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Data Analysis + Synthesis

Start

Create analysis/synthesis schedule + strategy

  • The Project Lead determines the analysis strategy and shares it via email or Slack with the team
  • Larger projects may require an Analysis Strategy meeting to align goals and delegate tasks
    • Who is doing what aspect(s) of the analysis?
  • It is best practice to have more than one set of eyes on any dataset.
    • Split out a portion of interviews for another researcher to analyze

Plan

Prepare for analysis analysis 

Prepare interview data
  1. Download interview data from Qualtrics and Save As, adding "RAWDATA" to the file name. Save in file path: DORIS Box> Projects> ProjectName> Challenge Defining> Analysis> Qualitative Analysis
  2. Open the dataset in a blank spreadsheet and SaveAs
  3. Delete irrelevant columns
  4. Prep for Maxqda
  5. Save As .xlsx

Execute + Monitor

Analyze data

Qualitative Data
  1. Identify the important questions to answer
  2. Code segments, assigning value to long-form qual answers
  3. Use a Mural board, spreadsheet or go analogue to group and organize data based on themes. Label groups and name relationships between them when known
Analyze quantitative data
Interpret usability data


Synthesize data

Conduct individual synthesis
  1. Synthesis must be external. Use Mural, a whiteboard, paper, etc.
  2. Write what stands out
  3. What seems like the biggest challenge?
  4. What are some other top challenges people experience?
  5. Identify under 10 challenge categories that stand out and show how they are related

Considerations:

  • Are there differences in how people experience the workplace department, job level, or other demographic marker?
    • How is it different?
  • For each challenge:
    • Who has this challenge? Can they be tied to a specific department, job level, or other demographic marker? 
    • What examples do people cite to support the impact of this challenge? Why is it a barrier to their work/experience?
Conduct project team meeting for group synthesis

The Ops Lead facilitates the team through discussion of their individual analysis and synthesis in order to organize the insights into the Challenge Defining document.

Finish

Write document outline

The document outline comes out of the synthesis meeting. The Ops Lead converts the team's synthesis into the structure for the Challenge Defining document. 

Outline Components
  • Introduction
    • What is the throughline to the challenges? What seems most poignant to participants? 
  • Challenges
    • Each challenge needs to include a brief description, nuances and details specific to the organization, and references to supporting data 
  • Additional Considerations (if needed)
    • If there are any elements that came up in the synthesis that don't cleanly fit into the original outline, include them in a parking lot section for reference as writing progresses.

Once the initial outline is complete, the Ops Lead shares it with the team for review and addition of supporting data. All team members are expected to contribute quotes, insight, or quantitative supporting data depending on what analysis they did. 

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