Library
Latest Articles Author Index Articles IndexCareers in Qual
Qual as a career choice A typical qual project Careers FAQResources
Glossary of terms Past, Present, Future Recruiter Accred (RAS)Quick Answers
Running Projects Running Groups Books and Reading ListDanger of forgetting our skills
Uber… We all love it, right? As qual researchers, I'm sure it's the saviour of many a late night in the office or moderating groups.
The furore that ensued when TFL stated it was not going to renew its licence hit home an important point we quickly become overly reliant on technology when it is introduced to us. Its like people thought London was going to come to a grinding halt. As someone whos lived in London for nearly two decades, I can confirm that it wasnt all horse and carts and restaurants closing at 5pm before Uber arrived.
As researchers we constantly look to embrace technology (rightly so for the most part) to help our understanding of consumer behaviour. We need, however, to be mindful of becoming our reliance on it. Automated research, for example, is likely to continue to grow traction in the coming years and could well find its way more into qualitative spheres.
Now, Im not against increasing efficiency and allowing researchers to do our job, but we need to remember what clients really buy us for. How we get the results is important, but our thought processes, how we analyse things, how we engage with stakeholders, all these are equally, if not more, important.
Embrace technology in research, but remember it is your mind that makes you unique!
Colin Rice
Research Director, Discovery
This article was first published in InBrief magazine, November 2017
Copyright © Association for Qualitative Research, 2017
About the author

Colin Rice
Colin has been working in research since 2002 back when he stumbled upon it as a career that might link spuriously to his human geography degree. He specialises in media, technology and retail research.
Articles by this author
November 2017
Danger of forgetting our skills
October 2017
Making things happen,... automatically
August 2017
Altered images
May 2017
Is technology always good?
April 2017
Hello… hello… hello…
Full Index for this author
12 articles by Colin Rice