A few years ago, I was excited to interview a wonderful group of teachers and school leaders from across the US as part of a research project looking at school discipline. My enthusiasm quickly turned to anguish when I wrapped up the interviews and realized I had over 200 pages of transcripts and 60+ hours of audio recordings to comb through. I had no tool for making meaning of the mounds of qualitative data I had collected.
Thankfully, with trial and error, I discovered some simple strategies I now use all the time to streamline and help with information overload. I also found these 4 strategies can help find needles in “information” haystacks.
Before collecting any information, start with the end in mind. Be clear about your overall goal and purpose for doing an interview or gathering information. What are the 1-2 burning questions or topics you are hoping to learn about and why? Where do you want to start and end the interview or your research? Consider being transparent with your subjects and yourself about what you are seeking in advance (e.g., practical strategies, concrete examples, high-level summary)
Get specific & concrete. Elicit concrete examples to pinpoint the specific actions or events which led someone to do something impactful, different, or unexpected. It’s common to find interview subjects (myself included) skipping over small but critical details that can shed light on a “tipping point” or insight. Zoom in on what led to a significant decision or action. Can you share 1-2 examples of what made you so frustrated that day? What was the first step you recall taking after learning about the policy? Can you describe a specific event that led you to start the program?
Record yourself! (more for interview data) My 60+ hours of interviews were all recorded on my iPhone’s voice memo app. While I didn’t review all of the “tapes”, I did learn a LOT from listening to what worked and where I missed opportunities to ask for more clarification or specific details. It was valuable for me to hear myself asking questions and how people respond to them. It can also be helpful to review interview transcripts or have someone else offer you feedback from a recording to find out what worked or didn’t.
And the category is…Alex Trebeck is famous for framing questions on Jeopardy with this famous phrase. For large quantities of interview or survey data, before you go too far, consider jotting down categories in a notebook or spreadsheet to begin firming up key insights or themes. For example, if you wanted to know what led students to join an after-school club, try creating categories of experiences after the first few interviews, such as “sense of belonging”, “free transportation provided”, or “motivated by social connections” based on similar events or incidents reported. These categories can help to tease out more information as you learn more about a topic. So, was it your peers (i.e., social connections), or was it the way the club’s leader welcomed (sense of belonging) you, that led you to join the club?
I have found these 4 low-tech strategies can help with information overload by giving me simple tools to synthesize a lot of data or information with much less effort and much better outcomes.
I’d love to know what strategies you have found useful for pulling needles out of your haystacks.
Please consider sharing a tool, strategy, or process below.
References & resources
Critical Incident Technique (CIT ): Powerful tool for synthesizing experiences or tipping points.
For anyone interested in using CIT for a project, here’s a detailed overview, or please reach out to me, happy to share more about what I have learned using this tool for interviews.