Quant vs qual: When to use
The main difference is the type of answer you need.
Qualitative Research
Choose qualitative research when you want to understand why, how, or what is behind a response.
Use it to explore:
- Experiences and motivations
- Needs and pain points
- Reasons behind behaviour
- Participant reactions and reasoning
- Unexpected issues
- Topics where you don't yet know what to measure
In Decode, qualitative research can be conducted through AI Interviews or Live Interviews.
Quantitative Research
Choose quantitative research when you want to measure, compare, or quantify a response.
Use it to:
- Measure opinions or behaviours
- Compare concepts or options
- Measure preferences
- Rank alternatives
- Compare audience groups
- Quantify findings across a larger sample
In Decode, you can create a Quantitative Study and use the relevant research blocks for your objective.
Simple rule
Qualitative helps you understand why.
Quantitative helps you measure how much or how many.
When should I use both?
You don't always have to choose one.
A common approach is:
Explore → Measure → Explain
- Use qualitative research to understand the problem and identify themes.
- Use quantitative research to measure how widespread those findings are.
- Use qualitative research again when you need to explore an unexpected quantitative finding.