Video discussions

Use video discussions to collect information about the behavior, attitudes, and perceptions of your Community members.

There are two types of video discussion activities. The one you choose depends on what is most convenient for your participants and you:

  • Scheduled video discussion

    Create scheduled timeslots in advance and invite participants to choose one of the available times. After participants are scheduled, you can send them invitations to the video discussion itself.

  • Instant video discussion (also known as ad hoc video discussion)

    Invite participants to the video discussion directly.

The following table provides a closer look at each video discussion type.

Scheduled video discussion Instant video discussion
Best for
  • Research
  • Engaging many participants
  • Participants' availability is unknown, so they are prompted to select one of your available interview times.
  • Research
  • Engaging a couple of participants
  • Participants' availability is known, so you can invite them directly to one timeslot.
Available communication types
To invite participants to choose a scheduled timeslot:
  • Schedule invitation
  • Schedule reminder
To update participants on video discussion changes:
  • Interview communication
  • Invitation
  • Reminder
  • External invitation (using a third party sample provider)
  • External reminder (using a third party sample provider)
  • Hub invitation
Incentives support No No
Allows multiple responses
  • Schedule invitations and reminders allow single responses.
  • Interview communications allow multiple responses.
Yes
Can duplicate the activity No No
Activity tabs
  • Set Up
  • Scheduling
  • Distribute
  • Track Participants
  • Set Up
  • Distribute
  • Track Participants

Best practices

Consider the following best practices when you are setting up a video discussion activity:

  • Try to keep the discussion group size to 4-6 participants to encourage participation from everyone. Larger groups can create a dynamic where some people dominate the conversation and others do not participate.
  • The slowest bandwidth in the group drags everyone down and slows down the conversation. Try to invite participants from the same geographic area to avoid degraded call quality. If possible, avoid having, for example, four European participants and one North American participant because the North American participant will likely slow down the discussion.
  • Use in-depth interviews (IDIs) where honest responses from participants are important. People tend to be more honest in IDIs than focus groups. For example, if a participant is asked how often they work out each week, they may be inclined to say they work out more than they do to look better in front of strangers than if they were asked the same question one-on-one.