Research Methodology Overview

Research Approach: The methodology focuses on a specific question aimed at achieving a broad objective within a particular stakeholder context.
Specific Research Question: "How do potential end-users react to specific product concepts?"
Broad Objective: To find out potential marketplace opportunities for technology.
SCORE: Involves slight revision and expansion of the research focus on understanding end-user interaction with product concepts.

Frame Research Question: Clearly articulate the research question that drives the investigation.
Select Research Method: Choose the most suitable research methods based on the question.
Draft Research Guide/Protocol: Create a guideline or protocol for conducting the research.
Develop Study Materials: Prepare necessary materials for the study, including questionnaires and prompts.
Obtain Approvals: Acquire ethical or institutional approvals necessary to proceed with the research.
Recruit Participants: If applicable, gather a representative sample of participants for the study.
Collect Data: Carry out the research according to planned methods and collect data.
Analyze Data: Process and analyze the collected data for insights.
Report Findings: Compile and present the findings of the research.

Types of Questions: Understanding the kinds of questions that qualitative methods address and their purposes.
Key Features: Distinct characteristics that define qualitative research:
- Focus on ideation versus description of phenomena.
- Balancing the narrative collection with hypothesis generation.
Key Requirements: All qualitative methods share essential requirements that must be met for effective study.

Emphasizes a bottom-up approach to generating descriptions of phenomena and potential explanatory hypotheses.

Recognizes that human and business entity behaviors are context-driven, socially situated, and dynamic in nature.

Focus Groups: Groups of individuals discussing shared experiences, aiding in identifying language patterns and group dynamics.
Depth Interviews: One-on-one sessions that allow for in-depth exploration of individual experiences and motivations.
Projective Techniques: Involves interpretative tasks in semi-structured settings, enabling respondents to project their thoughts and feelings.

Facilitates idea generation and brainstorming.
Identifies the language consumers employ to describe experiences.
Reveals attitudes, beliefs, needs, and emotions that might not surface in other formats.
Provides insight into previously unknown knowledge from participants.
Cost-effective, quick, and easier to summarize than depth interviews.

Managing group dynamics can be challenging.
Outcomes are highly dependent on the moderator's skill in gauging and responding to group cues.
Summarization can be complex compared to sorting techniques and projective methods.

Appropriate for surfacing shared language and norms or exploring group tensions.
Useful to observe group dynamics and spontaneous interactions.

Advantages: Quickly gather diverse perspectives, observe social meaning construction, facilitate building off each others’ ideas.
Challenges: Dominance of strong voices, emergence of groupthink, and difficulties in analyzing overlapping data.

Ideal for acquiring deep insights into individual experiences, beliefs, or motivations.
Useful when sensitive topics may inhibit open discussion in groups.

Allows for probing and clarification, enhancing emotional depth and understanding.
Effective for engaging with expert or highly knowledgeable individuals.
Can follow and explore leads instantly (e.g., through laddering techniques).

Designed to uncover conscious and subconscious motivations through creative tasks.
Semi-structured data collection methods (e.g., completing sentences, creating collages).

Ethnography is highlighted as a preferred method, with anthropology being an essential discipline for studying consumer behavior patterns.