Insight Community at a glance
An online insight community is a closed environment with carefully selected members of your target group. People discuss topics, complete tasks, keep diaries, or respond to tests. It’s a strong fit when you need to quickly understand the “why” behind customer behaviour, validate concepts and communication, or build a long-term panel for repeated questions. At NMS, we run insight communities in Echonity and combine them with qualitative research or online research (CAWI).
Quick summary:
- Closed community = moderated discussions + tasks (diaries, polls, tests).
- Works short-term (typically days–weeks) and long-term (months–years).
- Best for “why / how”, but can include quantitative elements (polls).
- Typical use cases: concept testing, communication testing, UX, customer journey, competition.
- In Echonity, AI helps you summarise and navigate respondent feedback.
- The output is not “just data”: you get interpretation and recommendations + respondent quotes.
When an online community pays off most (and who it helps)
An insight community makes sense when you don’t want a one-off “report for the drawer”, but fast feedback during decision-making—whether you’re tuning a product, communication, or customer experience. It’s also a good choice when quantitative data tells you what, but you still need why (which is why we often combine it with online surveys (CAWI)).
Typical areas:
- Product & innovation – new product development, in-home tests, pre-launch validation.
- Communication & creative – testing emails/newsletters, claims, visuals, campaign concepts.
- CX & competition – mapping the customer journey and competitor best practices (often building on shopper/customer purchase behaviour research).
- UX & digital – validating websites/apps, prototypes, information architecture (see user testing).
Outputs you can use in decision-making right away
From an insight community, you get a clear insight report with key findings, the “why” behind them, and practical recommendations—supported by quotes and real examples of participant responses. You also get topic summaries across segments and outputs from specific tasks based on your brief (e.g., diaries, photos, videos, or reactions to concepts).
If you need to decide quickly between variants, we can add short polls or mini-tests—and recommend when it’s worth following up with quantitative research (or when you already have enough evidence to act).
Why an online community in Echonity
Echonity is our qualitative environment for insight communities, discussion boards, diaries, and polls—built to increase participant engagement (including gamification) and make community management easier. More context about our tools is here.
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Questions and answers
What is an online insight community (MROC)?
A closed online space with selected members of your target group. They discuss topics, complete tasks, and share experiences. The goal is to quickly understand the “why” and get usable insights.
When is an insight community better than a one-off qualitative study?
When you need repeated questions over time, ongoing testing, or you want to build a long-term customer panel.
How long does a community usually run, and how many people participate?
Short-term communities typically run for 5–30 days (often 15–30 participants). Long-term communities can run for years and may have 100+ members.
Can you do “quick quant” inside a community?
Yes. With enough members, you can add polls and quickly compare variants (e.g., visuals, slogans, concepts).
What deliverables will I get from an insight community?
Typically a report with findings and recommendations, topic summaries of discussions, quote extracts, and task outputs (diaries, photos, videos) based on your brief.
How does AI help in Echonity?
AI can summarise discussions, surface hot topics, analyse diaries and comments, and highlight key moments (Experience Highlights).
Which teams benefit most from an insight community?
Product/UX, marketing/brand, CX/customer care, innovation, and e-commerce—anywhere decisions need to be fast and grounded in the voice of the customer.
