If you do survey research, should you learn SPSS?
What if you have colleagues who normally do the data analysis for you, might it still be worthwhile for you, as a market research professional, to learn SPSS? The answer is, “it depends.” There are several considerations, but one of the big ones is whether or not your projects require data analysis beyond the basics.
That is, when analyzing your survey data, is it likely you will see things that may make additional analysis valuable? A simple example: you are reviewing some basic data about customer feedback about satisfaction with product attribute A and B, and you notice that there is a bigger gap between the two than one would expect. You have a lightbulb moment of, “I wonder if the people who are satisfied more with one versus the other have a different profile than those who rated them similarly”? Good question! Now, do you go back to your data analyst to run that for you, or do you want to do it quickly yourself? If you want the ability to do it quickly yourself, SPSS skills would be handy.
For more tips on deciding whether or not learning SPSS would be worthwhile for you, here’s a short Conversation.
Not all survey researchers need to learn SPSS, but it is worth consideration in specific situations.
For information on SPSS Training for survey researchers, please visit our Market Research Training Store.
