RESEARCH METHOD / PRACTICE GUIDE

Grounded qualitative coding

What explanatory model can be built from the evidence?

A repeatable workflow using Plan → Conduct → Report. Adapt recruitment, timing and depth to the decision, participants and evidence available.

1. 01

   Plan

   Define the initial question without fixing the answer in advance. Assemble consented notes, transcripts and artifacts with source identifiers. Establish a place for codes, memos, comparisons and decisions about sampling.

2. 02

   Conduct

   Code close to the material, compare incidents and write memos about emerging relationships. Revisit earlier evidence as categories develop. Seek negative cases and additional evidence that can challenge the model; distinguish participants' language from analytical labels.

3. 03

   Report

   Explain how the categories relate and where the model remains provisional. Link claims to examples and counterexamples. Review the analysis with another researcher and state which decisions it supports, which it does not, and what would change the interpretation.