A Practitioner's Guide to Mixed Methods Research
What this course is (and isn't!) about
Whether you’re designing surveys, running interviews or holding group engagements such as workshops and focus groups, the quality of your questions directly impacts the value of your insights.
This course, launching in December 2025 as part of my Subscriber-only offering, translates my research and practice experience into actionable principles and techniques that you can immediately apply to your work.
What we will cover
Through a structured combination of theory, examples and exercises, you’ll learn how to design questions that engage respondents and generate reliable data. We will explore everything from the fundamental principles of question design to advanced techniques for handling sensitive topics and more complex research scenarios. The course emphasises practical application, with numerous opportunities to practice and refine your skills through real-world examples and exercises.
What sets this course apart is its focus on the cognitive and psychological aspects of questioning. You will learn not only what makes a good question, but why certain approaches work better than others. We will look at how people process and respond to questions, how memory and recall affect responses and how bias leads to unreliable response quality.
How this course can help different learners
Here are some thoughts about how this course can help you regardless of your career stage and level of experience. You might also recognise yourself across more than one of these bullets. If so, don’t worry - this just reflects that different people enter the world of mixed-methods research at different points in their careers.
For beginners: If you’re just starting out with qualitative research design, this course will give you the fundamental tools you need. You might feel overwhelmed by all the options available to run your research and unsure where to start. You want to avoid making common mistakes and need practical templates and clear guidelines to begin your journey. This course will provide you with a solid foundation in questioning techniques and help you build confidence in your research design skills.
For intermediate practitioners: You’ve been designing qualitative research projects for some time, and while you have the basics down, you know there’s room for improvement. You’re starting to handle more complex projects and need to upgrade your current toolkit. You might also be in a position where you need to train others or lead research projects. This course will help you refine your techniques, introduce you to more advanced methods and give you the tools to handle more sophisticated research challenges.
For advanced professionals: You’re experienced in research and questioning techniques, but you’re looking to master specialised approaches or refresh your knowledge in specific areas. You regularly design complex research instruments and handle sensitive or challenging topics. You might work with diverse populations or lead research teams, and you’re looking to fine-tune your expertise in specific areas. This course will help you fill the gaps you have identified and act as a helpful reminder of other aspects that you may not encounter routinely, so you can optimise your research instruments for maximum effectiveness.
What this course does not cover
There are several topics that are closely linked with question design that fall outside our scope. Understanding these exclusions will help you determine if you need additional training in these areas.
There is another reason why I’m giving so much space and consideration to the areas below. They are listed as a reminder that running exceptional mixed methods research requires you to think about lots of aspects beyond question design itself.
While we may touch on some of these topics where they directly relate to question design, they each deserve dedicated attention through specialised training. I am a firm believer that learning must be focused to be helpful, and I wouldn’t want to cover so much ground that the messages shared here are too diluted.
Here are some examples of topics I don’t cover in this course:
Research design and methodology
Sampling techniques and sample size calculations
Research design frameworks
Literature review methods
Research ethics applications and processes
Survey administration and logistics
Platform selection and technical setup
Email campaign management for survey distribution
Survey reward and incentive strategies
GDPR and data protection compliance
Stakeholder engagement
Stakeholder identification and mapping
Managing research sponsors
Participant selection and recruitment strategies
Communication plans
Analysis and reporting
Quantitative or qualitative data analysis techniques
Statistical analysis software
Data visualisation
Report writing and presentation
Let’s have a chat
Have I missed anything you’d like me to cover? While I have aimed to be comprehensive in outlining both what this course includes and what it doesn’t, you may have specific areas of interest or challenges that aren’t covered in the course. If so, I’d love to hear about them so I can ensure the course meets your needs as effectively as possible, as well as the needs of future learners.
I would recommend that you work through the whole course, so you can explore all materials in some detail, and then get in touch if you still have some questions. You can contact me easily via Substack or in the comments section!
How do I join?
This course is starting in December 2025 and will be released with two lessons per month. It’s available to all paid subscribers - if you’d like to join, please upgrade your subscription now:
I’m Andrea, a management consultant with over a decade of experience across industry and academia. I work with commercial, non-profit, academic and government organisations worldwide, helping them capture meaningful insights through mixed methods research.
I write about practical frameworks to help you discover what others miss. My main goal is to translate complex concepts into techniques that readers can use immediately.