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Bridging the Gap: understanding Gen Z Healthcare Practitioners' lives through in-the-moment Video Research
In the ever-evolving landscape of market research, the quest for deeper understanding and meaningful insights is relentless. "Bridging the Gap" chronicles a groundbreaking journey using cutting-edge research methodologies to reveal the intricate daily lives of Gen Z healthcare practitioners (HCPs).
This exploratory research projects began with a pre-task phase using Indeemo’s Instagram style mobile research app, progressed through in-depth one-on-one video interviews, and culminated in a comprehensive data analysis.
Throughout, Indeemo’s versatile healthcare research tools, including its video import capability and generative AI, played a pivotal role in uncovering rich, contextual insights into this mobile-first generation in the healthcare sector.
With increasingly busy schedules, restricted access to healthcare facilities and even more stakeholders working remotely, it’s getting more difficult to meet HCPs face to face, whether in person or online. Up to recent years Market Research Online Communities (MROCs) have been used to gather data around the lives of HCPs inside and outside of the workplace.
However, there has been a shift in research approaches where in the moment video research is increasingly being adopted as a strong alternative to MROCs for research with Gen Z HCPs. Both Market Research and Discovery/Exploratory Research briefs are leaning more into this technique to capture richer insights into the lives of healthcare professionals - with the need for contextual insights being a driver of this shift in methodology.
In the moment video research is an innovative and agile way for brands to better understand and strengthen their relationship with hard to reach Gen Z B2B professionals.
Gathering a deeper understanding of HCPs aligns with an increasing need for brands and organisations to achieve customer closeness and build empathy.
The Challenge: develop Customer Closeness with Gen Z HCPs
For this research brief, our client needed strategic insights into the following:
What a typical day in the life of a Gen Z HCPs looks like
What healthcare looked like from the perspective of Gen Z doctors
What their real motivations were
What were their preferred communication methods were with both the pharmaceutical brands and with patients
How and where they sourced information in the everyday performance of their duties
What were their aspirations for the future of medicine
Our client had completed a phase of quantitative research but needed more context rich insights into the daily lives and routines of Gen Z HCPs.
With an MROC methodology being the original preference for our client, this was deemed an unlikely approach as it was clear that aligning research activities with MCPs schedule was difficult. When building out the best research strategy with our client, the ability to be flexible and asynchronous to ensure they get the contextual insights they needed was a priority.
The Solution: In the Moment Video Research
The aim of this project was to get a deeper understanding of the daily lives of Gen Z healthcare practitioners with tasks addressing specific blind spots of the client. Contextual insights from this project would then go on to be leveraged for the following:
Consumer segmentation
Marketing and Sales strategies across multiple markets
Customer Closeness Initiatives
Understand how best to communicate with this mobile first generation
In particular, the client opted for this asynchronous approach as it offered them more time to get to know their Gen Z Research participants in a less time pressured format. It also allowed them to widen the scope of their research lens and conduct their research in the context of both the HCPs’ healthcare facilities and their homes.
Our client initially embarked on a pre-task phase first, leveraging Indeemo’s innovative platform to gather initial insights. This phase involved utilising Indeemo’s in the moment video research capability, allowing researchers to capture and store real-time experiences of Gen Z HCPs.
Following this, the research seamlessly transitioned to conducting in-depth, one-on-one interviews. These interviews were recorded and integrated into the Indeemo platform, where the dialogue was automatically transcribed and ready for analysis.
How to Research Gen Z HCPs with Digital Ethnography
20 Respondents
20 Tasks
4 Weeks
4 Countries
Recruitment
For this project, our client chose an in-market qualitative research recruiter to source 20 healthcare practitioners.
Scheduled Tasking
Indeemo offers three different types of tasking. For this project, Scheduled tasking was chosen as the preferred strategy. This enabled tasks and activities to be released in a scheduled manner. Once each Healthcare practitioner (HCP) was onboarded to Indeemo tasks were received via push notification alerts on the pre-programmed schedule.
Scheduling the tasks allows the research to evolve their tasking based on what they learned during the course of this project. Insights learned from the first week of research were incorporated into the tasks for subsequent weeks and this enabled the researchers to drill into unexpected themes and topics that surfaced early in the research program.
Indeemo’s ability to allow researchers to configure tasks to be left open for the remainder of the study ensured that late to join HCPs and HCPs who struggled to do tasks when needed were able to catch up when their schedules permitted.
For richness and contextual insights needed for this project, the asynchronous nature of the research strategy allowed these research participants to engage with the research team on their schedule - offering them greater flexibility. As one moderator on the project noted - “We frequently see our participants late in the evening or during the weekend due to their typical hectic weekday schedules”.
Understanding Context
For this particular study, the client opted for tasks similar to the following examples:
In one video, what does your typical work day looks like?
In one video, what does a typical weekend day looks like?
Use video selfies to get them to describe recent interactions with patients, friends, co-workers.
Use mobile screen recording to research how they stay up to date with changes in medicine and treatments.
Use screenshots or text to understand how they communicate and interact with medical sales reps?
Leveraging AI Video analysis for HCP research
As the project progressed, our client recognised the need to supplement their research with in-depth interviews. To capture the nuances and richness of these interviews, they recorded them in video format. Utilising Indeemo's video import and AI video analysis capability, they established a centralised repository for this qualitative data, seamlessly integrating it with the existing pre-tasking in the moment video data. This strategic decision enabled our client to delve deep into both datasets, uncovering valuable insights that would have otherwise remained hidden.
Benefits of AI Video Analysis for researching HCPs
The incorporation of video interviews into the research process offered several key advantages:
Holistic Understanding: Video interviews allowed the researchers to gain a more comprehensive understanding of Gen Z healthcare practitioners' lives. It provided visual and auditory context, enabling a deeper dive into their experiences, environments, and interpersonal interactions.
Streamlined Data Management: Having both the digital ethnography data and interview videos on a single platform simplified data management and accessibility. Researchers could easily cross-reference information, enhancing the overall analytical process.
Comparative Analysis: With the combined datasets, our client harnessed the power of Indeemo's Generative AI for qualitative data analysis. This technology facilitated comparative analysis, enabling the identification of correlations, patterns, and unique insights across the two sets of data.
Deeper Insights: By using video to complement the ethnographic research, our client unearthed insights that transcended mere words. Subtle body language, tone, and non-verbal cues provided a deeper layer of understanding, enriching their research findings.
Driving Informed Decision-Making
The fusion of pre-task data and interview content allowed our client to make informed decisions and recommendations across various strategic areas, such as consumer segmentation, marketing and sales strategies, customer closeness initiatives, and effective communication with the mobile-first generation.
In summary, the integration of video interviews through Indeemo's video import capability proved to be a valuable asset in this project. It not only enhanced the depth and breadth of the insights but also facilitated cross-data analysis, positioning our client for more informed and effective decision-making in the healthcare sector. This approach truly exemplifies the power of combining diverse data sources to gain a holistic view of the subject matter, thereby unlocking new opportunities for research and strategy development.
Data Collection and Analysis
Upon gathering initial data followed by interviews, the research team harnessed Indeemo’s generative AI capabilities for a thorough analysis. This sophisticated tool allowed them to analyse both the pre-task video content and the interview transcripts. Through this process, they uncovered nuanced insights, identifying patterns and correlations among the participants' responses. The AI’s ability to process and interpret vast amounts of qualitative data enabled them to extract key similarities and unique perspectives, providing a deeper understanding of the Gen Z HCPs’ motivations and behaviours.
Things to Consider using Video for Pre-Tasking
With what can often be expected with most qualitative research approaches, researching the lives of busy Gen Z Healthcare Practitioners (HCPs), this project took time to get up and running due to a combination of a slow recruitment process and the hectic schedules of HCPs
Allowing more time for fieldwork completion in these studies is extremely important and be prepared to extend the duration of the research period as needed. This should always be messaged to clients up front so there is no mismatch in expectations.
In order to maximise engagement with busy HCPs, the research consultancy worked hard with the client to obtain as much background information as possible regarding the purpose of the study.
While incentives represent one motivating factor for HCPs, we typically find that clearly communicating the purpose of the study and its desired outcome can be the biggest factor in maximising HCP engagement, especially with Gen Z research participants. This represented a key driver in ensuring engaged participation for this particular study.
The Outcome & Benefits of In the Moment Research with Video Import Integration in a Healthcare Setting
The culmination of this comprehensive study can be summed up as nothing short of remarkable. Our client harnessed the full range of capabilities offered by the Indeemo platform, including the innovative video import feature, to grasp the essence of Gen Z healthcare practitioners' lives.
Amidst the initial challenges, including recruitment hurdles and busy schedules, our client unearthed a profound realization that would become a guiding principle for the healthcare industry. The importance of continually building relationships with Gen Z healthcare practitioners is a resonating theme, and this insight is nothing short of imperative. The need to "continuously build relationships" aligns seamlessly with the evolving landscape of client briefs, emphasising the necessity of heightened customer closeness and deeper connections between brands and their core stakeholders.
Getting Closer to context through Video
The emphasis on customer closeness has never been more pronounced. Organisations and brands now recognise the significance of sustained engagement with their primary stakeholders. It's not just about building rapport through novel research methods like video research; it's also about delving into the intricacies of their environment and understanding the context that shapes their decision-making and behaviours in the real world.
For this project, the use of video, in conjunction with photos, provided an unprecedented window into the lives of healthcare practitioners. The integration of Indeemo's video import capability allowed our client to gain a much deeper insight into the working context of these professionals. The power of video was instrumental in bridging the gap between assumptions and reality. As a result of this data-rich approach, our client was empowered to develop a tailored strategy that could effectively target and communicate with this unique group of Gen Z healthcare practitioners, building relationships that go beyond the surface and resonate with the core values of this mobile-first generation.
Let Indeemo Support your Next Healthcare Research Project
Digital Ethnography is a rich, agile way to get a deeper understanding of the everyday lives and behaviours of patients, caregivers and hard to reach HCPs. When combined with in-depth interviews, it enables you to get a deeper understanding of who they are and what really matters to them.
We have supported hundreds of projects in this sector.
To speak to one of our strategists, please contact us.
Feb 13th 2023 9:00am
