Immerse Yourself in Qualitative Research Trends

The 2012 QRCA Annual Conference, held in Montreal in October, offered qualitative researchers from around the world a myriad of ways to learn the latest in methods and techniques and to identify the trends that which will impact our practices in the coming year and beyond.

 

The 2012 QRCA Annual Conference, held in Montreal in October, offered qualitative researchers from around the world a myriad of ways to learn the latest in methods and techniques and to identify the trends that which will impact our practices in the coming year and beyond. 

The theme was Immerse Yourself.  With twenty five workshops, twenty InterCHANGES (highly interactive one-hour sessions), and two plenary sessions, attendees left saying things like:

• "It was the shot of adrenaline I needed to move confidently into 2013!"
• “By far it is the most educational, entertaining, and enjoyable conference I attend each year.”
• And from a first-timer, “Quite a journey and I will definitely be back.”

 

Throughout the conference, several key qualitative research trends emerged.

Mobile is mainstream.  No longer is mobile an emerging platform; it is being used more often and in more creative ways than we’ve seen in the recent past for qualitative research.  While the advantage of mobile has always been “in the moment” feedback, today it's quite common to run mobile research for a full week as part of a digital ethnography (alone or in tandem with another methodology as part of a hybrid design). Furthermore, platforms are encouraging more thoughtful feedback due to advanced use of photography, video and text. The start of “group sharing” of responses is becoming available, whereby respondents are able to interact with one another based on their responses.

Social media is continuing to have an impact on qualitative research - from recruiting to techniques.  The needle is moving on when and why to use social media to recruit for qual projects, but the basics remain:  quality control is key no matter how participants are recruited.  The emergence of Google+’s Circles, along with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Craigslist present various opportunities for pre-screening recruits.

In terms of the impact social media is making on qualitative research techniques, crowdsourcing is gaining momentum as a way to involve communities to help generate as well as obtain feedback on ideas (concepts, products, etc.). Social media may be coupled with other techniques for more in-depth feedback.  Pinterest is another social media source that has become popular among some QRCs this past year, particularly as a pre-session collaging tool or as stand-alone projects where non-verbal input is critical to a study’s objectives.

Behavioral Economic (BE) theory is having an impact on how some qualitative researchers are viewing projective techniques and gaining some traction with clients. At issue: people have trouble answering “why” they think or feel or act a certain way and may be over-rationalizing their responses. In particular, participants have trouble answering when they are probed for multiple explanations for why they feel, think or act a certain way.

Reporting results through the use of storytelling is being refined for greater impact relative to the past.  This trend suggests greater success will come from a more engaging story which is quick and easy to read and leads the client to take action.  Think short story vs. tome.

The issue of telling a concise, impactful story is compounded when there is a large volume of data to be analyzed (e.g., a month-long bulletin board study with 900 responses or a very large multi-national focus group study). While no simple solution exists to solve this growing trend, going back to research-reporting basics is key:

• Understand the client’s objectives
• Topline findings into themes related to objectives
• Flesh out these key findings and ideas
• Organize the findings into a compelling storyline

 

In short, top-down vs. bottom-up works best for large-volume data analysis.

Each year QRCA provides the best and latest in learning and how-to’s to the qualitative research community at its conference.  Mark your calendars for next year’s conference in San Diego, October 16-18, 2013.  If you’re interested in submitting a proposal to present at this conference, the Call for Proposals will be posted in January 2013; please visit www.QRCA.org/2013 or email [email protected] for more information.

 

Caryn Goldsmith is Principal at Goldsmith Strategic Services, a full-service marketing research and strategic planning firm, handling consulting assignments for start-ups through Fortune 1000 companies. She is also a member of the Qualitative Research Consultant Association and the Conference Chair for QRCA’s 2012 conference.