Market Research Extremes Working Together: Big Quant or Deep Qual

Conversations for Research Rockstars

Question: With all the focus on big data, what is happening with qualitative research demand? Answer: An interest in deep-dive qual. Data-centric organizations are still embracing qual, but when they do it, they want it to be rigorous, to go past the surface. And that often means ethnography.

Anecdotally, I have seen some evidence of this in job posting trends—sometimes with an intersection to UX research. Unfortunately, there’s a problem.

Even at industry conferences, I see the term “ethnography” used incorrectly. Let’s be precise---both for ourselves and our clients. Let’s use the actual definition of ethnography. In this episode, I present the factual definition of ethnographic research and even give you a little pop quiz with examples. Enjoy!