Using Excel for Qualitative Data Analysis

Other researchers tell me I should patent my method for analyzing qualitative data. It’s simple to set up, easy to use, and allows one to manage a moderate amount of data (up to 10 focus groups) in one file. With a basic working knowledge of Excel, you can do it too.

I’ve been using an Excel spreadsheet to organize focus group and interview data for analysis for several years. It’s a nice compromise between the manual “cut-and-paste” method and commercial software like Atlas or NUD*IST.

To be clear, no system—Atlas, NUD*IST, or Excel—can analyze the data for you, no matter how expensive or sophisticated it is. It takes a human brain to do that. But, unless you’re conducting a large, multiple investigator research study that produces a ton of data, Excel does a fine job of organizing nonnumerical data for analysis.