Buying sample
How to read what a supplier tells you, and what to ask when the answer is vague. Written for the person who has to sign off on the sample plan and then defend the findings.
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01
What a Partner Audit Changed
A supply partner walked the participant entry end to end before opening volume. Three of the things they asked for were things we had been meaning to do.
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02
Reading a sample supplier’s quality report
Most quality reports are written to survive being read, not to be used. A handful of questions separate the ones with measurement behind them.
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03
Three hops and the loss of provenance
Sample rarely travels in a straight line. Each time it changes hands something specific is lost, and by the third hand nobody can tell you where a respondent came from.
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04
Soft launch: what to look at in the first fifty completes
Almost everything that goes wrong with a study is visible in the first fifty and fixable for another two days after that
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05
The cost of a complete, decomposed
A CPI is four numbers wearing one coat, and which of the four is moving tells you whether the price is negotiable.
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06
Reading a feasibility quote you did not write
A single number with a timeline attached is a claim about eight separate things, four of which are properties of the panel rather than of your audience.
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07
ESOMAR 37, question by question
Thirty-seven questions, and about eight of them decide whether the answers to the other twenty-nine mean anything.