Behind the Scenes on Quant Research

by Dawn Brown, Project Manager

Did you ever take a behind-the-scenes tour of a movie set, entertainment park, zoo or aquarium? The best part is often learning how things get done – the magic that makes it all happen.

Well, quant research is nowhere near as exciting as a Disney tour, but here’s our behind-the-scenes view of what happens when you partner with us for your quant recruiting and fieldwork:

Set-Up

1 – The project is assigned to a Project Manager who will oversee the project from bid acceptance through final billing.

2 – The Project Manager sets up the job in our internal system. This gets the Programming, Sample & QA teams on-board for the study.

3 – A member from each team (Project Management, Programming & QA) reviews the survey document for logic and questions.

4 – A member of the Sample Team pre-reviews the sampling specs for any questions or issues.

Programming

1 – The survey is programmed.

2 – The Programming Manager reviews the survey and then sends the survey link to the Project Manager and QA Manager for additional review.

3 – Both the Project Manager and the QA Manager review the programmed survey and have corrections made as needed.

4 – The client reviews the programmed survey and approves/ edits as needed.

5 – Sample is pulled for the survey, and survey invitations are sent.

Soft Launch

While not every provider does this, at Reckner we prefer to conduct a soft launch. The purpose of a soft launch is to provide an additional layer of quality checks, such as:

1 – Test the survey length (LOI).

2 – Conduct an initial data review

Full Launch, Fielding & Conclusion

1 – A cleaning program is written and finalized. The cleaning program is a program written by a back-end Data Reduction Specialist (not the person who programmed the survey) to ensure all data is within ranges and all questions are asked and answered as appropriate.

2 – Fielding is continually monitored through study completion to ensure the study is coming in at quote specification and to ensure timelines are met.

3 – Daily monitoring is provided in particular for identification of speeders, cheaters, and an inappropriate level of terminations.

4 – Daily monitoring also includes analysis of verbatims to ensure that coherent answers are provided.

5 – The Project Manager ensures that all requested deliverables are met. Data files and close-end tables are typically delivered the same day as fielding close. Coded data is generally delivered within 2 -4 days after fielding closes.

6 – The Project Manager communicates with the client to ensure the study is completed to their satisfaction and then closes out the study.

7 – Honoraria and invoices are sent within 2 weeks of study completion.

And that completes your tour of Reckner’s Quant Recruiting & Fieldwork process!