Meet Research Rockstar’s SPSS instructor for some inside tips on how her SPSS course can benefit your career
Meet Julie Worwa, Research Rockstar’s SPSS instructor. She is also the sole proprietor at JMW Research, an independent market research consultancy. Julie successfully designs and executes goal-oriented market research programs designed to meet clients’ business objectives. She has personally completed 500+ primary research projects, with deep expertise in consumer behavior, customer satisfaction, market segmentation, needs discovery, and product concept testing. She enjoys building strong relationships with clients, communicating depth of expertise and results in clear, concise, and actionable reports and demonstrations. And our students give her rave reviews! Julie was recently interviewed by Melissa Donovan.
MD: Hi Julie, thank you for taking the time out for this interview. Let’s start with a traditional question. What sparked your initial interest in market research?
JW: I got started in market research by working with my dad. He had a long-term position with General Mills and left that job to start his own company. I worked with him as a teenager coding questionnaires, handling some data processing issues, and babysitting the kids of the mothers who came in for taste tests. It was a lot of fun, however in a fit of teenage rebellion, I decided I would never do MR ever again! I started a different major in college and worked in Arts Administration for several years. One of my responsibilities was to discover what would cause our donors to contribute more money to the organization, very much like MR clients needing to understand what leads to more sales or better financial performance. Well, one thing led to another, I got an advanced degree, and ended up in MR.
Interestingly, I met my husband through my MR career. At one point, I was hired to replace him in an analysis position and inherited all his old projects. I couldn’t read his handwriting (still can’t), so I would call him up regularly so he could explain to me what was going on with his former projects. After a year, this led to a date and the rest is history!
MD: What is an example of something you teach in this class that can really make a survey researcher’s life easier?
JW: One of the things I found with a lot of researchers is that they are very strong with project management skills and people skills but may lack data skills. Sometimes they just don’t have a lot of data analysis experience and want to know how to manipulate a data file or run their own analyses. People skills, of course, are really important, but being able to leverage those skills and combine them with analytical skills helps both researchers and clients have confidence in the market research team and the results that the team is presenting. Using SPSS (which is considered one of the premiere analytical software packages out there) can really help give more credibility to a researcher when they are talking to their clients. Understanding how to generate and use your own analysis in SPSS and have meaningful conversations with your research team and clients really helps to add value to the data.
MD: What are some of the most interesting conversations you have had in this class?
JW: The way I structure the class is to set things up so there is no such thing as a “stupid question.” A lot of people get into MR because of their people skills or PM skills so they aren’t as strong in software or statistics. My students have asked really sensible questions about how to interpret analyses that occur in real-life situations. I’m delighted to be able to provide practice language for students to use in real-life. The students have been really great and uninhibited in my classes and we’ve had great conversations about “what if” scenarios and what to do if you get odd results.
MD: What is something interesting about SPSS that is beneficial to students?
JW: I use SPSS output and data tools to create simulators, segmentation tools, and interactive applications in Excel. Basically, clients can have a “toy” that gives them a more visual way to understand their data if they want it. I take SPSS data and create my own Excel-based applications that help to add that value to the data so that it’s more visual and interactive. Being able to use SPSS, Excel, and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is a lot of fun and increases my knowledge of the story in the data.
Interested in taking a class with Julie and gaining some new skills to advance your market research career? Research Rockstar offers 2 SPSS courses, available in real-time and on-demand formats.
- Introduction to SPSS On Demand An introductory SPSS class for beginners. If you have never touched SPSS before, or if it has been years since you have, we can get you started with our hands-on step-by-step SPSS course. This 4-part program starts with the very basics of importing and formatting data, and concludes with conducting and reading crosstabs with significance testing. Optional modules for CHAID, regression, Factor analysis and Cluster analysis.
- Prefer a real-time format to on-demand? Check out our live Intro to SPSS course. This course starts October 13 from 11am-12:30pm and runs four consecutive Tuesdays (10/13, 10/20, 10/27 & 11/3). All real-time classes meet in our virtual classroom: no travel required.
- SPSS 201 On Demand If you have completed our Intro to SPSS course (or equivalent), here is your next step for advancing your SPSS skills! Our SPSS 201 course covers multi-level crosstabs, weighting, factor analysis and regression. Get hands-on in our virtual classroom as the instructor takes you step-by-step. Note: This course is designed as a “flipped” classroom: students will watch pre-recorded demonstrations as homework, and will complete SPSS exercises during class time. This gives students real-time coaching from their expert instructor, accelerating their learning.
- Live SPSS 201. This course starts November 17 from 11am-12:30pm and runs four consecutive Tuesdays (11/17, 11/24, 12/1 & 12/8).
If you are already a Research Rockstar member, these courses are in your Training Portal. Not yet a member? We have options.
