Listening to the Customer
MIT Sloan's 15.821 covers qualitative marketing research methods used to understand customers before quantitative studies begin. The course teaches how to design and conduct one-on-one interviews, run focus groups, apply Voice of the Customer techniques, and compose effective survey questions. It is aimed at nonspecialists headed toward general management, product management, R&D, advertising, or entrepreneurship, rather than research specialists. Materials include lecture notes, assignments, and readings from MIT OpenCourseWare, following the structure of an actual MIT Sloan course. The course pairs conceptually with a companion course, 15.822, which handles quantitative market research methods like sampling and conjoint analysis, though that course is not included here. Coursework emphasizes the front end of a typical two-stage market research project, where qualitative work sharpens the questions asked in a later quantitative survey. No certificate is offered, consistent with MIT OpenCourseWare's open publishing model.