Choosing a qualitative research method: depth interviews, focus groups, or online communities?

Introduction to qualitative research methods

What is great about qualitative research is that it seeks to gain a deep and nuanced understanding of human behaviour, attitudes and motivations from the perspective of the participants. Whereas quantitative research collects numerical data and statistics, qualitative research involves the collection and analysis of non-numerical data such as interviews, written testimony and observations. Quant tells you what, when and where, qual tells you why. 

For a more detailed overview of qualitative research, check out our blog ‘Qualitative Research: 5 Things You Need to Know.’  For a guide to choosing between the most commonly used qualitative research methods - depth interviews, focus groups, and online communities – read on to discover a detailed overview of each method, its advantages and disadvantages, and how to select the most appropriate method for your project.

Depth interviews

Depth interviews, also known as IDIs (in-depth interviews) or, simply, depths, can be face-to-face, via the telephone or online. These days, a majority take place online. The 2023 GRIT report shows a growth in use of online depth interviewing from 52% of research buyers in 2019 to 73% in 2022. Part of the reason for the explosion in online depths is the availability of tools, such as CoLoop, designed to capture, record, transcribe and analyse qualitative research.

Advantages of depth interviews

Depths provide an opportunity to delve deeper into the participant's experiences. This is particularly useful when studying personal or difficult topics that may require a sensitive approach. There are no group dynamics involved in depths, so participants can express themselves without fear of judgement or bias.

In addition, depth interviews provide flexibility in terms of timing and location, which makes it easier for participants to schedule interviews to fit around other commitments. This is especially beneficial for hard-to-reach B2B participants, such as doctors or teachers.

Disadvantages of depth interviews

The intensive one-to-one nature of depth interviews means they can be time-consuming and expensive to conduct and analyse. This may limit the number of participants that can be included in the study. Depth interviews typically take an hour to 90 minutes – so interviewing ten people can take up 15 hours of a researcher’s time. Compare this to a two-hour focus group with ten people taking part, which takes only two researcher hours – to say nothing of the time involved in transcription and analysis of the data. 

Limiting the number of depths used in a project for budgetary reasons can be problematic as it means that fewer diverse types of people can be included which can limit the insight and understanding gained. In these cases, using tools such as CoLoop to help with other elements of the research, such as transcription and analysis can free up researcher time - and resources – to interview a larger sample.

Example use cases for depth interviews

Choose depths over groups when you are exploring difficult, personal or sensitive subjects such as living with illness or disability, issues around sexuality, race or religion or issues that carry stigma such as gambling or drug addiction.

Depths are also often preferable when your participants come from marginalised communities such as refugees or recent immigrants. By providing a safe and confidential space for participants to share their experiences, researchers can gain a better understanding of the challenges and discrimination faced by these groups.

Focus groups

Focus groups were made famous (or infamous) by the Blair government in the 1990s, making them probably the most widely known qualitative research method. Focus groups typically involve between six and ten participants who are selected based on specific criteria related to the research question. Participants are asked open-ended questions - questions that can’t be answered by a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ - by a skilled moderator who will probe with follow-up questions to encourage them to expand on their answers. Like depths, many focus groups are now conducted online – the GRIT report shows a similar rise from 49% of buyers using online groups in 2019 to 70% in 2022.  

Advantages of focus groups

One of the main advantages of focus groups is that they encourage group discussion and interaction. Participants can hear different perspectives and ideas, leading to a deeper understanding of the topic. This can also generate innovative ideas and insights that may not have been identified through individual interviews. 

Focus groups also offer the advantage of using physical stimuli and creative activities to encourage participation and engagement. This may include the use of visual aids and projective techniques that enable participants to interact with each other and the research topic in a more dynamic way. These techniques can reveal insights that the participants are not able to articulate – using drawing for example to express feelings. Once a distinct advantage of face-to-face groups, there are now many software tools that can help display stimuli and replicate projective techniques in the online environment. 

Disadvantages of focus groups

Whilst the group dynamic is highly beneficial in creative and exploratory research, it can influence participant responses, sometimes making people hesitant to share their opinions or putting them under pressure to conform to the group's views. Additionally, dominant individuals within the group may monopolize the discussion, making it difficult to obtain diverse opinions and perspectives – although a skilled moderator can do much to prevent this from happening. Finally, groups have to happen at a particular time, which can make them difficult and costly to recruit.

Use cases for focus groups

Focus groups are particularly useful for creative, evaluative and exploratory research such as early-stage ideation and new product development, for a high-level understanding of topical issues, and for political research when carefully recruited and moderated to reduce ‘groupthink’.

Online communities

Online research communities can be thought of as qualitative research on steroids – or as a way to do qual at scale without blowing the research budget. Online communities typically involve much larger numbers of participants – anything from 20 up to 100 plus participants. 

We could write an entire article on the wide variety of online communities available (and we probably will so watch this space). But in general, they involve recruiting people around a particular topic or interest, or as customers of a particular brand. They can be recruited for just one project or can be an ongoing investment over the longer term. Larger communities can be used for both qual and quant work. They typically involve a moderator who guides the conversation and ensures that the discussion stays focused on the research objectives.

Advantages of online research communities

As well as the large number of participants, another key advantage is that online communities can provide a platform for always-on, ongoing participant engagement. Participants can access the online platform at their convenience, and discussions can take place over an extended period, allowing for a more in-depth exploration of the research topic.

Online research communities can also attract a diverse range of participants, including those who may be difficult to recruit for in-person focus groups or depth interviews. Online research communities also offer a high degree of anonymity and privacy, which can encourage participants to share their opinions and experiences in a more open and honest way. Additionally, the use of online platforms allows for the integration of multimedia elements such as images, videos, and links – either as stimulus or generated by participants, which can help to enrich the discussion and provide additional context. 

Disadvantages of online research communities

An online community sounds like it offers all the advantages of depths and focus groups with none of the disadvantages – all those participants at your fingertips. The truth is that online research communities are expensive to recruit and maintain and they require intensive initial moderation to establish trust and rapport with participants. Longer-term communities also require ongoing moderation and frequent activity to keep participants engaged. 

Online community use cases

Choose an online community for a longer-term programme of research or for situations where you want participants to supply a lot of personal detail – for example, shopper research where you can get them to upload video clips of supermarket visits or images of their food cupboards.

Choosing the right method

As with any research, the right method considers the research question and objectives, the target population as well as budget and resources. You can also combine methods for a more comprehensive approach, or to make a project more affordable – so using focus groups to initially understand a topic and conducting follow-up depth to explore issues that arose in more detail. Another key consideration is the tools available to help with data capture and analysis. As discussed above, being smart about using tools such as CoLoop to collect and analyse data can free up resources to conduct more research and choose the optimum method for your project. For more information visit CoLoop at www.coloop.ai.