Researchers, Please Join Our Pledge to Go Remote
As Covid-19 (the latest coronavirus strain) rapidly grows into a global epidemic, now is the time for urgent, bold, and thoughtful response plans from companies across the world. The World Health Organization said last week it is “time to pull out all the stops.” Epidemiologists anticipate that if not contained 5–10 million people across the globe could die from the virus.
UX Research teams and other qualitative-focused research companies need to shift business strategy now. We have a moral obligation to define our role in minimizing transmission of the virus.
AnswerLab is making 3 commitments:
- To support the health and safety of every employee, client, and participant
- To fulfill our social responsibility to minimize transmission of the virus and
- To ensure that clients continue to receive the insights they need in a timely fashion to support critical business decisions
AnswerLab has started the process of converting all in-person research to remote methodologies, temporarily closed our SF, NYC, and Gurgaon locations with employees working from home, and temporarily suspended travel for our team members. We will continue to monitor the progress of the virus in order to determine when in-person research can resume.
The vast majority of our in-person research will seamlessly switch to our remote approaches, leveraging the tools and platforms we’ve grown to love over the last 15 years. A few research projects may not be feasible in a remote environment, so we will postpone them until after this first wave of the Covid-19 has passed. If you are a client with a near-term project, expect to hear from your AnswerLab Strategist shortly.
We understand this decision may have a near-term financial impact on our business. That’s a risk we have prepared for and are willing to take in order to support the greater social good.
Today, we are asking all qualitative researchers to share this short-term commitment to remote research. The more we can each do our part to minimize the spread of the virus, the more we can support the health of humans across the globe and the long-term financial stability of all.
Will you pledge with us?
To help you get started, we are offering AnswerLab’s Guide to Remote Research which will be released on Thursday, March 12. In it, we will provide best practices for remote research, advice on creating a virtual best place to work, and our favorite platforms and tools for making remote research a success for stakeholders.
