THE highest-profile polling firm in the province wants to be known for much more than how Manitobans are going to vote in the next election.
Mary Agnes Welch and Curtis Brown, the principals at Probe Research, want to continue the good work the firm has done over the past 30 years, while also diversifying into new areas in creative ways to provide even more indispensable information to their clients.
“We want to be a part of all of the important conversations happening in our community,” says Welch.
“We want to be the go-to source for data and insights about what people think and how to make things better in Manitoba.” Welch, who spent more than 15 years as a reporter covering politics and public policy at the Winnipeg Free Press, and Brown became co-owners at Probe in 2019.
They recently took full ownership and management of the firm after buying out company founder Scott MacKay in June. Brown, who has similar journalism chops as a reporter at the Prince Albert Daily Herald, Brandon Sun and the Winnipeg Free Press, says Probe regularly conducts deep data dives as well as qualitative research like focus groups and in-depth interviews, along with surveys.
“We’re trying to get a deep understanding of how people make decisions and how they feel about things at various points in a journey,” he said. Welch and Brown have already begun to work on more complicated projects that mix hard numbers with the more nuanced insights that come from real, face-to-face conversations. Some of Probe’s key clients include credit unions, universities and colleges, municipal governments and professional associations as well as The Forks, Travel Manitoba, The Winnipeg Foundation and the Downtown BIZ.
“We try to ask really smart, conversational questions of people who sometimes don’t get asked. We talk to people in a thousand different ways. That’s harder to do than most people realize,” Welch says.
In addition to building its presence in Manitoba, where it does about 70 per cent of its business today, Probe is also looking to ramp up its presence outside of the province. Ontario and Alberta, in particular, are in the company’s crosshairs.
“A lot of companies start here and then punch above their weight nationally and internationally,” Brown says. “Our background in journalism really helps us in what we do. We try to tell a really clear and crisp story that highlights the most important things for our clients to know.”
Four Tips For Smart Questions
LET’S be honest – we’ve all answered our share of confusing, boring, vaguely irritating survey questions in our lives. Probe staff have come up with some rules they live by that might help you next time you’re jotting down ideas for a survey.
- Ask questions Sesame Street-style: Clear, simple, conversational questions are always more effective, more engaging and more useful. Start with the basics and work your way up. Remember that respondents probably haven’t spent one minute thinking about your issue or product the way you have. When in doubt, think about how you’d ask your granny the question.
- Keep it short: No, shorter than that. Nope, it’s still too long. Ten minutes max. Figure out what you really need to know and what’s just a nice-to-know. For every question, think – how will I use the responses to this? Every single question should propel you to action or strategy. If it doesn’t, drop it.
- Focus on getting information,not giving it A survey isn’t your chance to educate the world about your issue N=600 people at a time. That’s what ads are for. Long, technical descriptions and detailed preambles to questions turn off respondents, risk biasing responses and defeat the purpose of a survey: to listen and genuinely understand people and their opinions in good faith.
- Don’t ask “why?” Surveys are best at answering the “what” – what people value, what they do, what their satisfaction levels are, what they agree with. Surveys are bad at asking people “why”, in part because people are bad at explaining their “whys”. Save the “why” for a face-to-face discussion in a focus group.
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