Group Assignment for Sessions 1-2

Class,

This group homework is based on (a) Session 1 - problem formulation, (b) Session 2 - survey questionnaire design and part of (c) Session 3 - Qualitative methods.

It aims to familiarize the intricacies, advantages and limitations of the Questionnaire tool by actively getting you to design that tool. This is a group based homework. Only one submission per group. If you don't know who your group is, pls ask Aashish about this.

I hear some groups have enrolled 5 members whereas I'd specifically specified 4 per group. You have a choice to either let one member go (in which case we'll assign him/her) or be prepared to accept a higher burden of expectations when it comes to grading. Your call.

Problem Context

First read the following (small) newspaper articles from the past year's Economic Times.

How new startups like LiftO, Shuttl, rBus are trying to solve urban commuting problem

Ola launches social ride-sharing feature

If security concerns not addressed, on-demand service startups could spell disaster for firms

Your project consulting client is a startup in the urban social-commuting solutions space in India's top metros is still in the process of figuring out the contours of their revenue/business model which crucially depends what the demand levels are like for such services at what price, who to target and how.

Pick any one of the firms mentioned in the first two articles as your consulting client.

Task

Your task is to (1) Formulate the client's D.P. and corresponding R.O.s. (My suggestion: Choose a sharply defined D.P. that can be well-covered by at most 1-2 R.O.s; choose a suitably narrow demographic as your target population that isn't too heterogeneous in its likely needs and preferences).

(2) Next, identify the main construct(s) of interest ones that will likely drive demand for your client, ideally based on your R.O.s. (Hint: Think in terms of the average target customer's motives/needs and the his/her self-perception of the requirements)

(3) Design a questionnaire that: [a] surveys target segment respondents on their propensity to use app-based on-demand commuting solution services;
[b] can be taken in <15 minutes on a good net connection;
[c] collects info on the distribution of quantities of interest (such as awareness levels about these services, interest levels in using them, what price levels might be viable, etc.)

My suggestions before starting:

1. To understand this target segment's needs and preferences, do some preliminary, quick qualitative research: E.g., conduct a few interviews (these could be casual conversations or telephonic ones) with a few people in that target segment about the subject. Find out what they think, what they need, what they see others around them doing etc.

2. Write (or 'Program') your survey into Qualtrics. Obtain the "launch" survey link.

3. Bonus points for using SKIP logic in Qualtrics (or any other free websurvey software such as surveyMonkey or zoomerang), pretesting the survey with a few folks first, accounting for order effects etc in questionnaire design, etc.

Submission Format

You can either markdown (in Jupyter, or in Rstudio, or in Blogs) or a traditional PPT for this assignment. All future assignments will involve code and hence only markdown will be allowed.

Below is the submission format for a PPT. That for a markdown will be similar. Just divide the markdown webpage into sections [Title, Data, model, results etc]

Start with a plain white PPT. Save it as groupName_session1.pptx

Title slide: Homework name and names+ roll numbers of group members.

First slide: Brief description of your client and their business (Also, a line or two to justify why you picked them)

Second slide: Statement of D.P and corresponding R.O.s

Third slide: Brief Description of qualitative research carried out to first narrow-down what topics to cover in the survey.

Fourth slide: Make a table that maps the 1-2 major constructs to the corresponding survey question numbers.

Fifth slide: Deliverable - websurvey link. Should be a working link. Also, attach the word or PDF version of your questionnaire onto this slide. The Q numbers in the 4th slide should match the ones here.

Sixth slide: Any learnings you as a group made - E.g., what constructs were the easiest to measure? hardest? ON the average, how many Qs per construct did you have to use? Etc.

Update:

In the past, I got quite a few Qs asking if a scale other than Likert can be used etc. Sure, it can. Likert is important in the context of behavioral constructs. For regular, descriptive Qs, use other scales by all means. *Not* every Q has to be a likert.

Whether PPT or markdown, wrap your submission inside a story, as far as possible.

The instructions for how to get a qualtrics account will be put up on Linkstreet, if they haven't been done so already.

Deadline for this is midnight of 05-March (Saturday). Drop box for the PPT/ markdown webpage will be set accordingly.

Any queries etc, let me know.

Sudhir