The Listen2Youth global panel is comprised of over 70 teens and young adults, ages 13 to 25.  They are students and young professionals who are also avid technology users. We’ve cultivated close working relationships with them and they tell us how they experience technology and why they make the choices they make. To find out more about the panel, click here.  

Use a private panel when the information you are sharing is confidential. A private panel allows you to disclose information before it becomes public and to get feedback on it, such as beta products.  Private panels, however, take a bit of time to get up and running, typically 4 to 6 weeks.  

Use a public panel when you need to get quick feedback and aren’t worried about the confidentiality of the information.  For example, learning how a current product or technology is being used by your target audience.

Typically, private panels are comprised of your customers and/or prospects. As a result, if you set up a private panel, it is extremely important to set the members’ expectations about the panel (duration of commitment, etc.). In addition, you want to be sure you don’t “burn” through a panel (under- or over-utilize them, not fulfill your obligations, etc.) and create bad will with them. Listen2Youth can help you determine whether a public or private panel is best for your business needs.  Contact us today.  

Because this is qualitative research, not quantitative, it is not intended to give results that can predict behavior (like an election poll). Rather, it provides useful trends and insights and can guide the development of future products and services. Data from the panels can be used in a variety of ways including, input into the product development cycle, assist in identifying emerging trends (which can be followed up with more quantitative research to validate the results), in thought leadership and press activities, to support sales by providing feedback directly from your customers, etc.   

Marketers are using ethnography to better understand how the culture and behavior of their customers impacts their user experiences. Listen2Youth cultivates close relationships with groups of participants from diverse cultures, over period of time, to glean insights into patterns of behavior. This “use case” research allows marketers to draw larger conclusions and identify emerging trends that guide the development of future products and services.  For example: understanding how teens from different cultures view entertainment across all screen types (e.g., TV, mobile phones, music players).

This is in contrast to a focus group, a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their attitude toward a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members. The group discussion is conducted several times with similar types of participants to identify trends and patterns in perceptions. 

Usability testing is a technique used to evaluate a product by testing it on users.  It usually involves systematic observation under controlled conditions to determine how well people can use the product for its intended purpose.