Qualitative Research

What is it?

Types of qualitative research Why use qualitative methods? When you should use it Getting value from your investment in qualitative research Individuals interviews Focus groups On-site observation Ethnographic interviews How to choose a researcher/ moderator Is it statistically valid?

Qualitative research is designed to explore a topic in depth in an unstructured way to generate richer understanding of the full range of opinions and experiences on a topic.

Types of qualitative research

• Individual interviews conducted in person, by telephone or using web-cameras and telephone
• Focus groups with six to 10 participants, usually conducted in a specialized facility with a one-way mirror
• On-site observation of individuals and groups to observe something as it happens, such as shopping along with a respondent or observing an employee as they do their work
• Ethnographic interviews, which are designed to put a given topic in context of the lives and belief systems of people
• Online qualitative research, which takes these methods on to the internet

Why use qualitative methods?

Here are some of the things you might want to learn and that would lead you to choose a qualitative approach:

• the process your customers experience through their own eyes
• the emotions and feelings associated with your product or brand
• how people actually use your product
• the lives and environment of your customers, their motivations, their problems, priorities, anxieties, patterns of behavior, beliefs, perceptions, wishes and desires
• how people are meeting a given need now and alternative ways they do that
• gather the words and stories that support marketing and advertising
• gather customer stories and scenarios that can be used to build training
• the why behind the what
• why some customers love your product and others don't
• the things everyone agrees on -- and the things that have a wide range of differing opinion
• the non-rational drivers of behavior
• explore imagery and concepts in development
• collaborate with your customers to develop or improve what you are doing
• reduce the range of options for further development to the most workable

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When you should use it

• When you need to develop new understanding of a target market and don't yet know what is important or even potentially relevant
• Before a survey, when you need to be sure you are asking the right questions of the right people in the right way
• After a survey, to explain the findings of the study, especially if they were unexpected or distant from the original hypotheses
• To generate new insights and observations about the lives of your customers, that will help you communicate more effectively, design better products and services and locate new opportunities

Getting value from your investment in qualitative research

Get involved: as researchers, we thrive on the process of developing insight into your problem or challenge. You and your team will only gain benefit from the research if you all develop this insight as well. You should ask your researcher for ideas on how to maximize the team's learning.

Have clear objectives: the more clarity you have about how you will use the findings of the research, the better your research will be. Your researcher can help you with that process.

Work with a hypothesis: using a hypothesis about what may be happening makes for better research.

Know what you expect to gain: as a rule of thumb, we hope that our clients will be able to extract about 10 times the value of the research in benefits through a better strategy, better products, better marketing, reduced marketing risk and similar end results.

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Individual interviews

Individual interviews are usually used for two reasons:

• when we want the viewpoint of one person unaffected by others
• when it is the only practical method to reach a group, such as senior business executives. Interviews can be conducted in-person, by telephone, using online methods such as e-mail or chat, or by creating a virtual face-to-face interview using web-cameras and web-meeting technology.

Focus groups

Focus groups are probably the best known qualitative method and involve a discussion among six to 12 individuals who are together in a room.

Focus groups are commonly held in a focus-group facility which contains a one-way mirror designed to facilitate client observation from a "back room". Audio and video taping or DVD recording are also commonly used to document the discussion.

There are a great many methods and techniques that a skilled researcher can use in a focus group, depending on the goals of the project. The main reason for selecting a group discussion environment is that the researcher is interested in what people say to each other and the impact of the group on opinions.

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On-site observation

Observational methods can include some element of quantitative research, such as timing how long it takes for a customer to complete a transaction.

More commonly, however, observation involves being on-site while some event is occurring. This could mean accompanying a respondent while they shop, go for a medical procedure or any other similar experience. It can also mean spending time in a workplace with the people who use and repair machinery. The researcher takes careful note of what is happening and may also ask the respondent questions about what they are doing.

Pictures and video are often used as part of the documentation.

Ethnographic interviews

Ethnography is like observational research, but it takes a much deeper approach to the subject and is grounded in anthropology. In ethnographic approaches, the familiar symbols and structures of society are deconstructed to form an understanding of a group or sub-group, or the role and meanings of some symbol or event in a culture. It is often described as "an insider's view".

Ethnographic research almost always takes place in the setting of the research subject rather than in a special facility. In many ways, ethnography is better defined as a mind-set, rather than a method, since there are many approaches and methods used.

In business and marketing, ethnographic approaches are used to gain insights not readily available any other way; to go beyond the insights that can be obtained through other qualitative methods; to try to resolve intractable problems.

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How to choose a researcher/moderator

The success of qualitative research is highly dependent on the skill of the researcher, often called a moderator. The main professional association for qualitative researchers is the Qualitative Research Consultants Association which has described a list of competencies of professional qualitative researchers that is available for download to anyone.

At a minimum, you want to have someone who is good at listening for what is unsaid, as well as what is said; who understands the context of your project; who has excellent interpersonal and interviewing skills; and who has some skill at lateral thinking, as well as fairly advanced knowledge of human behavior.

The best qualitative researchers will give you strategic recommendations that will significantly move your business forward, not just report what they heard.

Is it statistically valid?

This is a question we often hear about qualitative research, so we've added this section to try to clear up some misconceptions.

Qualitative research is not designed to gather statistics and a good researcher will not provide you with statistics based on qualitative research. Professional standards actually prohibit this practise. This does not mean, however, that the findings of the research are not valid, useful or important.

At the completion of a qualitative study, you will definitely know that some people hold a given view or have had a given experience - you just won't know how many of those people exist within a population with a degree of certainty.

All research methods have strengths and weaknesses and all methods introduce some bias and error. Statistics alone do not guarantee relevance and validity. For example, if you don't ask the right question in a survey, you may not learn data that is critical to your organization.

Quantitative and qualitative methods are complementary not competitive approaches.

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