Connected tools: User-coded open ends

User-coded open ends allow participants to content analyze their own open responses into structured categories which they define themselves. Participants first provide their unaided opinions about a stimulus. Next they interpret and tag their answers and assign them to categories generated by peers. Finally participants reassess the question with the entire set of user generated codes as if it was a closed ended question. As such respondents are inspired by the answers of other peers which allows to adequately prioritize consumer outtakes. This procedure has multiple advantages compared to traditional open ended questions: richer insights, not subjectively coded by a third party and lower cost.

When use this tool?

• In product innovation research this procedure can be perfectly used for capturing and ranking likes and dislikes of product concepts and ideas. Participants code their own responses and are inspired by those of others.
• In communication research users can code their own spontaneous outtakes related to an ad stimulus. As such the technique identifies which messages should be stressed or altered in the communication campaign.
• For satisfaction studies customers can classify their open ended experiences into peer defined categories. Companies can then identify top priorities for customer experience base on customer clarification.

User-coded open ends are mostly integrated into quantitative studies but can also be used in preparation for survey development, e.g. to identify response categories.

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