My wife is a SAT/ACT tutor. One principle she teaches is that, on multiple choice tests, a key to success is eliminating the answers you know to be wrong. Then, if you don’t know the correct answer, guess – don’t leave an answer blank. This is a valuable approach that can be applied to many situations.
It certainly applies to qualitative research. I’ve found that a good way to use qualitative when evaluating multiple alternatives (such as new product ideas or advertising executions) is to eliminate the weakest ones. In other words, focus on not being wrong, rather than on being right. I once wrote a newsletter on this very topic.
We often delay decisions because we’re seeking the correct answer. But, thinking there’s one right answer is unwise and reductionist. Most situations have multiple right answers and lots of wrong ones. Even if there is one correct answer, you may never have sufficient information to identify it. The key to success over time is identifying the wrong alternatives, avoiding them, deciding quickly among the possible right ones, and moving on.
Not being wrong and being right are very different skills.
Being right is all about precision. It’s hitting your target dead center. By definition, there’s no room for error, so this is an exacting and demanding challenge.
Not being wrong is more about accuracy. If a specific answer is in the range of where the right answer is known to be, and out of the range of what we know is incorrect, it’s accurate – you’re definitely not wrong. Clearly, this is a less arduous task.
It’s important to remember that eliminating wrong alternatives is ultimately a risk-reduction strategy. Once you reduce the risk in a situation to an acceptable level, go ahead—make a decision. Failure is still possible, and you’re still taking a risk, but you’ve increased the chance of success and reduced the likelihood of catastrophe. That said, it’s also important to remember that there’s a difference between minimizing risk and never taking a risk. If you never take chances, and never fail, you’ll never do anything unprecedented.
A key question is: how much precision does a given situation really require? Is accuracy enough? A lot of the time, not being wrong is sufficient to get you to success. However, any neurosurgeons or air traffic controllers reading this should ignore those last three sentences. They definitely don’t apply to you.
A final thought. Sometimes, the only way to figure out what’s truly right, is first to be wrong. Failure is often our greatest teacher. And anyway, if you’ve never been wrong, you’re probably not trying hard enough.
It’s a lot easier than being right.