Clients love simulators! They intuitively express the magnitudes of respondent preferences about features and pricing. Practical questions can be addressed quickly and with high confidence. But are they well grounded?
Simulators execute models of ample combinatorial space. Respondent observations cannot cover the whole space – it's simply too big. In a conjoint, sets of representative points are chosen. Then, big math (HBMCMC) fills in the gaps to generate parameter estimates.
At IntelliSurvey, we focus on ensuring that the survey environment places respondents in a mindspace where they can interact intuitively with the tradeoffs. Absent such, respondents may not observe the evolving parameters, and the estimates in the simulator will reside on loose foundations.
By way of example, it is often prudent to introduce a respondent to the conjoint environment to help them prepare to interact with the choices.
We work with researchers to frame respondents' exercises as naturally as possible so those beautiful simulators reside on firmer footing. To learn more about how we do this, please get in touch.