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Data Gurus Podcast | Insights on Business Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions, Market Research & Data CollectionAuthor: Sima Vasa
Welcome to the the Data Gurus Podcast! The world around us is changing faster than ever before. From automation, artificial intelligence, big data, geo-location to every aspect of how we work and live. This includes DATA. Welcome to Data Gurus Podcast our mission is to bring you a real life perspective on whats happening in the data industry and how successful companies and individuals in this niche navigate through the sea of change. Encouraging you to Be Bold, Be Brave and Be Fearless Lets navigate the Data Ecosystem together. Language: en-us Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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#281: Respondent-First Research with Steven Snell of Rep Data
Tuesday, 6 October, 2026
Steven Snell, EVP, Head of Research of Rep Data, joins host Sima Vasa to discuss why data quality starts with the questionnaire, not the fraud filter. Steven also covers where synthetic panels fall short for niche audiences, why higher incentives attract professional fraudsters and the case for shorter, more frequent research. KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00 Introduction. 08:53 DIY research swings like a pendulum, and a pullback means fewer bad surveys in the field. 12:04 The golden rule of surveys is to write the one you’d want to take. 16:44 Low-quality respondents in training data contaminate synthetic panels and perpetuate bias at scale. 22:27 Paying respondents more doesn’t improve answers, and high incentives attract professionalized fraudsters. 24:34 Online qual at scale needs panels recruited for cameras and microphones, not surveys. 30:15 Two-minute, TikTok-friendly pulses are a better future for research than 20-minute surveys. Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. RESOURCES MENTIONED Rep Data, Steven’s market research and data quality company, which completed three acquisitions in four months to build an end-to-end research workflow Research Defender, Rep Data’s pre-survey fraud prevention tool that blocks bots, fraudsters and high-risk traffic before respondents enter a survey ReDem, the in-survey and post-survey data cleaning platform Rep Data acquired to pair with Research Defender SightX, the end-to-end consumer research platform Rep Data acquired, with its data quality tools built in natively Market Research Council, the nearly 100-year-old membership organization of market research executives that Steven has led as president for the last two years AAPOR, the American Association for Public Opinion Research, whose annual conference Steven references in the discussion on respondent incentives #MRX #Data #Restech
