What they are:
Interviews are in-depth conversations between the researcher and one person, or a small number of people. They can be in-person, online, or over the phone, and they usually last 30 minutes to 1 hour.

When to use them:
Interviews are a good option if:

• You need to discuss sensitive or confidential topics that people wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about in a larger group
• You have group dynamics or power dynamics that would prevent open sharing in a larger group (e.g., managers and staff members both present)
• It is logistically difficult to organise a meeting with a larger group

Be aware:
Interviews can be time-consuming and therefore costly. You will need to ask your questions in a neutral way, to avoid leading people to certain responses, and producing biased results.

Method

Before the interview:

• Draft your questions with your objectives and the ‘big picture’ in mind.
• Write open-ended questions. Start with prompts like who, what, when, where, how, tell me about…, can you describe a time when… and so on.
• Write your questions in plain language. Avoid asking two questions in one, to avoid confusion.
• Start with a question that is easy to answer to put your respondents at ease.
• Ask your questions in a logical order, so there is a natural flow to the conversation.
• Don’t plan too many questions. As a rule of thumb, allow 3 to 5 minutes per question. So, in a 30-minute interview you would ask 6 to 10 questions. (Use your first interview as a test-run, and if you need to cut down on your list of questions, do so.)
• You may like to send your interview questions to participants in advance, so they can prepare.
• It’s a good idea to print out a copy of your questions, even if you are conducting an online interview.

During the interview:

• Conduct your interview in a quiet place that is free from distractions.
• Have a recording device such as a mobile phone or dictaphone. Ask for permission before recording the interview.
• Start by building rapport with your interviewees. Put them at ease with some friendly conversation. Ensure participants are comfortable and offer them a glass of water.
• Share a bit about yourself and why you’re interested in speaking with them. Ask them if they have any questions.
• Ask your questions. It’s good practice to jot down important themes or notes by hand, to help at the data analysis stage.
• Don’t just mechanically work through your questions. Really listen, and ask appropriate follow-up questions. You may find you jump between topics, so it can be helpful to cross off each question as it’s answered.
• If you notice themes coming through you can start testing some of your ideas with respondents. For instance, “I’m hearing that people’s early experiences in sport can have an influence on whether they keep playing. Does that ring true to you?” Accept whatever people have to say, and stay open to changing your mind.

After the interview:

• It’s good practice to immediately jot down the key things that you heard, and any early themes or insights you notice. Three to five bullet points per interview is enough.
• Use a free or low-cost transcription tool to convert the audio into a written transcript. Otter AI and Contented AI are good options.
• You’re now ready to conduct the data analysis.

Key output: High-level notes and written transcript

What they are:
Focus groups are group discussions between a facilitator and 6 to 8 participants with something in common, such as shared team membership or shared demographics. Focus groups can be conducted in-person or online, and they usually run for 1 to 2 hours. Researchers may compare and contrast across focus groups, for instance, exploring what people most want from a sports service, or comparing experienced and new players’ perspectives.

When to use them:
Focus groups can help researchers understand the views of a group, such as what people value in a coach, differing attitudes towards a proposed change, or the main motivations for engaging in sport. They are more efficient and cost-effective than interviews.

Be aware:
Group dynamics can be a challenge. Individuals may dominate the discussion while others stay quiet, and early contributions may set the tone. Participants may exhibit groupthink, and appear more unified than they really are. Facilitators need to manage these dynamics by including everyone, keeping the discussion on track, and drawing out differing opinions and points of consensus.

How to do it

Before the focus group:

• Decide how many focus groups you need to run, and who will be in each session.
• Think about who should facilitate the session. For instance, if the discussion is about the experiences of females in sport, it would be helpful to have a female facilitator.
• Find a comfortable venue. This could be a meeting room or a club room; anywhere that people feel at home, as this will help them to open up.
• You may need to incentivise people to participate, for instance by providing afternoon tea or a gift card. Make sure you follow your organisation’s guidelines when it comes to offering gifts.
• Write your questions in advance, making sure to ask open-ended questions that will help you to achieve the objectives of your research. As with interviews, it’s good practice to start with some simple questions to get people talking, before getting into more complex or personal topics.
• Decide how you will record the session, for instance, with a mobile phone or dictaphone. Also, be aware that because focus groups have more participants, your audio recordings will have people interrupting or talking over each other. This makes it harder to get a ‘clean’ transcript. You may like to bring along a colleague to take notes, allowing you to focus on running the conversation. Try to jot down the key things you hear.

During the focus group:

• Note people’s names before the session, either on name tags or on your own piece of paper, so you can easily address people by name during the session.
• Introduce yourself and give a brief overview of your role and of the study. Explain why you are speaking to this group.
• Give people time to introduce themselves and get comfortable. Make small talk or have a warm-up activity.
• Ask your questions and listen carefully to the responses. Ask good follow-up prompts.
• Consider incorporating creative activities to encourage people to share. You could ask people to represent their experiences on paper, and then describe them. Use tactile materials like playdough or Lego to illustrate a challenge. Brainstorm on Post-it notes. Show photos and ask people to respond to what they see.
• Try to notice who is talking more, and who is talking less. You may need to directly ask questions of quieter people, to draw them in. Do this in a gentle way, e.g., “What do you think about that, Sam?”
• Try to organise what you’re hearing during the session. For instance, summarise what you hear, then check, “Is this what you’re saying? Have I missed anything?”
• Keep one eye on the clock so that you have enough time to cover all your questions and topics. Know in advance what your critical questions are, so if you’re running short of time, you can focus on those.

After the focus group:

• Jot down some bullet points about what you heard, focusing on answering your key research questions, and identifying points of consensus and contention.
• If a colleague was with you, debrief together.
• Upload and transcribe the audio.

Key output: High-level notes and written transcript

What it is:
Observing people in the environment or context that relates to your study. For example, observing people as they move through a sports facility, complete a registration process, interact with their coach, and so on.

When to use it:
Observation is a great option if you’re interested in understanding how people act in a certain context or environment, and you can get first-hand access to that environment. It’s particularly useful if people can’t clearly share their thoughts and feelings (e.g., in a focus group), or if they don’t want to be part of your study.

Observation is a good adjunct to interviews, because you can cross-check what you’ve heard in interviews with what you observe in real life.

Be aware:
Observation can be time-consuming. It takes time to settle into a site and see what’s happening. It also takes skill and practice to extract insights from an observation.

How to do it

Before the observation:

• Identify your site. Arrange for permission to visit and observe.
• Decide what type of observer you will be. Will you stay at arm’s length, taking notes? Will you be a partial participant by getting close to participants and asking questions? Or will you join in? If you haven’t conducted an observation before, it’s best to be a pure observer rather than a participant, because it will allow you to focus on taking notes.
• Have clear questions you want to answer, or behaviours you want to observe. Decide how you will record what you’re seeing. It could be useful to develop a simple sheet that notes:
  • Location, date and time of your visit
  • The questions you want to answer
  • Descriptive notes of what you take in with your senses
  • Key behaviours you notice. You could include a simple table to note the types of behaviour that relate to your questions.
  • Reflective notes describing what you think and feel about what you observe. Are there any early themes coming through?

During the observation:

• Take time to get used to your environment. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything that’s going on. Try to take in the whole scene, and then after a few minutes, focus your attention on the parts that relate to your research.
• Start taking notes, draw the environment, describe the scene using your senses. Note who is there, what they are doing, how they are interacting, and the themes of what they are saying. Try to write in full sentences, capturing rich details.
• Note your reflections and any early themes you can identify.
• When you’re ready, quietly withdraw from the observation site. Thank people for letting you visit, if that’s appropriate.

After the observation:

• Tidy up your notes while things are fresh in your mind.
• Nobody needs to see your notes, so jot down any thoughts and questions that have cropped up.

Example of observation notes

Observation site: Southwest hockey turf, Waikato
Date and time: 5 May 2025, 8pm

Guiding research questions:

• How do coaches and players foster an inclusive team culture?
• How do coaches and players accidentally or intentionally prevent inclusion?

Descriptive notes:

• The turf is floodlit and it’s chilly. Players gather outside the dugout because the turf is busy with another practice.
• The players put their shinpads on, moving in and out of conversation. Most people are in groups of 2–4. Some are laughing. A few players arrive just before the practice.
• One player walks up and says hello loudly with a smile; all groups turn and welcome this person.
• Another couple of players show up around the same time. One does a small smile and waves at a specific person in a circle, but then moves to the side to put her shinpads on and checks her phone.
• Another player avoids eye contact with other players, puts on her shinpads, and goes for a solo run around the perimeter of the turf.

Key behaviours observed:

• Coach inclusion: Huddle in for instructions.
• Coach exclusion: Certain drills don’t involve everyone.
• Player inclusion: Group greeting at the start.
• Player exclusion: Closed circles of discussion.

Reflective notes:

• Is there any link between how long people have been in the team, and how connected they are to other team members?
• Are more extroverted players more likely to be included?
• Is the person who went for a solo run more serious about the game than the others – is there potential tension between socialising (seen as fun) and serious practice?
• Is the person who was warmly greeted by everyone the captain – and if not, what generates the warmth from the rest of the team? What makes them want to include her?
• Phones seem to serve as a defence mechanism for people who feel excluded and uncomfortable.
• Team members don’t seem to make strong efforts to include ‘outsiders’ before or during practice.
• What makes the bigger difference for feelings of inclusion – the coach or the team?

Key output: Observation notes

What these are:
There are three kinds of audio-visual data: (1) audio only; (2) visual only; (3) audio-visual files. Audio-visual (AV) techniques relate to the capture and analysis of AV data.

When to use them:
AV inputs can be used to supplement other types of qualitative research, such as taking photos as part of an observational study; including voice memos as part of research findings; or including video footage in a case study.

AV data is valuable because it can help people who are absorbing your research to ‘get closer’ to the original data. For instance, an audio file lets you hear people’s ideas as they express them, with their original tone of voice and emphasis.

Be aware:
There is a balance to be struck between sharing ‘original’ or ‘untouched’ data such as photos and spoken quotes from participants, and the distillation and theming of that data, so you can tell a clear and compelling story. The AV data should help to illustrate your main points, but you still need to make those points. Only collect a small amount of AV data, rather than conducting a large-scale study based on AV inputs.

How to do it

Beforehand:

• Decide how you will capture any AV data. If you are filming or photographing people, ask for their consent before capturing and using their image.

During:

• Capture any AV data that you feel will help you to answer your research questions or build people’s understanding of the topic. For instance, you could ask people to record video diaries after key moments at an event or across their sporting season. Or you could set up a photo booth in your sport facility, and get people to answer a simple research question on a whiteboard that they hold up in the photo.
  
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After:

• Review your data and extract the clips or images that you feel are most powerful, and best answer your research question.
• Conduct high-level coding and thematic analysis of these clips. We describe the process below.

Key output: Small selection of AV files – audio-only, visual-only, or audio-visual

What it is:
Social media analysis involves gathering content from platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn, and analysing the contents.

When to use it:
This is useful when you want to understand the views of a large number of people, quickly and cost-effectively, and when you want to hear from people who don’t participate in traditional studies, like surveys or focus groups. Social media analysis can reveal people’s true thoughts and feelings, whereas people may hold back when they are aware they’re being studied.

Be aware:
Social media analysis can be challenging because there can be so much data to consider. You’ll need to draw a clear boundary around what is in scope and what is not. The ethics can be a grey area. You’ll need to take care to anonymise comments if you intend to analyse content.

How to do it

Beforehand:

• Be very clear why you are conducting analysis and how it will help you to answer your research question.
• Identify the best platform and any tools you can use to focus and limit your data collection. For example, you could focus your search by:
  • Searching for a specific hashtag
  • Searching in a defined geographic area
  • Filtering according to audience demographics (e.g., females based in a particular region and age group)
  • Only looking at responses to your club/organisation page.

During:

• You can choose one of two key pathways to gather data:
  • Be passive and simply observe discussions as they happen. For instance, you may analyse tweets, comments, or long-form posts.
  • Directly interact with people. For example, ask people to respond to a specific question, post, photo, or hashtag.
• Determine how to save and organise the data:
  • If you have gathered written responses, decide whether to download these in an Excel or Word file.
  • If you’ve gathered images, download and save them.

After:

• You may wish to tidy up your initial ‘scrape’ of the data and eliminate content that doesn’t relate to your research. Alternatively, you could clean the data at the next stage (data analysis).

Key output: Raw data from social media, such as written comments, imagery, or video.