Have you ever wondered why people do what they do? Qualitative research lets you play detective in real life, but instead of solving crimes, you discover feelings and opinions that make people tick.
You don’t count things to tell you how many; instead, you listen, observe, and ask questions to understand the why behind things.
Ready to put on your detective hat and dive into qualitative research?
This blog will explain the advantages of qualitative research and show you how to uncover hidden patterns and gain meaningful insights.
TL;DR – Advantages Of Qualitative Research
Here’s a quick rundown of the benefits of qualitative research. We’ll dive deep into each one later!
- Provides meaningful insights specific to your industry
- Enables a flexible approach to data collection
- Allows you to uncover unspoken needs
- Affordable than quantitative research
- Captures non-quantifiable aspects
- Helps to explore new areas
- Encourages interaction
But how do you unlock the full potential of your qualitative research? That’s where sophisticated tools like Marvin come in.
Marvin is qualitative data analysis software (QDA) that streamlines your research process. Our tool is designed to keep your reports, interviews, and notes in a centralized repository so your team can access valuable insights.
Our software features observation rooms, allowing you to invite your teammates or stakeholders into live interviews without distracting participants. It integrates real-time note-taking and coding with your data.
Start your free account today and experience the advantages of qualitative research without the headache of managing your data.
What Is Qualitative Research?
Qualitative research is a scientific method for gathering non-numerical data. Instead of focusing on numbers and metrics, it aims to understand experiences, concepts, or phenomena.
Check out some examples of qualitative research in action:
- As a company, you can conduct in-depth interviews before launching a new product. It will help you understand your customers’ expectations, use the data to improve product features, and tailor your marketing strategy.
- If you’re in the healthcare industry, you can observe patients to identify areas for improvement in your care delivery. You can then use the study data to change policies, enhance communication, and improve patients’ experiences.
- Qualitative research in education can involve interviews and observations in a school environment to understand your students’ engagement and learning outcomes. You can then use the findings to inform future education strategies.
What Is the Difference Between Qualitative and Quantitative Research?
Here’s a table to help you get a clear picture of the qualitative approach vs. quantitative approach:
| Aspect | Qualitative | Quantitative |
| Objective | Aims to understand concepts, thoughts, and experiences | Aims to measure, test, and quantify the relationship between variables |
| Approach | Follows an observe-and-interpret approach | Follows a measure-and-test approach |
| Data Type | Non-numerical—text, images, and words | Numbers and statistics |
| Analysis | Discourse, content, and thematic analysis | Math, hypothesis testing, statistical analysis |
| Sample Size | Few purposive respondents | Many random respondents |
| Expressed In | Words | Numbers, graphs, tables |
| Research Questions | Why, how, and what? | How much, how many, and what is the relationship? |
If you want to get into qualitative research, Marvin’s sophisticated AI research assistant can help you:
- Analyze your research, identify key patterns, and group responses into key themes.
- Connect with your existing tools, such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Pendo, Qualtrics, and Google Forms.
- Provide accurate transcriptions for interviews in over 40 languages within minutes.
- Organize your research visually with Kanban and Canvas boards and create research repositories.
Want to explore the trends that are shaping research repositories? Dive into our 2025 State of Research Repositories report!
Qualitative Research Methods
There are different qualitative research methods, each offering a unique perspective.
Let’s explore the 5 common methods below:
- Direct Observation: You can study and understand participants’ behaviors, interactions, and contexts in their natural environment. You can either be directly involved in the study or record what you’ve seen or heard from a distance.
For example, a brand may conduct observation research on clients’ purchasing habits on their website.
- Focus Groups: In a focus group, you can ask questions and facilitate a discussion to understand shared experiences and opinions.
For example, exploring the attitudes of a teenage group towards social media.
- Interviews: You can engage in one-on-one conversations with the participants to gather insights. You can opt for structured (predetermined questions), semi-structured (a guide but flexible), or unstructured (conversational) interviews.
For example, user experience (UX) designers interview users to gather insights on the usability of a new software application.
- Case Study: You can research a problem and generate a comprehensive case of a particular event, group, or topic.
For example, analyzing a change of leadership in your company.
- Ethnography: This method involves studying individuals in a natural setting to understand their culture, beliefs, and values. It’s essential to interact with a particular group for an extended time to get a holistic view of your participants’ way of life.
For example, studying an indigenous community in a remote village to understand their culture and traditions.
With the foundation of qualitative research and understanding how it differs from quantitative research, let’s look at the benefits these qualitative methods bring.
7 Advantages of Qualitative Research
Qualitative research goes beyond numbers and has several advantages we shall look at below:
1. Provides Meaningful Insights Specific to Your Industry
Qualitative research provides rich and in-depth insights into your business or industry. For example, you can find the relationship between customer retention and adding value to your SaaS products.
A real-world example is how Microsoft used our AI tool to quickly synthesize 2,000 research notes from 47 interviews and incorporate the insights to create the Responsible AI Maturity Model.
2. Enables a Flexible Approach to Data Collection
Quantitative research follows a specific pattern of questioning, collecting data, and reporting information.
In contrast, qualitative research allows you to adapt your research method or change the setting to improve the responses.
3. Allows You to Uncover Unspoken Needs
Sometimes, your respondents might not tell you what they need.
Qualitative research allows you to observe participants in their natural settings, where you capture authentic behaviors and identify hidden user needs.
4. Affordable Than Quantitative Research
Quantitative research involves more participants, which can increase the costs of collecting data and using complex statistical analysis with special software.
On the other hand, qualitative research requires fewer participants and flexible research methods can reduce costs.
5. Captures Non-Quantifiable Aspects
With qualitative research, you can explore aspects that can’t be quantified, like the user experience. This allows you to collect authentic data and uncover valuable insights, such as your users’ emotions, satisfaction, and sentiments.
This is unlike other quantitative research methods that discount the human experience when collecting data.
6. Helps to Explore New Areas
You can use qualitative research to study new and unknown theories and hypotheses. It’s also a chance for unique voices and marginalized groups to be heard.
For example, you can study how people form and thrive in online communities. The research can reveal patterns and help you develop new theories and ideas.
7. Encourages Interaction
You can build rapport with your participants and understand human behavior.
You can also use methods such as one-on-one interviews and focus groups that encourage your participants to share their perspectives.
Disadvantages of Qualitative Research Over Quantitative Research
While qualitative research undoubtedly has several benefits, as we’ve explored above, it has challenges.
Let’s explore ways it falls short compared to quantitative research:
Potential Bias from the Researcher
Unlike quantitative research, which minimizes the researcher’s opinions and focuses on numerical data, qualitative research is based on your views and feelings about a subject.
It can affect how you interpret your participants’ responses and may lead to findings that aren’t objective and don’t represent the interviewees’ views.
Difficult to Generalize Findings
Due to each individual’s different perspectives, findings from a few respondents can lead to inaccurate conclusions that might not apply to a generalized population.
This is unlike quantitative research, which aims for a larger sample size and allows you to apply the findings to a whole user base.
Collecting and Analyzing Data Is Time-consuming
Typically, quantitative research can be quickly analyzed into charts, graphs, and summaries. However, qualitative research collects many details that need to be read, sorted, coded, and categorized into key points, which can also take extra time.
However, Marvin can help you automate your qualitative research, from collecting research and identifying themes to generating UX research reports. For example, Field Nation saved 20+ hours using our tool to get quick customer insights from interviews.
Risk of Misinterpretation
Even the same participant might have a different perspective tomorrow, making verifying and duplicating the results challenging. Therefore, the data collected is not always acceptable as factual, mainly if similar qualitative research doesn’t produce the same results.
Conversely, quantitative research involves numbers often seen as factual, making it easy to justify decisions.
Often Requires Further Research
While getting data from a small sample size is advantageous, you might not get the complete picture of the larger population demographic. So, you need to conduct follow-up research with a larger sample for more accuracy and to inform better decisions.
This is in contrast to quantitative research, which often involves a large sample size and allows you to make accurate conclusions about the entire user base.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Got more questions on the pros of qualitative data analysis?
Let’s answer some of them:
How Does the Importance of Qualitative Research Vary Across Industries?
Here’s how various industries use qualitative research:
- Business and Marketing: You can use it in business and marketing to understand the customer motivation and their perception of your brand.
- Healthcare: You can use qualitative research to evaluate the patient’s experiences and explore the perspectives of healthcare providers.
- Education: Qualitative research can help you explore the student experiences and the teaching methods to improve the learning environment.
- Social Sciences: You can use personal narratives and ethnographic studies to understand human behavior and cultural practices.
- Technology: Based on qualitative research data, the tech team can design products that boost the UX and align with customer behaviors.
What Are Some Common Limitations in Qualitative Research?
Check out the top limitations in qualitative research:
- Data quality is subjective and depends on a researcher’s viewpoints and methods.
- Data is based on a researcher’s skills and experience in collecting data.
- It can take time to collect and sort data.
How Can Researchers Improve the Reliability of Qualitative Data?
Here are the top 3 ways you can use to improve qualitative data:
- Undergo Research Training: As a researcher, you should have the skills to understand the research methods to reduce human error and inconsistency.
- Triangulation: To increase the validity of your findings, you should collect data from multiple respondents, get different perspectives, and use various research methods.
- Clear Documentation: Use Marvin as your research repository to organize user feedback, evidence, and study reports. With a centralized platform, everyone can collaborate and share insights.
Conclusion
So there you have it — you can now see the true power of qualitative research, from measuring non-quantifiable aspects to allowing for flexible inquiry.
Use the methods we’ve discussed to understand your audience’s motives and uncover the why behind your data. Now go out there and start exploring the why yourself.
And when you need help analyzing and organizing all that data, Marvin is here to help.
Our AI-powered assistant helps you organize user feedback, transcribe your interviews in real time, and group key themes. It can also quickly analyze your qualitative data to spot patterns and measure sentiment.
So, why not make your research journey easier? Create a free account today and streamline your qualitative research!
