OVERVIEW

Client

Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Victoria State Government, Australia

Project team & my role

1 Researcher(me)

1 Note taker

1 Project manager

I planned the research process, conducted the in-depth interviews, hosted the co-creation workshops, analysed and synthesised data and produced the content for final deliverables.analysed and synthesised data and produced the content for final deliverables.

Timeline

3 weeks Research planning

4 weeks Conducting research

3 weeks Research synthesis and production of deliverables

BACKGROUND

Department of Immigration and Citizenship from Victoria, Australia enaged us to better understand the attitude, needs and expectations of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) in China seeking to migrate to Australia. We aimed to answer the following question:

“How might we better design theLIV* website to attract more people to migrate to Victoria?”

*The Live In Victoria (LIV) website is a core audience engagement and networking tool for the Skilled and Business Migration Program (SBMP). It supports the program to generate greater economic value to the Victorian economy through migration.

To do this, we engaged in a qualitative research program that included contextual interviews with 20 High Net Worth Individuals and co-creation workshops with 12 Migration Agents across five cities in China.

RESEARCH PLANNING

In order to answer the above question, I broke down the question into these following parts using the 5W1H framework:

Based on the above framework, I further developed the discussion guide for one-on-one interviews.

---

DISCUSSION GUIDE

Introduction

[Welcome the participant, offer them tea or coffee. Offer the opportunity to use bathroom facilities.]

Morning! My name is Iris and I work for On Off Design Technology, a digital research company. Thank you for coming here today. The purpose of our interview today is to gather your thoughts and opinions on application process of migration to Australia (Victoria). Today’s session will last for approximately one hour. If you want to stop for a break at any time, just say so.

We want to record in video/audio for today’s session so that we can analyze the data in depth at a later stage. The recording will not be used for any other purpose. Please read and sign this consent form, which states that you give us permission to record audio.

[Administer consent form.]

Thank you! Before we start, may I know your age group and profession?

[Moderator collect following data: age group, profession]

Profiling-personal

Age & occupation?

Can you describe a typical day of you on weekdays and at weekends?

Who usually makes decisions about family issues at home?

Tell us about your family? How large is it? Does any of your family live overseas already?

Have any of your friends moved overseas? What do you think about that?

Profiling-technology

Would you say that you use technology extensively in your normal day-to-day activities?

Do you have computers/ tablets/ phones?

What do you mainly use these devices for?

Motivation

Why are you interested in migrating?

Are you looking to leave China (PUSH) or simply move to another country (PULL)?

Do you have friends/ acquaintances that are also considering migration?

What matters most to you when you are considering where to migrate? Why? (Please name the top 3 factors)

What destinations have you considered?

What do you think of each of those options?

Do you have any preferences of your migration destination now? Any reasons behind the decision?

Is this something you are doing for yourself or your children?

Migration journey

Can you tell me your story of migration?

When did you become interested in migration?

When did you become interested in migrating to a certain country?

When did you start to approach an agent?

When did you start the application process?

What happened in those stages that trigger you to consider more seriously about migration?

How does your family factor into this decision?

What or who else has ever impacted you decisions about migration? In what ways?

What information do you want to know when making the decision?

Where do you get information about migration in each stage?

How do you feel in each stage?

How did you learn about your migration agent?

What made you choose this particular migration agent?

Could you tell me about how your application goes now?

How do you find the overall process?

Have you met any difficulties along the process? What “keeps you up at night” in this process?

Who have you been in touch with as part of this process? When & how?

If you could change one thing about the process, what would it be?

Future

If your migration is/has been successful, tell us what you expect your life to look like? What would a normal day be like?

Debrief

Once again, I’d like to say thanks for coming today.

[Give the participant their incentive]

Do you have any comments or questions about today’s session?

---

Moderating interviews

We flew to 5 cities in China in a month to conduct 20 in-depth interviews and 2 co-creation workshops. The schedule was tight but I really enjoyed the process!

Synthesizing data

Qualitative research is not just about collecting data. It is also about the researcher finding linkage between what the interviewee says, making sense of them and seeing the underlying theme that is common across participants. However, turning the raw data into insights is a daunting task given large volumes of research data.

Problems with huge amount of research data

In interview sessions, I took notes while I was moderating the interview. I decided to type all my notes into a word file everyday as we think it would be the best way to collaborate. The notes began to pile up quickly. In the end, our team (2 people) ended up with a Word document with over 80 pages!What’s more, the limited screen size added an extra layer on difficulty on top because it was hard to see all the findings at a glance.

Our practice

Since the screen is limiting our ability to draw connections between findings, we decided to write down key findings on post-it notes (organised by cases first) and put them all on the walls in our office. After that, each of us presented our key findings and we combined them by picking out the duplicated ones and those in doubt (for findings that we didn’t have any agreement upon, we need to go back to the recordings and find the context again). Because we presented our key findings , we now had a common understanding on the meaning behind each post-it note. Then, we were ready to draw connections between a pool of findings that we agreed upon.

We experimented with the practice above and the it turned out to perform pretty well!

If I would have the chance to plan the research schedule again, I would:

1. use post-it notes to mark down findings instead of typing to computers.

2. use different colours to differentiate “observations” and “insights”.

3. debrief with the team by writing down key observations and discussing the insights after each interview session.The reason is as follows. 1) We could mark down all the interesting details without spending extra time listening to the recordings. 2) Interpretations are subjective conclusions based on objective observations. Each team member could interprete the same observation in different ways depending on their different lens and values. Therefore, it is important for a research team to align on the meaning behind what we see and what we hear. To do that, we need to do it when everyone could recall all the details about a case clearly so that we could base our discussions on facts. And there is no better time than debriefing right after the interview.

CONCLUSIONS

Summary of insights

Motivation to migrate:

Four factors drive migration: lack of financial and political security, poor food safety standards, poor air quality and a lack of faith in the education system within China.

Leaving China is seen as an inevitability by many people.

Migration is often an inter-generational story.

Networks:

The money used to meet investment requirements for migration can come from other family members.

Migrants rely heavily on their own networks to discover and determine where to migrate.

Victorian Government Business Offices are not generally known by prospective migrants.

Migration Agents:

Migration Agents can be perceived as salespeople, not trusted advisors.

Prospective migrants rely heavily on Migration Agents once they are engaged in the process.

Prospective migrants rely on Migration Agents to provide extensive post-migration services.

LIV Website:

Subjects usually search for information in Chinese.

The lack of (non-PDF) Chinese content on the Live in Victoria website impedes discovery by prospective migrants.

The content on the Live in Victoria website is not aligned with the motivations of key user groups.

English language skills:

English is a barrier for subjects in the early stages of the migration journey.

Contextual Influences

State-owned enterprises:

Most of the subjects interviewed have worked in State Owned Enterprises (SOE’s). Subjects employed by SOE’s expressed frustration with their migration experience which were linked to (and often caused by) their relationship with SOE’s.

First & Second Generation Wealth:

Subjects consistently used the terms “first generation wealth” and “second generation wealth”, as a method of division and self-identification.

Guanxi — a Network of Mutually Beneficial Relationships:

Guanxi is an important concept at the core of commercial relationships in China. Perceived lack of consistency in the rule and enforcement of law has created a business dynamic that emphasises reputation and informal connections as the mechanism through which commerce is conducted.

Key Personas

Four key personas emerged from the research, based on their migration plan:

Family Driven:

‘Pioneer’ mindset — Family first, self later.

‘Fresh start’ mindset — Family & self together.

Business Driven:

‘Expansion’ mindset — continues to have business interests in China.

‘New beginning’ mindset — move all operations to Australia, no longer visit China.

Opportunities & Recommendations

Create a Mandarin version of the website.

Make the site responsive so that it can viewed on a variety of mobile devices.

Surface the most commonly sought information.

Serve content in a way that is shareable on social media.

Create content that highlights the advantages of living in Victoria.

Create video content to build and deepen relationships.

Feature education-focused information.

Feature business support and investment information.

Provide live chat support.

Optimise SEO for Baidu.

Promote investment events.

Engage with migration agents.

Encourage photo and story sharing.

Information about the research approach, design & methodology are contained in the appendix.

DELIVERABLES

Personas