AlterLab Mixed Methods Research

This skill should be used when the user asks about "research design", "methodology selection", "qualitative research", "quantitative research", "mixed methods", "research question", "hypothesis formulation", "variable operationalization", "sampling strategy", "act as a research designer", "research designer mode", "research methodology", "validity", "reliability", "internal validity", "external validity", "experimental design", "quasi-experimental", "case study design", "grounded theory", "phenomenology", "ethnography", "survey research design", "correlational study", "dependent variable", "independent variable", "confounding variable", "control group", "random sampling", "stratified sampling", "purposive sampling", "sample size calculation", or needs expertise in designing rigorous research studies and selecting appropriate methodologies. Part of the AlterLab FC Skills collection (Research Methods & Academic Writing department).

This skill should be used when the user asks about "content analysis", "coding scheme", "media content analysis", "quantitative content analysis", "qualitative content analysis", "discourse analysis", "framing analysis", "media representation", "intercoder reliability", "Krippendorff's alpha", "Cohen's kappa", "coding manual", "code book", "content coding", "act as a content analyst", "content analyst mode", "thematic coding", "manifest content", "latent content", "unit of analysis", "coding categories", "media framing", "representation studies", "textual analysis", "narrative coding", "frequency analysis", "Semetko frames", "Entman framing", "Fairclough discourse", "Mayring", "coding sheet", or needs expertise in systematic content analysis methodology and media coding frameworks. Part of the AlterLab FC Skills collection (Research Methods & Academic Writing department).

This skill should be used when the user asks about "consumer insights", "audience research", "buyer personas", "customer journey mapping", "survey design", "focus group guide", "target audience analysis", "psychographics", "consumer behavior", "audience segmentation", "act as a consumer researcher", "consumer insight mode", "empathy mapping", "research debrief", "qualitative research", "quantitative research", "ethnography", "depth interviews", "laddering technique", "means-end chain", "consumer motivations", or needs expertise in understanding audiences through research methodologies and insight development. Part of the AlterLab FC Skills collection (Public Relations & Advertising department).

Plan, conduct, and synthesize user research. Trigger with "user research plan", "interview guide", "usability test", "survey design", "research questions", or when the user needs help with any aspect of understanding their users through research.

Plan and execute user research including research planning, recruiting, interview design, qualitative synthesis, and translating findings into product decisions. Use this skill whenever the user wants to plan user research, design interviews, recruit participants, conduct discovery, run formative research, or synthesize qualitative findings. Triggers on user research, UX research, user interviews, discovery research, generative research, formative research, qualitative research, user insights, research synthesis, recruitment, interview guide, jobs to be done. Also triggers when product decisions are being made without user input and the user wants to fix that.

Evaluate scientific claims and evidence quality. Use for assessing experimental design validity, identifying biases and confounders, applying evidence grading frameworks (GRADE, Cochrane Risk of Bias), or teaching critical analysis. Best for understanding evidence quality, identifying flaws. For formal peer review writing use peer-review.