What Are the Best Tips for Analyzing Qualitative Data?

Qualitative analysis is an analysis method that infers the nature and development trend of things according to the subjective judgment and analysis ability of the predictor. This method can give full play to the manager's experience and judgment ability, but the prediction results are less accurate. Generally, in the absence of complete and accurate historical information of an enterprise, it first invites experts who are familiar with the economic business and market conditions of the enterprise; analyzes and judges based on their past experience, puts forward preliminary opinions, and then passes The method of investigation and discussion, the above-mentioned preliminary opinions were amended, supplemented, and used as the final basis for predictive analysis. ^[1]

Qualitative analysis

Qualitative analysis is an analysis method that infers the nature and development trend of things according to the subjective judgment and analysis ability of the predictor. This method can give full play to the manager's experience and judgment ability, but the prediction results are less accurate. Generally, in the absence of complete and accurate historical information of an enterprise, it first invites experts who are familiar with the economic business and market conditions of the enterprise; analyzes and judges based on their past experience, puts forward preliminary opinions, and then passes the meeting. The method of investigation and discussion, the above-mentioned preliminary opinions were amended, supplemented, and used as the final basis for predictive analysis. ^[1]

Qualitative analysis

Qualitative Analysis Managers

Building on the opinions and suggestions of top management, this approach relies on the experience, talent and intuition of this team. This approach is valuable if the management's track record of correct decisions is good. But sometimes it also reflects a view in the "ivory tower". These people isolate themselves and have no idea what is happening among the majority of employees and customers. Generally speaking, the less time a manager spends in the manager's office and the closer the contacts and interactions with employees and customers, the less danger this method creates.

Qualitative analysis expert opinion

This method builds on the expertise of the company's external consultants and can bring highly specialized and valuable help to management. For those actions that have been taken and may cause problems, management can hire such consultants to conduct daily business consultations in the company.

Qualitative analysis of salesperson estimates

This source of information can bring great value, because the salesperson is generally closest to the customer. This method is particularly important for industries with short product life cycles and fast technology updates. The main disadvantage of this method is potential bias because they always believe that their estimates will be used by leaders to increase sales quotas (for example, If the salesperson is optimistic about the sales of a product in the next 3 months, he believes that he hopes to sell 20% more each month, but he may only say to the management staff that there is a 10% growth hope, so as not to set a 20% growth quota for him In response to this situation, managers can slightly raise the salesperson's conservative estimate, leaving room for both, and playing a promoting role (Translator's Note).

Qualitative analysis market test

Customer surveys involve the use of market research techniques to collect information directly from customers. The example that came to my mind at this time was a "taste test" by Pepsi, which asked consumers to taste Pepsi and Coca-Cola and then state their preferences. However, if the sampling is not representative or the questionnaire design is flawed, the results obtained may be extremely inaccurate. Presumably, the reason the Coca-Cola company stopped selling its "old-fashioned Coke" 10 years ago was partly because of a poorly worded survey. The questionnaire did not explicitly ask consumers how they would feel if old-fashioned colas were removed from the market. Market testing refers to the display and promotion of a brand in a small area. Generally speaking, new brands are always tested in markets with a leadership status (ie, generally refer to certain major cities or towns that represent a large number of consumers). Obviously, if the brand sells well in these markets, they can be put on the market nationwide or appear publicly. However, if the product's flaws are quickly discovered, the brand needs to be improved, and sometimes it may even have to give up. The risk in market testing itself is that new products may be tracked by competitors to steal information. Remember, these companies "spy" may get valuable information from your efforts.

Qualitative Analysis Panel Discussion

This is a decision of the committee or group. All members of the group must agree on a single decision (that is, to propose a solution that everyone can accept). When this approach works, it often shows team cohesion. However, preventing a "bully bully" can overly influence other members of the group and force people to agree with him. The movie The Twelve Angry Men depicts this very vividly. This is a story about a jury judging whether a young man has been charged with homicide or not. At first, a jury member succeeded in persuading all but one of them to agree to a vote he considered guilty. And the only juror who "adhere to his own opinions" stood up and faced the "overbearing man", and argued according to reason. In the end, the entire jury voted to release the defendant.

Qualitative analysis

Add up each person's estimates and get an average. The key to this approach is that everyone's estimates have the same weight. Therefore, this method is regarded as a "democracy" method (if everyone's opinions are given different weights according to their importance, a more accurate estimate may be obtained. This is also a method of collective opinion-translator Note).

Qualitative analysis Delphi

This is a variant of the collective opinion approach. Each participant submits their personal estimates and then reviews the estimates of other participants. In this way, they will take into account different opinions and reconsider and modify their original values. (Participants should be back-to-back and cannot meet each other. Generally, they mail or send the predicted value to the organizer, and the organizer summarizes each person's views before returning them to them. They can be without interference from others, Analyze the data in your hand objectively. If you repeat this a few times, the answer will be consistent (Translator's Note). In this sense, it can be regarded as a mixture of group discussion and collective opinion method, which integrates Strengths of the above two methods.

Qualitative analysis

As you can see, many decision problems are based on unknown factors, and often based on subjective estimates. Then, in this "soft" environment, it is very natural to find and apply some "scientific methods" to make this process as objective as possible. To achieve this, we can choose to use the Bayesian method to provide us with the outline of a quantitative formula, so that qualitative and subjective (that is, "soft") information becomes "hard" after input. .

Qualitative Analysis Attraction Index

The attractiveness index allows us to rank the pros and cons of projects or products according to the expected profit rate. If funding is limited, this index can be used to help us decide which projects to exclude.