Yahoo! Case Study – The Three Week, Three-Country Plan
BACKGROUND Imagine getting 60 people from three countries to participate in a three week-long research study. That’s exactly what Qualvu did in a research project for Yahoo! In 2009, Yahoo! and Qualvu partnered for a three-country, all-access view of mobile and internet users’ daily habits. The study was conducted over a three week period. Every day, a new question and new task appeared in the Qualvu Platform for participants to respond to. The goal was to really get to know the participant not just from a technology perspective, but also from the perspective of various personality types.
METHODOLOGY High-quality web-cams were delivered to each participant enlisted in the project. Each participant was given instructions and access to the Qualvu Videodiary Platform where they received, recorded and uploaded their video responses. The responses were then analyzed and organized by Qualvu’s team of researchers and given to Yahoo! to review online.
STRATEGY Qualvu enlisted 20 participants each from India, the UK and the US. The demographic component for each country varied from light to heavy internet and mobile users, who were males and females ranging in age from 24-35. The study was conducted over a three week period. Every day, participants logged into the Qualvu Platform and answered a set of questions. Participants were asked to tell about their experiences and also to show their mobile and internet devices, how they used them, and what they did when they used them.
SUMMARY The logistics for a three-country project did not deter Yahoo! from conducting the project. Quite the contrary: It was Qualvu’s ability to able handle the project — from recruitment to deployment to translation with no travel involved and with the ability to view and organize data for anyone on the Yahoo! team to review at any time they chose — that made Qualvu the perfect partner for the study.
The average length of video was nearly eight minutes per participant per question. (Try getting that in a traditional focus group!) The Qualvu team of researchers was able to analyze and organize the data into an online presentation.
