Richard Walker explores why good qualitative research needs a little room to wander, and how giving people and researchers space to explore can uncover the insight you weren’t looking for.
Regular readers will know I’m a runner. One of the many running bores you likely encounter more and more these days. I’ll spare you my pitch featuring the long list of physical and emotional benefits (for now). You may also know me as a fan of travel and adventure. And possibly a fan of music too.
And I know for sure I’m not the first person in the world to have combined these three things to great effect. Running, travel, music. Vin, pain, Boursin.
The idea of “heading off into the woods and getting good and lost for a while” has often chimed with me as a way of organising my thoughts. That said, getting literally and physically “lost” (rather than just metaphorically lost) is, in itself, something I love to experience occasionally. Within some controlled limits, of course. Always adventurous, rarely reckless.
I know how lucky I am to feel safe enough to do this alone. Everyone deserves to feel safe whilst being active. It’s frankly shit that so many people (specifically, many women) can’t do this safely and without fear of harassment. And although I have strong opinions on this shameful fact, it’s not what this specific blog is about.
Straight Off the Plane
This blog is about what is, personally and unquestionably, one of my most favourite types of run. What I call the (not quite literally) “straight off the plane” exploratory run around a new city or holiday destination. Whether it’s a work trip or for leisure, the best way to explore a new place I’ve just landed in is to stick on my running shoes and get “just a little bit lost”. It’s a great way to suss things out.
Not properly lost. Not “phone battery dead, wrong side of a dual carriageway”, panic-stations lost. Just lost enough to find the back streets, the canal path, the unexpected park, the locals’ coffee shop, the cut-throughs and corners you’d never see if you stuck to the obvious route.
Good research needs room to wander too
Here’s the research bit. As market researchers – and especially in qualitative market research – we must remember to embrace “getting lost” in a similar way.
This isn’t just a pitch for ethnography, it’s applicable to all qualitative research.
To hell with the rigidity. Sod the discussion guides. Some of the best insight comes when you leave space to rummage around the problem. To hear how people describe things in their own language. To notice what they do before they explain why they do it. To spend time in the places, journeys, routines and decisions that shape the behaviour you are trying to understand.
OK, maybe don’t set fire to the discussion guides yet, comrades. You need a plan. You need a route. You need a compass. You need to know what you are trying to understand. But if every interview, group, community or workshop is too tightly mapped, there’s an inherent risk of confirming the things you already suspected and missing the “real” insight.
So, with the wisdom of almost 30 years of qualitative research experience (yikes!), here’s some practical advice on how to (safely) get a little bit lost in your qualitative research. Also featuring a sprinkling of running, travel and music puns – because that’s just who I am!
1. Keep in mind how to get “Home”
Wandering is good, but don’t forget the end destination! Building on what Andrew Wiseman talked about in an earlier piece around insight activation, before doing anything, we need to be clear what we are trying to help the client achieve. Good exploratory qualitative research still needs a very specific purpose. So don’t start by thinking “what do we need to ask the customer?”. Start with: what does the client need to understand well enough to make a better decision?. Remember the discussion guide is a tool just to help i.e. the means to an end. It’s the route map we create once we understand where we are trying to get to.
2. Breathe
If the guide is too full, moderators are forced to march through it. That can be “fine” (to a point) for evaluation research, but less useful when the objective is discovery.
A stronger exploratory guide will have fewer questions, better probes and more room to follow surprising comments. The aim isn’t to abandon the guide. It’s to make sure the guide doesn’t become more important than the conversation.
Some bands just get on stage and play the setlist. The best ones (showing my age here, but bands like Prodigy, or Queen + Freddie Mercury) embrace the unexpected, build human connections, and understand that the memorable moments come from the things that weren’t planned. Be more Freddie.
3. Lose Yourself
As Eminem said, you only get one shot. I’m sure he was probably referring to the importance of understanding the customer experience and the role of immersion before engaging with ANY customers. Again, I’m not talking about designing in ethnography (which is also great). I’m suggesting that, before designing any formal research, it can be valuable to experience the product / experience first hand. Walk the customer journey, visit the store, use the service, try the app, sit in the waiting room, browse the category, read the letters, call the helpline, etc. It helps us understand the context behind the answers we’re going to hear, spot things we might otherwise overlook and, ultimately, ask better questions.
4. Do a Proper Warm-up
Road-test the discussion guide as you would with a quant questionnaire. You wouldn’t expect a band to walk on stage without checking the sound first. The same should apply to qualitative research. A discussion guide can look perfect on paper and still feel awkward when you actually say the words out loud. Read it aloud. Run through it with a colleague. Test the order. Challenge whether every question earns its place. The best guides feel like natural conversations, not interrogations.
5. Enjoy the Silence
Or, at least “embrace” it my good, good people. The sound of silence feels uncomfortable, especially in a research interview. The temptation is to jump in, to rescue the participant, to fill the gap.
Don’t do it. Take a learning from what makes people pause. And then wait for the golden nuggets that follow. Someone else will fill the silence. People often need a moment to think, reflect and move beyond the first answer they give. Give people space and time.
6. Listen Without Prejudice
Consumers don’t talk about SKUs, categories or user experiences. When getting lost in qualitative research, don’t get caught in the trap of using client-speak language. Clients often use their own internal language. Exploratory qual helps uncover the words, shortcuts, frustrations and emotional cues customers actually – and naturally – use.
Clients need to hear how people describe their worlds in their own words. The specificity of the words can be important if they reveal frustrations, motivations, emotional cues and shortcuts that can be used to sharpen positioning, propositions, communications, experiences, etc.
7. Time for Some Jazz Improv
Try new things. Experiment. Take a new route. See where it leads to. You can always turn back. That advice equally applies to running, qualitative research and Spotify playlists.
Ask a different question. Show something you haven’t shown before. Try a different stimulus or projective technique.
8. (Don’t just) Keep on Running
Know when to stop wandering. The “getting lost” metaphor only works if there is a route back. Exploratory research still needs synthesis. The skill is knowing when the wandering has revealed enough to create structure. My final tip around “getting lost” is that final stage of translating those stories you’ve heard and the observations you’ve made into themes, tensions, hypotheses and decisions.
I’m a big advocate of using a “what, so what, now what” framework for finding your way to the end destination, and then structuring stories around the big questions the client needs answered (and NOT the questions you asked the participants).
Get Lost, everyone
Remember, this isn’t about less rigour. Good exploratory research requires enormous discipline, and experience helps you know when to follow the plan and when to follow your nose (or your instincts).
How do you hone those instincts?
Back to another running analogy. Imagine a trail run, rather than a road run. You know broadly where you’re heading. You have a map if you need it. You have a sense of the terrain. But you head out knowing there’s likely to be a surprise around the corner. Something unexpected. A few more trip hazards along the way.
And that’s the point. If you only ever follow the obvious route, you’ll only ever see what’s on the obvious route.
The rewards – the hidden viewpoints, unexpected paths and things you weren’t looking for – are there waiting to be discovered.
And sometimes, in research as in running, the best way to find them is to get a little bit lost for a while.
At Mustard, we use exploratory qualitative research to get beyond the obvious answers and understand what really shapes people’s behaviour, decisions and experiences. If you’re facing a research question where you suspect the most useful insight might be somewhere you haven’t thought to look yet, get in touch.