Background and aims
Global Research was contracted to work in partnership with Melbourne-based research company, Cochrane Research Solutions to code and analyse a large amount of data for Mornington Peninsula Shire in the Australian state of Victoria. The project was a visioning exercise to ascertain people’s values and hopes for their communities to the year 2040. It elicited over 2,500 responses.
Our role
As the turn-around time for this project was tight, and the volume of data high, Global Research worked in tandem with Cochrane Research Solutions. Global Research was tasked with coding and analysing the large volume of contributions, while our partner research company focused on reporting. With regular communication we were able to respond quickly to the needs of the project to turn large quantities of written data into meaningful and quantifiable themes and sub-themes.
Our time zone advantage meant that if our team received requests for changes by the start of a working day, we had a two or three hour head start on our Australia-based clients. Because of this head start, it was often possible to return a document with changes made before the Australian workday had even begun.
Design and method
Data was collected by the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council in the form of online surveys, paper surveys, and postcards which people could write on (or draw on!) and send back to the Council. All of this data was compiled, digitised, and sent to us in waves for analysis.
All written feedback was processed by Global Research analysts who read each comment and sorted (coded) them into relevant themes and topics. Owing to the deep level of familiarity our analysts had with the data, we were able to create accurate and representative summary tables containing themes, topics, and the number of times each theme and topic were raised for each question. These tables were then provided to Cochrane Research, who turned the summarised data into comprehensive tables as part of the report.
Result
A detailed report was delivered to the client in a very tight time frame, giving them an accurate and detailed understanding of all feedback received. Working in partnership with Cochrane Research on this project allowed an excellent result to be achieved for the Council in time for it to make the necessary decisions – quite a feat for a project with over 2,500 responses and such a short time frame.
Outcome
The Council received a report detailing the views and aspirations of its community and are currently reflecting on the insights from this research to develop programmes, policies, and projects to guide the Peninsula’s strategic direction.
Photo by Pat Whelen on Unsplash