Bulletin Board Communities
METHOD:
A bulletin board community is an online or mobile asynchronous research discussion conducted over a period of time. Communities are conducted via “Message Board” format in which the moderator posts questions and participants respond. Community participants frequently share selfie videos and photos. Ideally suited to patient populations, where sharing and engagement naturally take place.
BENEFITS:
- Get more feedback due to unlimited “talk time”
- Recruit geographically dispersed participants, eliminating time zones as a factor
- Incubation breeds intimacy; by sharing over time participants trust more and go deeper
- Participants respond to key questions via authentic, powerful “selfie videos”
EXAMPLES:
- Explore and refine a diabetes telemedicine product
- Identify barriers to using a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to better market the device to non-users
- Understand the everyday struggles of T1 Teens
dQ&A’s online bulletin board community method gave us such rich responses from people with Type 1 diabetes. We were able to leverage the voice of the patient, organic and unadulterated, as part of our unmet needs campaign. The dQ&A team did a really great job on this project!”
