Business Communication, Third Edition

SQ3 How do you conduct primary research?

Some research questions or problems require that you conduct your own original, or primary, research. Imagine that you want to know which learning management systems are used most widely in your industry. If no one else has already done this research, you could use any of the following primary research techniques:

• Compose a survey—or standardized questionnaire—to distribute to the head of training of each company in your industry.

• Interview content experts to get their in-depth thoughts about available systems.

• Conduct observational research to determine how difficult it will be for new managers to learn how to use a system. You could get a trial version of the software, input trial data, ...