DIY Research (DIY Market Research) means marketing, customer or personnel research using online research methods that any individual or organization, whether they be a professional researcher or not, carries out via special online research software, or online survey tool. These survey software products allow users to connect and perform one-on-one online interviews,[1] [2] create online questionnaires,[3] distribute them to an email list[4] or internet access panels,[5] and analyze the data in real time without outsourcing[6] to a specialised research agency or data processing company.
Quantitative research is a structured approach to gathering and evaluating data from different sources using different statistical tools.[7] DIY quantitative research tools provide resources to individuals to identify sample needs based on specific criteria for their research study.[8] Historically, quantitative research studies required several resources – a sampling provider that manages a panel of individuals that match the demographic and psychographic needs of the researchers, tools for creating and implementing surveys, and tools for analyzing the results of such a survey.
DIY quantitative research systems are frequently software as a service (SaaS),[9] allowing for all participants in the market research process to collaborate in a single interface, while integrating with outside survey authoring and analytics tools.