Method – Online community moderation and live video chats with the 20/20 Research QualBoard.
The Need – 1585 Capital, based in New York City, is an investment firm focused on companies that develop products and services that help people age meaningfully. The founders wished to gain deeper insight into specific aspects of older women’s lives for a new service they are creating. They wanted to learn the unique day-to-day challenges and joys real women experience in this phase of life, especially as they relate to caregiving.
Our Solution – We partnered with 20/20 Research of Nashville, Tennessee to construct a panel of older women. The research was carried out using 20|20’s QualBoard, which is an AI-powered online platform that allows researchers to engage with participants through communities, groups, diaries, polls and video chat. 20|20’s “Lean” research approach involves starting with a small group of participants for one study and keeping the best ones for the next study, and growing the panel over time across multiple projects.
Our participants, who were recruited by 20|20 Research, were vibrant, diverse and articulate women between the ages of 65 and 70 who live independently. Some were still working but most were retired. The research was designed to explore the realities, needs and priorities of women in this stage of life. I moderated a three-day online conversation with the panel while our client observed and directed probes to gain the insights they needed. Each day focused on a different topic.
Overall, the women seemed happy with their lives and loved being in control of their own schedule. Those who were retired described spending their days in a variety of joyful leisure activities that included exercise, visiting with grandchildren and friends, volunteering, reading, and doing hobbies. Most had been caregivers to loved ones. Because caregiving is such a personal topic, we asked several individuals to participate in private one-on-one video chat interviews so they could talk in detail about their experiences.
The QualBoard platform made it easy for us to analyze and react in real time to participant remarks. We tagged remarks and traced interactions by participant. We were able to group participants by their life experiences. This capability sped up the analysis and allowed us to simultaneously ask different sets of questions to different groups of people.
Results – The founders got the deep insights they needed. They were especially impressed by the quality of the participants, their honesty, and the detailed personal experiences they shared. The learnings our client gained from this exercise both their confirmed assumptions while offering deeper insights that the 1585 Capital Partners can leverage to create transformative new services directed towards the older consumer.
“Kay has an amazing ability to connect with older women and establish their trust so they are willing to share deep emotions and experiences. Her research delivered rich and actionable insights into the lives of the women in our panel, especially around their experiences as caregivers. Her work will provide great value for our company as we develop new products and services that help people age well.”
JULIE KIM, CO-FOUNDER & COO, 1585 CAPITAL