By default, qualitative analysis often means presenting common themes and supporting them with representative quotes from participants.

This is a great starting point, but typically fails to capture the true complexity of the data. More importantly, this simplistic strategy can provide weak support for your argument.

Pat Bazeley, a qualitative and mixed methods data analysis expert in Australia, believes we can do much better.

In her paper “Analysing Qualitative Data: More Than ‘Identifying Themes’‘” Bazeley suggests using theme analysis as a starting point for more complete modeling and theory building.

To begin, says Bazeley, we should “describe, compare, and relate” our data. This means outlining the characteristics of the data, then describing how people are addressing certain themes. Who is talking about this? Who isn’t?

Next, we must compare that theme across various contexts. How are different groups expressing these ideas? Also note any instances where there is no variation.

Finally, “relate this theme to others already written about…As you relate categories you will be helped to structure your data because relating is best done to categories already discussed.”

In other words, listing a series of disparate themes is often confusing and not very persuasive to readers. It’s vital to explore and explain the relationships between key themes.

In most situations this will require more than a simple hierarchical organization of your themes. A matrix display, flow chart, or typology can help develop researcher understanding in addition to better presenting your conclusions.

These strategies can help you explore more complex relationships such as how often things happen, in what ways things vary under different circumstances, and how outliers can further your understanding.

And what about those participant quotes? According to Bazeley :

Reliance on presenting brief quoted segments of text as ‘evidence’ encourages superficial reporting of themes, whereas building an argument requires that conclusions are drawn from across the full range of available texts.

She suggests adding quotes only in the final drafts of your paper. In early drafts write without using quotes and focus on wider evidence for each of your points.

As a result of building a stronger collection of themes sensitive to context and held together by well-defined connections, your analysis should do a better job engaging readers and make journal reviewers happy as well.

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Big data is big business. But as I’ve written about before, you’re missing the full story without humanizing your data in a historical context.

I’ve been working as a remote employee for almost a year now.

I wasn’t sure how I would handle the transition to distance work, but it has worked out quite well.  In many ways, I now feel more efficient and focused than I was working in the main office.

Along the way, I’ve learned some tricks to help remain a productive worker and a valuable teammate.

If you’re a distance worker, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Build your own office (or Why you shouldn’t work in your pajamas)

Some people don’t mind working from home. Personally, I need to get out of the house. In any case, you need to put some real thought into your work environment.

• Are you in an environment that eliminates distractions (Netflix, Xbox, your 8 children, etc.)?
• Are you separating your work life from your personal life?
• Are you comfortable (nice chair, natural light, etc.)?
• Do you have the supplies you need (computers, monitors, fax/phone, etc.)?

I was lucky to find a great coworking space five minutes from my apartment. Coworking spaces are a major upgrade from the home office or coffee shop because they cultivate a more collaborative environment.

I’m waaaaay more efficient here, and my employer graciously offered to pick up the tab.

I regularly get technical and business advice from other workers, chat about the weekend around the water cooler, and even get my “office roommates” to help out with odd tasks every now and then.

Plus, the coffee is hot, the internets are fast, and they offer quiet rooms for phone calls and meetings.

Don’t write angry (or How to write like a robot)

When you work in the same room as people, misunderstandings can be quickly cleared up. In contrast, remote workers tend to spend most of their time communicating via the written word that can be easily misinterpreted from afar.

So, pay attention to your emails and instant messages. Get in the habit of eliminating any non-essential comments that might be taken the wrong way.

If you are worked up about something — angry, confused, frustrated, etc. — try not to vent your frustration in writing. Instead, take a moment to voice or video chat with your team to discuss the situation. It’s much quicker and avoids unnecessary distress on both sides.

Join the A/V club (or Why Skype is your friend)

I’m on Skype or Google Hangouts two or three times every day. I regularly video and audio chat with my co-workers for both formal meetings and casual conversation.

Synchronous audio or video communication is the best way to tackle complex issues, or anything that needs to be handled sensitively. It’s also essential for feeling like you’re still “a part of the team”.

The key is to get everyone on your team comfortable using these video chat tools on an everyday basis. If certain people aren’t set up to use Skype, it’s going to be a hassle every time you want to chat.

Spend some time getting everyone set up with the tools they need, then get in the habit of calling your colleagues regularly to brainstorm ideas, clear up confusion, or just to say hi.

Stay personal (or Why cupcakes make the best birthday cakes)

One of my favorite things about Idea Works is the people I get to work with. It’s easy to lose your personal connection with colleagues when you move away, so it’s important to do what you can to stay connected.

As a remote worker, remember to share personal news from time to time. And take the time to ask about the personal lives of those in the home office.

Remember birthdays, celebrate weddings and new babies, and ask about what funny stories you’re missing from the office.

Be available (or The virtual open door policy)

In the home office, when you have headphones on, it generally means “do not disturb”. I try to maintain similar cues from a distance by updating my Google status, hanging out in group chats, and posting in Yammer.

Little things like this help my co-workers know what I’m up to, when they can ping me with questions, and when I’m tied up in a meeting.

Be flexible (or In conclusion)

Above all else, pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. Ask your colleagues how you are doing. Do they feel connected to you? Are you fulfilling all your responsibilities? Are you accessible? Are you easy to work with?

Hope these tips help give you some strategies to consider. Happy remote working!

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The previous version of our site was up since 2008. Our technology, product offerings, and personnel have changed quite a bit since then. We needed a new web presence to better communicate what we do, and more importantly, who we are.

More than anything, we wanted to do a better job conveying our personality through the site.

It’s easy for a technology company like us to appear dull and faceless. We don’t want you to visit our site and picture us sitting in a warehouse of cubicles. Idea Works is about a small team applying innovative technology in personal, pragmatic ways. We place a premium on the individual passions and skills of our team members.

With fewer than 10 employees, our strength lies in our approachability, personal service and responsibility. This is why our clients love to work with us.

Our previous site included the obligatory “About” page, and included only a general description of our company history and aims. It didn’t exactly scream: “You will love to work with us!!”  So early on, we decided to feature the individuals on our team, front and center.

You can see this implemented on the current site, with a homepage headline that mentions our varied skillsets, a group photo of all our beautiful faces, and a more prominently featured About page (it’s no accident that it’s the first menu option). 

The About page includes a more engaging narrative of what we do and value. We got some great employee photos taken by Dee Kern and gave each employee space to tell you about themselves.

We also made it easier for visitors to feel comfortable contacting us in a variety of ways. Most of our customer contact comes through email, phone, and Twitter, so we feature these connection points on our homepage. Many of our employees also posted links to their personal social media pages. We’d love people to connect with us on a personal basis, and follow what we’re up to. Much of our business comes from personal connections that spark new, exciting project ideas.

To this end, our website refresh includes a dedicated Contact page with a million ways to get in touch, and a handy map. Our previous site relegated this information to the footer.

We also revamped our “What We Do” page to better describe our current offerings in text analytics and social media work. Many of our customers find us through a specific product, like Globalpoint or SAGrader. But all our products/services are based on the same core technology. And we’re always interested in partnerships that leverage our unique abilities.

So we wanted this page to give you a basic sense of our technology, so you can let your mind run wild with possibilities. In the future, we’d like to add more specific examples of past projects to further stimulate your creativity.

In general, we tried to let our personality shine through a bit better in the style and copy of the new site. We work hard, but also have a lot of fun. I hope you get that sense when you visit the site.

We have plenty of updates in mind and hope to roll those out in the next few weeks. In the meantime, let us know what you think. Is there any information you’re having trouble finding? Anything we can explain better? Do you hate the color green?

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As such I wanted to pass along a few time-saving tips I use to manipulate data in Excel and get it ready for analysis. This will be part one of a three part series on working with your data in Excel.

TRANSPOSE: How to switch data from rows to columns in two easy steps.

After importing new data into Excel, you may be annoyed to find the information that you expected to be in columns is instead spread out over several rows. Indeed, many times throughout our process I find myself needing to re-orient spreadsheet data from a horizontal to a vertical axis. While copy and paste works well for small transfers, a much more elegant solution is to use Excel’s ‘Transpose’ feature. (click on any of the pictures to enlarge)

1) First, select the data you wish to re-orient and copy it to your clipboard.

2) Now, select a cell where you want to put the data. Be sure the cell is empty and there is no overlap with your previous selection. Select Paste Special (right-click), and be sure to check the Transpose box before clicking OK.

Alternatively, you can click the Paste icon from the Home menu and select Transpose from the dropdown menu.

And presto! Your columns have now become rows (or vice-versa).

Be on the lookout for the second part of this series, where we’ll be looking at several ways to manipulate your cell data to structure it just how you need it for analysis. If you have any questions on this or any other text analytics topic, drop me a line at Luis@ideaworks.com.