I’m going to tell you story.  It’s about qualitative research, but it might not seem like that immediately, so bear with me.  It’s a story about my friends Betsy and Missy.  I’ve known them both for over 25 years.  But they’ve known each other a lot longer.  Because, at the start of their first day of kindergarten – right after Betsy sat down at her desk – Missy, who was a perfect stranger, turned around and asked Betsy, “can we be friends?”  Betsy said, “yes.”  And, all these years later, they’re still close friends.

Why am I telling this story, aside from the desire to tug at your heartstrings? Because it illustrates the boundless potential of each moment we experience.  Who would have expected a simple question posed by one kindergartner to another would result in a decades-long, thick-and-thin friendship?

Qualitative research differs fundamentally from any other kind of research (quant, syndicated, big data analysis, etc.) in that it is a string of moments we experience directly and personally; it is really just a fancy term for conversation.  Think about your own experiences; just about everybody can recall life-changing conversations they’ve had at various points in their lives.  Conversation is – by its nature – unstructured and unpredictable.  While you might know where a conversation will begin, you have no idea where it’s going to end up.

And so, every moment in qualitative research carries unlimited promise.  Every instant has the potential to create something game-changing.  Whether it’s a participant describing her relationship to a brand in a way no member of the brand team has ever considered, or an anecdote related by a shopper that finally makes it clear why shelf movement has dropped so sharply in the past six months, conversation leads to unexpected places that reveal things that are entirely new.

This means, that if we design with this characteristic of unlimited possibility in mind, any qualitative study can reveal unexpected, extraordinary insights.  But this doesn’t happen by itself.

So, when designing qualitative, it’s important to make sure that your design allows for this possibility.  Here are 6 principles and techniques that can increase the chance of having one of these moments:

1. Stay away from a box-checking mindset. Qualitative research isn’t about methodically working your way through a list of discussion topics and making sure you ask all the predetermined questions.  It’s about feeling your way through a dark, unfamiliar landscape and discovering what’s there.

2. Ask open ended questions. Closed ended questions are for quant.  Or, if you’re trying to establish some sort of objective baseline, ask closed ended questions as part of the homework, in the waiting room, or put them in your screener.

3. Get diversity in your participants. If your participants are recruited to be alike, they’re probably going to give you a limited range of points of view.  So diversity is a virtue: economic, ethnic, attitudinal, demographic, experiential, the list goes on and on.

4. Get diversity in your data. In addition to conversation, projective, creative and story collection techniques can provide unexpected insights.  And, if you’re looking to push the envelope a bit more, consider tools like biometrics and textual analysis.  I also like to diversify my data by mixing interaction methods; group discussions, IDIs, online bulletin boards, intercept interviews and social media listening can all peacefully coexist in one study.

5. Allow time for tangents and discussion of new issues. If you set too many guardrails around the course of discussion and don’t permit participants to talk about what they want to talk about, you’ll never wind up someplace new.  So let people ramble a bit.

6. Prepare for unexpected insights to be uncovered after the fact. Whether you’re observing or moderating research, you don’t always realize in the moment that something important just happened.  That’s one reason to make sure the research is fully documented and recorded.  Transcripts and good-quality videography can go a long way towards ensuring your post-analysis is as successful as it could be.  And relying on a single person to analyze the findings and create the final deliverable may not be the best idea.  Analysis and reporting – at its best – is a team sport.  The more eyes, ears and brains you have reviewing the data, the better the chance that somebody will spot something remarkable.

Mr. Richter – my high school biology teacher – used to tell us incessantly that Louis Pasteur wrote ‘fortune favors the prepared mind’.  In order to have that lucky, blinding flash of insight, you have to lay the groundwork for it.

In case you don’t already find it difficult enough to analyze and report on qualitative research, here’s a tip to make it even harder: start too soon. 

 One thing that I’ve noticed about myself  – you may have experienced this as well – is that, once I’ve read a novel or seen a movie, it takes me some time to work out for myself what I thought about it.  It’s very hard for me to make a judgement or express a coherent opinion immediately.  But, after a while, my thoughts start to take shape.

Similarly, I’ve noticed that if I try to start analyzing qualitative research data immediately upon completing the research, it’s really a struggle.  However, if I wait a couple of days between conducting research and beginning my analysis, the task is much easier.  It turns out, I’m not unusual.  We need some time for the brain to absorb and internalize information, particularly large bodies of ambiguous, disorganized data (like qualitative research).  This phenomenon actually has a name: it’s called consolidation.  It’s an internal, cognitive process that involves converting short term memory to long term.

People often say that they have a terrible problem with procrastinating before starting a task.  Maybe they do, but it’s also possible that they’re simply consolidating the information they need to draw upon to execute that task, and so they’re actually not ready to begin.  Unfortunately, because consolidation is not something of which we are consciously aware, they don’t realize this, and they attribute their delaying to some sort of dreadful character flaw.

For the most part, you can’t rush consolidation, but there are things you can do that might move things along a bit faster.  There’s data that indicates getting enough sleep is one.  Taking good notes while the research is underway, and then reviewing those notes afterwards seems to help me.  I also find that watching video footage of the research and reviewing key research documents such as discussion guides, stimuli, transcripts, etc., helps as well.  But, ultimately, consolidation is still going to take as long as it takes—it really doesn’t care about your schedule.

I’m going through some consolidation right now having just returned from the QRCA Annual Conference which took place last week in Austin TX.   It was a great event; I attended multiple presentations and roundtables, and stuffed my head full of valuable information.  However, despite the conference ending on a Friday, it wasn’t until the following Monday that I was really able to start thinking clearly about what I had learned.  At that point, I was able to ruminate on what I had seen and heard and what I planned to do with that knowledge.

So, here’s my suggestion: give yourself a break—literally.  If at all possible, after an activity that involves absorbing a lot of information, ALLOW yourself some time to consolidate.  Do something else for a day or so.  If you’re like me, you don’t lack things to do, so just focus on other priorities for a little while.

If you absolutely cannot take a pause between the completion of your research and beginning your deliverable, it’s a good idea to plan for that.  Creating templates in advance and retaining a report writer can both be good options.  ANOTHER POSSIBILITY:  See if a quick, short topline report will suffice while you’re taking a bit more time to create the full, final deliverable.

Consolidation really is a thing.  If you plan for and take advantage of it, it can be your secret weapon—you’ll do better work, and you won’t drive yourself crazy.  But if you pretend it doesn’t exist, it can become your worst enemy.