What Questions Help Improve the Effectiveness of Qualitative Research?

All effective qualitative market research projects must start with a clear understanding of the background and objectives for each project. To help define a project and determine the appropriate methodology, we generally ask our clients the following questions:

• What are the research objectives? What are you hoping to learn? What background information can you share which led to the need for this research?
• Are there any other ways you might describe what you’re trying to explore in this research? (This question can help provide more richness to the definition of study objectives.)
• What team/internal clients is this research being conducted for? Does this team or these clients have specific preferences about how research results are summarized and/or presented?
• Are all team members in agreement about what this research should explore – and, if not, what are the differing perspectives?
• What have you/your team already done to explore these issues? (This can include previous qualitative research, quantitative research, internal data, secondary research, etc.)
• Have you ever done similar research in the past and, if so, are there any issues that were not addressed then, that you now wish you had explored? Do you have any frustrations concerning the last time you did similar research?
• What other initiatives/internal issues might affect this research? AND what other initiatives/internal issues might be affected by this research?
• What decisions will be impacted by the learning from this research? How might you act differently based on what you learn? Also, what are areas that can’t be changed, regardless of what the research might learn?
• Are there any hypotheses about the answers, among your team or your internal clients? If you were to imagine that the project is complete, what’s your ideal outcome?
• What do you expect to be the biggest challenges we encounter as we conduct this research?
• What specific constraints do we need to keep in mind?
• What stimulus material – if any – do you want to people react to and what format will it be in?
• What issues related to target audience might be relevant to know as we design the research? And are there any customer segments we should keep separate or perhaps combine for any reason?

Clear and thoughtful answers to these questions are essential to meeting both the stated and unstated objectives of any qualitative research project. These questions help to decide (1) if qualitative research is the right methodology for your objectives and, if so, (2) which approach would best meet your needs (such as deciding between focus groups and individual depth interviews), (3) what the necessary recruiting specifications are so that an accurate and effective screening questionnaire can be written, (4) what issues need to be covered in the moderator guide and, finally, (5) how your research analyst should prepare the project deliverables.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of setting clear objectives BEFORE you undertake any research project if you want to have a successful outcome. In fact, this initial discussion can avoid those disastrous “Oh, by the ways” that have destroyed many research efforts!