If you think professional respondents and problem participants are disrupting the quality of your insight, then you’ve fallen for the tired propaganda of those on a mission to steer clients away from qualitative research.

That’s right, it’s a myth.

Of course, professional participants do exist, and a lot of people only want to help for the sake of the incentive. But the thing is, they don’t actually prove a problem for qualitative researchers. It’s not because these people don’t try to cause a problem, but it’s because as an industry we have barricades in place to fend them off completely. And if they slip through, we have the knowhow to quarantine them before they can affect the insight. Therefore, although cheaters and repeaters do exist, they just don’t make it in the world of qual – and certainly not in our panels.

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The research design stage of a qualitative project often revolves around the research question. In fact, the key is to come up with a research design that will guarantee an answer to that question. The problem is that in doing so, we often forget to take in the bigger picture because our focus is too narrow.

Over time we often become ingrained in our approaches and forget the wealth of information out there, or even right under our noses. As students we are adept at finding (often free) resources, but often as we progress in our careers we forget those useful sites and sources.

But many of the answers we seek as researchers are already there – they are just hidden within existing research readily available from the world’s largest library (the web). Desk research puts your project into a broader context in order to guide the research design, and although it may seem boring, mundane and tedious, it’s an important, practical, and very valuable tool for researchers. And best of all? It’s free and readily available.

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6 Steps to Perfect Qual

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Step 2: Qualitative research recruiting

How do you get the best insight? You recruit the best possible participants.

This L&E trust guide shares the power behind quality recruits with a series of best practice steps.

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With qualitative research projects now matching the scale of quant, technology has become key for crossing borders, and putting the researcher (and the stakeholders) in the room with the participants.

With video and online communities (which are often mobile and at the consumer’s fingertips), it’s easy to share and discuss concepts and ideas remotely. These methods allow you to achieve the same level of understanding as from a face to face group, from anywhere in the world. The tools also offer a clear look into participants’ behavior, emotions, beliefs, preferences, and perceptions. But, technology can’t do all the work.

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