Module 06 · 3 lessons

Research methodology

Free — no account needed to read

Methodology is the reasoning that connects your question to your evidence.

Why it matters

People choose a method because it is the one they have seen, then discover it cannot answer their question. Knowing the families and what each is for prevents months of misdirected work.

What it teaches

• Methodology, method, technique and tool — four different words
• The quantitative family
• The qualitative family
• Mixed methods, and why combining is not automatic
• Approaches that sit outside all three

When you reach for it

• You know your question and have no idea how to answer it
• Somebody asks "what is your methodology?" and you name a tool
• You are choosing between a survey and interviews without being sure why

The common misreading

That quantitative is rigorous and qualitative is soft. Both have rigorous and sloppy versions, and they answer different kinds of question — the comparison is a category error.

What this module will not tell you

This module will not select an approach for you. It gives you the families and what each family can answer; module 08 walks the reasoning from your question to a design, and the judgement stays yours.

Think first

Someone says their methodology is "SPSS". What have they actually told you, and what have they not?

Write down how you would find out why customers leave a service. Then write down how you would find out how many leave and when. Notice whether you described the same activity.

The lessons

• Methodology, method, technique, tool — Methodology is the argument for your evidence. The tool is the least interesting part and gets named first. (6 min)
• The two big families, and what each answers — Quantitative tells you how much and whether. Qualitative tells you how and why, in people's own terms. (10 min)
• Mixed methods, and the approaches outside the families — Combine approaches when one has raised a question the other can answer — and be able to say which shape you are using. (8 min)

Practise it: Map your question onto the families

Work out which families could speak to your question, and what each would and would not deliver.

1. Write your question, then underline the word that says what kind of answer it wants — how many, whether, why, how experienced, what changed.
2. List two quantitative approaches that could speak to it and what each would deliver.
3. List two qualitative approaches that could speak to it and what each would deliver.
4. For each of the four, write the one thing it could not tell you.
5. If two of them together would answer it, write which comes first and why.

What a considered answer tends to contain (not a mark scheme): A considered answer can state what each approach would leave out. If every option looks equally good, the question probably has not yet said what kind of answer it wants.

Use it on real work: Write the methodology line into a real project

Take a project of your own and record its approach with the reasoning attached.

1. Set the methodology field on the project.
2. Write one sentence in the brief saying why that kind of evidence can answer your question.
3. Write one sentence saying what it will not be able to tell you.
4. Note whether a second approach is needed later, and for what.

Reflect

Did you pick your approach because it fits the question, or because it is the one you have seen before?