Asynchronous or Live Presentation? Why Not Both?

The Challenge

A recruiting firm reached out to inquire about a last minute project. They were trying to upload pre-recorded videos on a platform and have a group of potential jurors go through each video presentation on their own throughout a single day. They planned  to select the jurors based on their responses to survey questions. Following final mock juror selection, the trial consultants wanted to conduct deliberation groups the following day. The recruiters were experiencing complications with their platform and worried that the project would not be executed on time. They came to Civicom Online Mock Jury Trials for help.

The Solution

The Civicom Chatterbox online mock jury trial platform was the right fit to support their online mock jury selection, to be followed the next day by participation in smaller deliberation groups using Civicom’s online focus group solution. Combined with our project facilitation support services, this was a winning combination.

What We Arranged

We immediately reached out to the invited participants to brief them about the process. We uploaded the presentations to be viewed by the potential jurors and programmed the questionnaires. We enabled masking, so that the potential jurors could not advance to the next presentation until completing the survey covering the video they had just viewed. 

We advised them that Civicom and the recruiters would be watching their progress throughout the day from the back end administrative panel, and would contact them in the event that we noticed that they were not advancing in viewing the content. This was to ensure that everybody would complete the viewing of  the presentations and surveys in the timeline that was given to them. The final selection of the mock jurors for deliberation groups was possible because the survey data to determine viability was available for perusal in real time as the surveys were completed.

The next step was using our web-enabled platform to set up the deliberation groups of eight mock jurors in each group. Preparing the platform for the live webcam deliberation was the easiest part since we facilitate hundreds of focus groups a week. The client was familiar with the platform so a quick run-through was all that we needed. 

We were able to help the client achieve specific data collection goals during deliberation by using tools available within our platform to conduct multiple polls of different types on the same screen simultaneously, allowing the deliberators to come to a collective agreement on a verdict. By using private chat that was seen only by the group moderator and the observers, the observers were able to suggest questions for the moderator to pose to the jurors, as well as to discuss the factors that were influencing the leanings in the case as the deliberations progressed.

Outcomes

Accomplishing last minute projects is second nature to Civicom. The client was anxious at first but when we explained how easy it would be for us to program their project their anxiety faded. With Civicom’s support the client was able to make several last-minute requests as they became increasingly familiar with all of the advantages possible with Civicom solutions. The client rightly felt that we were here to provide them with an outstanding experience.

We always say “we will take care of everything for you and your clients” and we mean it. The client experienced this first hand when they observed how prepared the selected mock jurors were. The participants were given clear instructions on how to login to the Chatterbox presentation platform and how to reach Civicom if they had questions. Civicom’s Chatterbox analytics tools helped the clients gain insights into the potential mock juror responses. Seeing the individual jurors’ progress in real-time helped them decide who to proceed with for the deliberation groups, as well as to get a handle early on regarding the potential issues and leanings of individual mock jurors. 

Once the final list of jurors were selected, and were transitioned to the online webcam platform where they would discuss the case in small groups, they all went through the tech check process, so logging into the platform and starting their webcams was uncomplicated.

During deliberation, the clients had the opportunity to observe the discussion and to send follow up questions to the moderator if needed. Streaming media video files for playback and audio files were uploaded to our secure Glide Central cloud site and were shared with clients who missed any sessions. 

Constant communication and preparedness made this project a great success. It was challenging at first given the stress the recruiter and client both initially felt, but with follow-ups and coordination, we were able to attain the results that they and we set out to fulfill.