Focus Groups and Lean: An Interview with Richard Coley
During uncertain economic times, it’s natural for businesses (and people in general), to seek to reduce costs wherever possible. In fact, I keep running into people whose organizations are going through a “lean” makeover. Whether they make mattresses in Pennsylvania or deliver public health services in Oregon, companies everywhere are looking for ways to cut waste. Developed in Japanese Toyota …
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‘Probing and Prompting’
Asking good follow-up questions is part of any conversation, whether between friends arranging a lunch date or between focus group leader and participants. As qualitative researchers, we’re taught to use listening phrases like, “Tell me more,” “Can you give me an example?” and “I don’t understand,” to bring out a participant who fails to fully express themselves during an interview …
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Qualitative Data Visualization: An Interview With Dr. Stuart Henderson
Bar graphs and pie charts are great for conveying the meaning of large sets of numbers in one simple display. But what if your data set is mostly made up of words? Because mechanisms for visually displaying qualitative findings have, for the most part, been underdeveloped, those of us who do qualitative work have been limited to text organized by …
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Engaging Focus Group Participants in High Value Discussions (Part 2)
In last week’s blog post (Part 1), I presented four strategies you can use in the planning process for focus groups to increase the likelihood that participants will engage in a high value discussion. This blog post (Part 2) details four strategies that can be used while conducting the focus group to maximize the quality of the discussion and the …
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