Online insight communities enable brands to build an ongoing relationship with research participants, generating deeper insights and supporting iterative learning over time.

As chatbots and AI-powered interviews surge in popularity, online research communities continue to play a critical role. In fact, the 2023 GRIT Insights Practice Report shows that the use of online research communities has grown by 13% among buyer-side insights professionals. Communities are not just a popular tool – they’re becoming a go-to method for tackling a wide range of business questions.

Your R&D team has a question on sustainable packaging? Marketing needs to know which product claim resonates best? Or what about testing a range of new product features? Online research communities are a great way to gather agile consumer feedback that helps you make better decisions.

But here’s the catch: if you’re only using your community for an endless stream of often disconnected ad hoc projects, you’re not using it to its full potential. You risk turning your community into a “sleeping beauty” – missing out on the deeper, strategic insights it could deliver.

The true beauty of online insight communities, compared with traditional research methods, is their ability to engage and collaborate with members over a longer period of time. This creates opportunities for longitudinal insights and iterative learning.

The power of time: harnessing the longitudinal relationship with members

Setting up a community for a longer period allows you to engage in a continuous dialogue with people who matter to your brand. This gives you a rare opportunity to immerse yourself in their lives, uncovering deep-seated habits, unmet needs and hidden frictions.

You can also observe how behaviours and attitudes evolve, gathering longitudinal insights along the way.

Take our work with a confectionery client in China, for example. We introduced their new product to community members and tracked their experiences over three months. This window allowed us to see how they incorporated the product into daily life, the habits it inspired and what they did once they finished the product.

Another example is how young gamers helped the BBC co-design the game Nightfall. In the online research community, the “Nightfall Hub”, we engaged with 8-to-14-year-olds over a 12-week period.

This allowed us to explore their gaming habits and the Nightfall user experience, as well as gather feedback on specific aspects of the game over time. Unlike a traditional lab study, this community gave BBC a window into how children interacted with the game over time, uncovering the learning curve and nuances of gameplay that only emerge after repeated use.

Surfing the wave of tiny insights: embracing iterative learning cycles

Moving away from the traditional ad hoc research mindset means that every outcome can serve as the starting point for the next phase. This involves adopting a constant learning mindset, resulting in a more refined and holistic understanding.

Philips embraces the practice of Continuous Learning through its always-on online community, “My Living Square”. The idea is that human understanding is at the heart of proposition development. Continuous Learning leverages multiple learning loops with distinct objectives. It’s an ongoing cycle of observing, reflecting and creating. Since every learning loop is different, the versatility of “My Living Square” allows Philips to interact with people anytime, anywhere and in different ways. Activities vary widely – from pinpointing compliance barriers and refining UX to video tasks where parents interview children about exciting new concepts. The Continuous Learning approach enables the Philips teams to build on their successes and learn from their failures along the way.

Or look at how we connected Bloomingdale’s with millennials in a seven-month iterative collaboration to keep a finger on the pulse while the brand was developing its new beauty mall counter. The iterative approach provided Bloomingdale’s with the right insight at the right time – from generating insights and understanding consumer expectations for beauty shopping to refining concepts and fine-tuning the in-store experience. This collaboration led to the creation of Glowhaus, a beauty experience worlds apart from the traditional department store counter.

Are you ready to wake up your sleeping beauty? Next time all kinds of ad hoc questions come your way, think about how you could combine them into a single, strategic conversation to truly unlock the power of your community. Longer engagement means deeper insights, uncovering changes in behaviour and evolving needs over time. It’s not just research; it’s a continuous story, revealing the insights that truly drive smarter decisions.