Reporting Qualitative Research with Power and Clarity
Transforming volumes of interviews and focus groups into compelling insights that drive business decisions is both an art and a science. To truly drive success, acing the reporting qualitative research stage is essential.
This article shares best practices for reporting qualitative research for maximum resonance and impact. We know this topic is important as our president and chief insight seeker, Isabelle Landreville, discussed this topic with a room full of people at the QRCA Annual Conference in Denver.
The Steps to Reporting Qualitative Research Successfully
Reporting should inspire action, focused on the “so what and now what” of research findings. To get there, it boils down to three key steps:
1. See Beyond the Brief
Key questions to ask upfront when planning qualitative research include:
- What is the specific business context or problem that requires this research? Get very clear on the strategic goals and background.
- What pending decisions will this research aim to inform or enable?
- Who specifically is the target audience that will receive and leverage the reported insights? The particular roles and responsibilities of those decision-makers should guide planning.
With those essential context questions addressed, design an effective research plan working backward. First, establish the objectives, participant types, client stakeholders, and potential reporting formats to track based on the preceding context questions. Outline the objectives and sub-questions that fieldwork approaches like interviews and ethnography must uncover data and answers for ultimately.
2. Reverse Engineer
Designing back to front is critical for effective reporting of qualitative research. Begin by establishing clarity regarding the design and intent of your research. Determine the core research objectives, targets, and outputs guiding each step up front.
For example, what specific business objectives and questions should the research inform? What fieldwork approaches will work best?
With reporting objectives in mind at the outset, design the actual fieldwork and analysis plan backward. Decide what types of data and observations collected during fieldwork will lead to answering the identified business questions. Identify analysis frameworks and processes suited to surface recommendations aligned to those starting business needs.
3.Engage and Inspire
Getting to the ‘Now What?’ is crucial when reporting back qualitative research findings.
First, finish your analysis and identify the key opportunities, insights, and recommendations that emerged from the research. Before crafting the story and presentation, design and evaluate potential decision tools, frameworks, or templates that could help stakeholders act upon the findings.
Ask yourself critically: Does this tool make the insights and next steps exciting, motivating, and simple to implement?
Finally, build your storyline and narrative flow to make a compelling case for recommendations and action, while avoiding unnecessary suspense or delay in getting to the implications. Careful narrative shaping and placement of tools empower business leaders to grasp and leverage qualitative insights.
Reporting back the result of your qualitative analysis is crucial for driving the research's business impact. Top tips for bringing interviews and focus groups to life for executives and stakeholders include:
Knowing Your Audience
Just like you ask participants how they prefer to engage, understand how your different internal stakeholders like to consume information and insights. Your CMO might connect with creative mood boards full of images and quotes. Your head of product development may resonate more with data-driven charts. Tailor reporting formats to your audiences.
Leading with the Story
Don’t just barrage your audience with quote after quote from transcripts. First, craft a compelling storyline, finding the tension, conflict, resolution, and archetypes within the narrative arc of your data. Then use selective quotes and examples to illustrate the key story points.
Structuring for Clarity
The Sylvestre & Co. team organizes reports and presentations to align findings and recommendations explicitly to the original research objectives and business questions. Reports have clear sections that build from setting context to discussing insights and analysis to articulating recommendations.
Making Analysis Transparent
Show your work when it comes to analyzing interviews to arrive at key themes and conclusions. Share examples of how the insights were gathered and identified. The more rigorous and transparent your analysis, the more credible the outcomes.
Bringing Findings to Life
Look for creative ways, beyond walls of text, to make qualitative data feel vivid, engaging and memorable.
Analyzing open-ended interviews requires equal parts structured process and creative flair. Avoid simply summarizing or coding transcripts. Rather, iterate analysis over successive engagements, surfacing meaning, telling stories and tying insights tightly to strategic questions and recommendations.
The Power is in the Storytelling
At the end of the day, effectively reporting qualitative research is an exercise in resonating storytelling. The data simply provides the raw material. To drive action, you need proximity to consumers through vivid quotes, immersion in powerful narratives, and recommendations tailored to your stakeholders.
Approach reporting as an iterative, creative endeavor on par with the research itself. Analyze and arrange findings to build dramatic tension. Help audiences walk in research participants' shoes, then relieve their pain points through targeted solutions.
When done right, qualitative reporting has the power to influence decisions, shape strategy, and transform organizations for the better by tapping into the human truths at the heart of all business. Use these tips and Sylvestre & Co’s approach to develop compelling stories and work tools that get leaders bought into qualitative insights.
