In-person vs. Virtual Fieldwork: An Evolution of Thoughts

I'm struck by how my attitude toward in-person research has evolved throughout my career. When I started in the market research industry, I found getting on a plane and having cocktails with clients after focus groups glamorous and exciting. I loved talking to people in other parts of the country and exploring new places. 

Then I got a little older and started a family of my own, which made virtual work preferable so I could be with my kids. I didn't find the airport delays and being crammed on a plane "glamorous" anymore and would get annoyed when I had to leave my family. 

And then when the pandemic happened, everything went online, and in-person qual ended for that period of time. I think I convinced myself (and some of my clients) that virtual was actually preferable, because you could get mostly the same quality of insights but with a wider variety of people and without having to pay travel costs.

I've since realized that I was wrong.

In the past year or two, in-person research has been coming back. And while I'm not traveling as often as pre-pandemic, I'm getting on many more planes, trains, and automobiles now than I was two years ago.

This past week I was in New Jersey doing shopalongs at a suburban mall. The same project has me interviewing people online, as well. I can't tell you how different the in-person interviews feel. The emotional connection I get with the respondent is so much stronger and leads to more personal revelations that I just don't get online. We talked about really intimate subjects like parenthood, the downsides of the digital age, what it's like to get older, and more. None of these topics were directly connected to the category/brands I was working for, but the mindsets, values, and beliefs of consumers are the sparks of fire that fuel successful brands. Because it's when brands can tap into the core beliefs of what feels real and true to people that they become trusted, needed, and desired. And in my opinion, the best way to extract that data about what makes people tick is through in-person interactions with them: good old-fashioned human relationships.

So now I'm feeling a lot less likely to loathe getting on a plane, train, or in a car, because I know the research experience is going to feel better- for me, for the respondent, for the client. My kids are a little older now too, which helps immensely, and they now get excited for me to bring back "souvenirs" from my trip, even from places like suburban New Jersey. :)

To be sure, there is still a very strong place in research for virtual sessions. I'm doing some focus groups in a couple of weeks about caregivers of patients with a very rare disease, which makes gathering them in-person difficult since they are spread out around the country. And shopalongs for online stores can obviously only be done online. So while I'm not saying we should abandon virtual and go back to using it infrequently like we did before the pandemic, I am saying that virtual has its place and so does in-person, and they are not the same.

I think many of my colleagues knew and believed this well before I did, but it took a while for me to come around and understand that neither form of research is superior, but rather both have their strengths and weaknesses.