Qualitative in-depth interviews

When the primary questions are not “how many” or “in which order”, but rather “why do you” or “how did you feel when”, it’s probably time to consider conducting qualitative research instead of a quantitative survey.  There’s nothing wrong with asking your friends to share their deeply-held opinions with you, but understand that you bear the risk of reinforcing your preconceived notions, because you tend to choose your friends by how much their personality and viewpoints match your own.  So, the purpose of qualitative research is to assemble individuals or small groups of people who represent a wider range of personalities and viewpoints and walks of life, so that when you talk about deeply-held opinions, there is a discovery of new insights that you may otherwise have never considered.

Focus groups and in-depth interviews are sometimes accused of stifling innovation.  We encourage clients to think about the idea that “enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius”.  When conducting qualitative research, be ready to embrace ideas that are quirky and clash with your own.  A leader’s gut instinct can be ridden to ruin if they are unwilling to admit that their gut was wrong.  See Blockbuster video (gut focus on retail stores, not mail or streaming), Nokia phones (gut focus on hardware, not software), or Kodak (invented the first digital camera, but management’s gut instinct was to suppress it because it didn’t sell film).

I am proud to say that I have overseen the completion of more than 250 focus group sessions and in-depth interviews ranging from ordinary consumers to CEOs and city mayors!  As a trained and certified focus group moderator and IDI specialist, I'll unlock your understanding of how and why your customers and prospects feel the way they do.