Qual reporting - what & why

The last article of this year in the series "Back to basics" is about qualitative reporting documents

Moderator’s notes, top-line, full report - what do clients want, and what is truly valuable?

Moderator's Notes are the initial thoughts and impressions of the moderator after each group or interview, presented in written form

In the good old days moderator's notes did not exist, because a Client's team was always with us, listening to the fieldwork in our office, and between groups we always had active live discussions

There were times when clients from different countries, from the headquoters, were coming to Ukraine specifically to observe the fieldwork. Researchers, brand managers, marketing directors of renowned international brands traveled around the world to see, hear, understand and feel their target customers and considered it extremely beneficial...

For the moderator, who had just held a 2.5-hour group and would be moderating the next one in half an hour, joining this passionate conversation with clients was not easy, but it was also highly valuable, because it allowed both parts to set priorities and move forward more effectively

With the growth of online qual and working from home, clients began to visit fieldworks less and less frequently. They might now listen to focus groups while preparing soup at home or doing other tasks... And just then, "moderator notes" were developed as a method for clients to stay updated about what was going on without really delving into it

Let me tell you something: moderator notes are evil. Why? Because it is physically impossible to moderate and analyze at the same time, and in the form of moderator's notes, you get the ramblings of a tortured moderator's brain

When clients are with you, attentively listening to the group, they ask you questions, but not expect conclusions. However, in moderators' notes clients typically expect you do (as they say) at least preliminary conclusions. And most often this is just impossible, because impressions are not analysis

Top-line is a brief preliminary report on the study results, and another evil invented by impatient clients

Why? Because after the fieldwork moderator has in his or her head at least 6 or 8, 10, or even more 2.5-hour discussions with representatives of different target segments, who think differently, have different needs, react differently, and so on...

Usually, clients who listened to all the groups themselves say, "That's it, there is a total mess in my head, so I'll wait for the report" And clients who listened to the groups "while cooking soup" or didn't listen at all demand the top-line...

The moderator's impressions after the groups and the analysis of the study results are far from the same thing

The moderator can share his or her impressions with the Client after the groups. But within 2-3 days that are usually given to prepare the top-line, it is physically impossible to draw adequate conclusions and present them in the form of a coherent short report. At the very least, because after the fieldwork moderator has just a jumble in his or her head and video recordings, which cannot even be thoughtfully (!) reviewed in 2-3 days

A full report is a document that provides detailed and well-reasoned answers to all the research tasks outlined in the brief

There are 3 types of Full reports: descriptive, analytical and consulting

Descriptive report: the goal is to systematize and describe the respondents' answers to all questions. Clients who prefer such reports perceive a researcher solely as a person who collects, but does not analyzes information

Preparing such a report by a human usually takes one working week. However, AI can already write such reports much faster

Analytical report: the goal of this report is to systematize and analyze the information obtained in this specific project

This is the most common type of a qualitative report, and it typically takes 10 working days. If we talk about truly good analysis of qualitative research data, today it can only be done by an experienced person, and I wouldn't rely on AI

Consulting report: the goal of such a report is to provide the Client with practical marketing recommendations based not only on the data of a single specific project, but on a wide range of theoretical and practical knowledge and experience of the researcher, who, in this case, also acts as a consultant

Such projects are more complex and expensive because the Client is purchasing much more than just research services: a strong marketing school combined with many years of experience working with various segments of target customers, understanding of the Client's business specifics, knowledge of the history and evolution of the Client's brand and its competitive environment, and so on.

In such a report, the analysis is based not only and not so much on what we heard from people in a specific, individual project, but on a much broader base of knowledge about people, markets, brands, etc.

To write an effective consulting report, a researcher needs at least 12-15 working days. And such a report is unlikely to ever be written by AI...

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And to sum up:

The value of qualitative research lies in the researcher's ability not just to literally gather and summarize the information; but throughout the entire project, to search, analyze, build causal relationships, twist, set aside, return again, think again, search again, and ultimately find insights that are not obvious to everyone else, which will become effective specifically for your business

We, the qualitative researchers, require time to write a report that will be useful in your work rather than just another PPT deck lost among the others. So please, plan ahead and be patient as we prepare the full report... Thank you!

Pleskova, your old-school qual researcher