How well do you know Singapore? That probably depends on how much time you’ve spent there. If you only spent a day in Singapore, you likely remember great things about it. You saw a few of the must-sees, sampled a highly-recommended restaurant, and enjoyed the frisson of excitement generated by being somewhere new. Maybe you got stuck in traffic or found the city’s layout confusing. Still, if I asked you to tell me about Singapore, I would probably get a highlights reel. The rosy lens of hindsight often blots out negative experiences.
But what if you lived in Singapore for work for three months and I asked you to email me every day? I’d get much more nuanced insight into the highs and lows of Singaporean expat life. I could ask about the experience of grocery shopping and what the biggest challenges are as you integrate into your new office. You could even send me some of your Slack conversations with your new coworkers. I could understand your experience as it unfolds and witness the intensity of your emotions along the way.
Online Research Communities: Real-Time Reporting, In-Depth Timeline
We see similar patterns in market research. An annoying login issue, needing to find a workaround for a clumsy UX, or challenging integration between two products might not get the full dramatic explanation from customers if you don’t ask about it until weeks later. Even if it significantly impacted customer experience at the time, they may not remember how annoyed they were when asked to recall how they felt after the fact.
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