Analyzing & Reporting Qualitative Research
Most of the processes involved in fieldwork are well-established best practices widely adopted across the global research community, but from our point of view, data synthesis and reporting is an outstanding exception. The methods applied to carry out this essential step are still not systematized and follow random paths.
We are frequently requested to quote for the delivery of topline reports for the studied markets, but with specs to be informed only after the end of the fieldwork. It is noticeable that there is no accord about best methodologies within the industry, and sometimes not even among the several teams in the same company. Often the budgeting briefing informs the required number of pages the report must contain, which is vague and elusive because it does not consider the volume of data to analyze before writing it down.
Some of our clients provide templates, which help align expectations. Others, with whom we have a history of collaboration, ask us to insert our findings directly into Miro or Mural canvases. But most of them limit to asking for a generic text report or even to be delivered in a spreadsheet, which seems to us to be a practice inherited from qualitative processes, not so appropriate for dealing with qualitative findings.
However, what strikes us the most is the low adoption of platforms dedicated to collaborative analysis, insights, and sharing conclusions. These tools establish roadmaps for straightforward processes and inspire sharper, more empathetic findings, and also the ability to develop and manage information repositories throughout continuous studies. They are low-hanging fruits for increasing research productivity and enhancing the workflow between researchers and fieldwork vendors through the ability to establish themes and tags for analysis in advance.
A handful of start-ups are developing competing applications, continually improving their note-taking, tagging, sharing, affinity maps, and AI capabilities for transcription and clustering suggestions. We have been using these tools constantly, even when the report should follow a template provided by the client.
We started by adopting Dovetail, a great app often cited in forums and strongly recommended by researchers and designers. But we've recently switched to Condens, which has a very similar structure and functionalities with a significantly sharper UX and enthusiastic support, at a similar price point.
The adoption of Condens allows us to form and train our team of moderators and data analysts, and gradually refine a method to consolidate the routines that pursue depth and coherence while considering the ad-hoc nature of the projects.
Eitan Rosenthal
The purpose of our posts is always to offer a fieldwork perspective on market practices, comparing the methods of the different companies for which we provide services.
