps the wider industry has?
Let's face it, we've made surveys about as exciting as watching paint dry. We're so focused on cost-cutting and chasing elusive demographics that we've forgotten a crucial detail – actual humans are answering our surveys. Enter synthetic data, the shiny new toy promising to solve all our woes. No more hunting for needle-in-a-haystack participants or sifting through fraudulent responses. It's a game-changer, no doubt about it. But hold your horses. Before we pop the champagne, let's consider what synthetic data is really telling us. Sure, it solves problems of cost and time. But it's also shining a spotlight on a bigger issue we've been ignoring: 😴 Data quality is suffering because people are bored out of their minds. Is it any wonder participants are sleepwalking through our surveys? Or that some clever souls are even creating bots to do the dirty work for them? When faced with yet another mind-numbing questionnaire, can we really blame them for checking out mentally (or digitally)? Don't believe me? An analysis of over 32,000 comments (optional to leave) from people completing Qualie surveys, reveals the status quo: "This is amazing well done! Best survey I've done so interactive and kept me engaged. I usually get so bored but, not with this one!" "This survey felt quite modern and refreshing, casual language is good, as well as break opportunities. This is the first survey I've seen that has a video of a real person guiding you through, makes it more personalised. Thanks!" If our industry is creating surveys that are so dull people are practically comatose, what good is that data anyway? We might as well ask a bot – at least it won't fall asleep mid-question. Here's a thought: 🤔 Before we hand over the reins to AI, shouldn't we try to lift our game? After all, if we're going to feed AI with data, shouldn't it be the good stuff? My peers trained in qual, I'm looking at you. We've cracked the code on engagement, it's time for everyone else to take a page from our book. Let's create surveys that people actually want to answer, not just endure. So while synthetic data is exciting, it's also a wake-up call. It's challenging us to do better, to make research engaging again. Because let's face it, if we can't captivate humans, how can we expect to train AI effectively? Time to spice things up, researchers. Your participants, your data, and yes, even your future AI overlords will thank you.