How to use snapchat to do customer interviews with young people

This is not a quick QA because not only were we asked the question, but we ended up doing the work and have so much to tell you about it. Make that cuppa and get ready to read.

We were approached by a not-for-profit foundation supporting people living with Cystic Fibrosis. Cystic Fibrosis is a disease that causes thick mucus to build up in the lungs, digestive tract, and other areas of the body.It is one of the most common life-limiting genetic disorders of the lungs. Living with CF as a young person is challenging, and they often have to face a future of ongoing challenges, medical check-ups, hospital visits, and complications that cause serious interruptions to living a happy life as a young person. They live with interruptions to their daily lives, with lots of responsibilities to learn, including the importance of exercise and medications, staying up to date with schooling, being social, and fitting in after sometimes spending much time away from their peers. They form strong bonds with their family and clinical team, and staying social and active as a young person is challenging.

The foundation provided government-funded programs and raise awareness, advocacy, providing support for families and young people, and conduct research. They came to Listen + Do because, previously, when it came time to complete program evaluations, they worked with program evaluation consultants and had a gut vibe: if they were going to engage to evaluate a program, how could they use that time to engage more deeply and do meaningful listening? They felt there were voices or experiences missing, and that previous engagement was not going deep enough. They wanted to explore whether there was a better way to connect with young people and how they could evaluate these programs so that not only did the process assess the current work, but it also explored together with the people the programs are for—how they could do better next time, seek new opportunities, and learn different ways to build better engagement.

Together the foundation and Listen + Do explored how we could do things differently. Bringing in our deep experience in qualitative research and deep listening, and turning what we hear into action insights with a preference for different participatory approaches we knew that their traditional ways of engaging through focus groups, on zoom or where parents, carers or clinical teams speak on behalf of their children — were not good enough. While they can offer valuable insights, they can't speak to the direct experiences of their children or the context of young people. We knew from the start that we wanted to be directly engaging with the young people, in way that felt familiar to them, designing a communication approach that met them where they are at.

The first step was to engage with the young people to learn how they would like us to engage with them, what accessible engagement actually means, and how to meet them where they’re at. We also needed to engage with the parents and carers to find out how this would land for them — where we would involve them in the process, and how we would involve them, especially when the outcome was to let the young person control the process without them. We asked the young people themselves: how do you want to be contacted, how do you want to be communicated with, and what is going to be the most comfortable, easy, and fun way to engage with us? By doing this, we were showing them we were making a commitment to do engagement differently, instantly putting them in the driver's seat of engagement. We asked whether social media or a tool such as Snapchat would work. And the young people answered with an overwhelmingly BIG FAT YES!

Whilst there was much enthusiasm about doing a different approach there was some hesitancy about the practical challenges of how were we going to do research using an approach like this, in specific to young people who are living with co-complexities of a chronic disease where conversations whilst not planned to be super-sensitive, because of their life experience issues around health and challenges of living with CF would come up. We had to consider how were we going to be responsible in the process of engagement, what were the processes, and was the person engaging experience enough to manage the conversations. We had to navigate challenges around parental permission and online safety. In this circumstance Listen + Do proved to be the exact right people having the additional bonus of expertise in listening, research and actioning insights but also having worked extensively across health and social services.

We didn’t want to go through parents first and have them be the ones to tell their children about the project. Instead, we wanted to give the young people control from the start. So, we approached parents, explained the opportunity, and asked if it was okay for their child to participate. After that, we went directly to the young person, ensuring co-consent between parents and the young person. Once we had consent, we added the young people on Snapchat. We set up an organisation-specific account and made sure they understood how it would be used: what their rights were, what would happen when they shared with the account, and what support was available to them if they ever needed it. This included connecting them to the support team at the foundation, which included healthcare professionals. We were clear that the account was temporary—just for purpose of this bit of research. But if it worked, there we would present that as evidence for funding for work to be done so that foundation can adapt to communicating and engaging for different purposes via digital social communication platforms. 

It is not to say, the foundation was hesitant as this feels risky. Especially when they are a support service that provides services next to and in partnership of social and health services. But this is kinda where we get to have fun, as a separate, independent entity – we get to be a little rebellious because if all-hell breaks loose there is less accountability on the foundation and more accountability on us. This fear was mitigated and ‘soothed’ by this fact and the reminder that the way we are doing the research, is research itself. We are listening through the act of the research getting the insights needed, and at the same time researching new methods and approaches of doing the research. It was proposed as a “test” or “pilot” which gave some room for trying and failing. Especially as we were external to the foundation and doing the work. The "test" approach allowed us to gain approval more easily. 

It also helped that we have a very strong background in health, working with young people, and ensuring proper safety checks. We ourselves were confident that we could create a space that felt secure, supportive, and comfortable for everyone involved. Also the researcher leading this work was a registered health professional, who is bound by mandatory standards, which added an extra layer of trust and safety. 

We decided to conduct the research using Snapchat, which from the initial bit of research to find out how to do the research showed this was the preferred engagement for young people we were working with. It was set up so the young person could choose video, text or voice audio. We did preference video as video helps us read body language and facial expressions—important data for any kind of research. But gave the choice to the young person based on how they were willing, or could engage and what format would enable them to engage fully so we can gain true and deep insights into their experiences. 

As the researcher, it was challenging. The researcher had to be available from early morning to late evening, since engagement times were unpredictable. Again this was on purpose, as the act of booking in a time puts pressure on the young person, and a commitment almost to show up even if they aren’t in the ‘mood’. The goal was deep, real, insights of their experience.So we kept it open to them, with some loose times around when we might connect. At the beginning of each conversation the researcher got personal, sharing who they are, what background noises they might hear (kids, birds), what they were doing (eating dinner, what they were eating), who they are, where they live – all within appropriate boundaries. This was to set a conversational casual tone as a basis of the research. 

Once the conversations got going, the data started coming in quickly—and in different formats. Snapchat, however, wasn’t designed for research. Messages were disappearing and if the settings were not right there was risk of losing data. At one point the researcher had to seek consultation from their own ‘teens’ on how to use Snapchat and why their messages were disappearing. There was quick learning happening and the researcher had to adapt fast. Being flexible was important. We made it so young people engaged with us when they could and how they wanted and when that was happening we never wanted to stop the flow so we had to keep up! 

We learnt that Snapchat on desktop wasn’t user-friendly, so we had to save audio, text, and images right away and use AirDrop (Apple to Apple) to store the research data. We had already set up where our data was going ready to make sense of and for synthesis later on, but having data coming through in different formats the mass amounts of work was realised – but again, we just needed to go with the flow. The goal, to remind us, was true and deep insights. 

We also had to be prepared for the unexpected. Research questions were structured, but as with any real-world conversations, we followed the natural flow of inquiry. It was tough because we didn’t always know where the young person was emotionally or mentally, so we frequently checked in to see if they were still comfortable and ok to engage. Because it is online and we could not always see them. We did not know where they were when they got our messages, sending an audio message back to them when they were with their peers wouldn’t have been ok. So just as we did the research, to see how we communicated for the research, on a regular basis we had to check in and make sure the way we are communicating with them is ok. 

Despite these hiccups, the young people really responded to the approach in a good way. The flexibility of being able to engage when they were ready—whether it was morning, evening, or late-night—was a game-changer. It worked, even though, from a financial standpoint, it was a time-intensive process. The work was choppy, after hours and required intense availability. It was with that,  important to note that this type of research required a level of flexibility that most traditional research approaches don’t offer. Engagement in the evenings, when young people were free from school or work, was the norm. If done by employees and not us, this would require adjustments to employee work hours. It is something we rant and rave on about though, the fact most employees who do this work don’t do research outside hours and weekends is kinda a joke – so many missed people when we work that way.  

Outcomes

• Snapchat was a preferred choice of research for young people compared to other ways of being engaged with before.

• It worked well because, as young people living with a chronic condition, their ability to engage is unpredictable.

• They are also managing their health alongside still attempting to attend school when well, managing jobs, hobbies, and social events alongside hospital appointments and unwell days.

• The foundation acknowledged that the research got deeper insights than they had gotten before and acknowledged the impact it had on the young people they engaged with.

• We had kids engaging from different locations; one was early for work at a fast-food place and was sitting at work in their uniform writing to us. They even sent a snap about it.

• The ability to engage when they want was really helpful for the young person.

• One young person got unwell during the engagement in the evening and was able to communicate that and end the research for that day.

• We had the ability to touch base, and despite that research interview lingering for a week or two, we ended up engaging again when they were ready and got some really deep insights.

• The foundation acknowledged that the research got deeper insights than they had gotten before and acknowledged the impact it had on the young people they engaged with.

• The research identified that young people would like to get support via Snapchat as an ongoing service by the foundation, which they are funded for.

• In this research, we positioned the young people as the experts, entering the conversation telling them (which is true) “imagine you were running this foundation.

• We discussed the problems, but to make sure they felt in the driver’s seat, we wanted to make it participatory, shifting to ideation with them at the end of the research.

• We managed to get young people-driven ideas for the future and started to embed the idea that we would like to engage with them on a regular basis for their ideas, and if their ideas can be approved and funded, they would be invited for continued involvement, and in some cases, hired by the foundation to lead and be involved.

The impact, in our client's own words

🎉 We saw increased participation from young people aged 13–17, a group that had previously been harder to engage—especially given the added complexity of their experiences living with chronic illness.

🎉 Engagement was highly flexible, allowing young people to participate in ways that suited their lives and health needs. This flexibility created space for more authentic, honest conversations, with clearer, more meaningful insights.

🎉 Most importantly, we met young people where they were at—physically, emotionally, and practically. Engagement felt more accessible, which made it easier for them to be involved in a way that worked for them.

🎉 Normally, our engagement relies heavily on parent relationships to help us connect with young people. But in this approach, we saw a noticeable shift—young people were engaging with us more directly, without needing that same level of parental involvement.

The moments when we realised we were really meeting young people where they were at were when one young person engaged in research while sitting at Hungry Jack’s after school, waiting for their shift to start; when another felt okay to stop a session because they started to feel sick and then re-engaged when they were better; and when another shared that doing this around medical appointments was really helpful.

For young people living with cystic fibrosis, balancing school, sport, medical appointments, medications, and everything else that comes with the condition, this flexibility made a real difference. It gave them the space to connect in a way that felt manageable and on their terms, which ultimately helped us be more connected and engage with them more meaningfully.

Some things for you to think about

This research approach can be applied by other foundations, groups or initiatives, especially community work or local businesses and services wanting to engage and support young people. Things you might want to think about if you are going to do customer research with young people are:

• How can you create time for the research to be done and work differently to involve the voices of young people in the future so it is not just a once-off?

• Can you bring in someone with a background in health or social work to do the research with young people (most health professionals are very comfortable in engaging with people, having conversations, listening, and conducting research)?

• How flexible can you be in your engagement approach, making sure that it meets the needs of young people on their terms?

• Can you create ongoing opportunities for young people to lead and innovate in a paid capacity after the research phase?

• You could even think of how you can get young people to do, or co-research with you!