Hello there! In the last couple of lessons we have been
exploring best practices for writing good qualitative research questions.
This lesson is the final in the series where we will look
at the process for qualitative research and conducting in-depth interviews.
After this lesson, you will be able to recall
a five step process for crafting good qualitative questions.
You will be able to describe how to conduct an in-depth interview,
and finally you will be able to write solid questions,
follow up questions and probes.
Okay, so let's dive in again.
You will use a probe in many situations
including a one-on-one interview or a focus group.
There was some difference between a probe during a focus group
compared to doing a probe on a one-on-one interview.
In general, you would write the probe the same way for both situations.
However, in a focus group setting after one person
answers the probe you could say others,
if you want others in the group to add to the topic.
That is the best way to do it.
During the focus group, you might be trying to get one person to provide
more information or trying to get others in
the focus group to add their two cents on the topic.
Here's a process I use for any kind of qualitative research.
Step one. Think about the purpose of your questions.
What type of responses do you want from those that you're interviewing.
Step two. Think about words in your questions
that lead to more than a yes or no response.
Use words like how, what,
when, describe, identify, what happened.
For example, how would you describe your experience at the doctor's office? Step three.
Ask a question that discovers what the meaning is to the person who you are interviewing.
Step four. Ask what happened next.
If you're trying to get the response tell you what happen over time. And step five.
Write out your question and pretest it on some friends or coworkers ahead of time.
When I prepare for an interview with a key informant,
I will write a questionnaire that is geared to the particular interview purpose.
I will never use an interview from another project,
but I will develop a list of interview questions that can be asked of all in
key informants in order to compare responses across the groups or respondents.
Here's an example of where I needed to interview 15 chief information officers,
CIOs, about what they use for backup and security on the computer.
First, I knew I would have a very limited amount of time with them.
I knew they would be very resistant to divulging
too much information that could compromise their company's privacy.
Also, they would be very hard to get on the phone.
Obviously, this type of situation is always better
for a one-on-one interview than in a focus group.
You just don't get these type of people to gather together or to
divulge what the companies do. Here's how I do it.
I take the topic and what I want to discover.
I first introduce the topic and speak about confidentiality.
I start by using a general question about the type of things they do in their job.
Then I move on to their views about security and back up in general.
Then I ask them about the positives and negatives they find about their system.
Then I ask what they hope to find in backup and security.
At that point, I read them a little blurb about the product I'm researching,
and I asked them what they think about it.
So basically you're doing a soft,
subliminal sell of the product because you're
providing information about something they might not know.
You might ask them to compare their product to what they currently use.
And lastly, thank them for their interview and their time.
You'll notice that the questions are very gentle at first,
and then become more specific.
Another thing to note about writing questions for key informant interviews,
is that I tell the formality to the audience.
If I'm writing CEOs it's pretty formal compared
to if I'm writing teen mothers where I speak more casually.
Whether I am writing question for a screener, a key informant,
a key opinionator or a focus group,
the basics all apply.
I also consider my specific audience or respondent.
When I write a screener to get respondents,
I will write questions to make sure I get exactly who I want participating in the group.
I decide which criteria are the most important to get
responses on the issues we'll be covering in the focus group.
So the focus group is on young adults about smokeless tobacco.
I will want to get at one group of smokers
together and the other group of nonsmokers together.
Since the topic is about young adults,
a criteria said they need to be between 18 and 24 years of age.
When I write questions for a focus group,
I will write questions for the purpose of generating answers from 8-10 participants.
Like the one-on-one key informant interview,
you start by introducing the topic and explaining confidentiality.
However, you also discuss
the general rules for focus group participation and introductions.
Then you move on to general questions that become more specific with probes.
That wraps up our look at best practices for writing
good qualitative research questions in common situations.
After this lesson you should now be able to describe
best practices and criteria for writing good open
ended questions and probes and explain how to ensure
topic saturation by implementing probes after a general question.