Let Them Eat Cake
A few weeks back the conversation at work drifted to baking, and I revealed that I had baked a cake when we'd some friends to stay. That Carrot Cake hadn't been altogether a success, as due to the lack of a set of kitchen scales I'd guessed the quantities, and hadn't put in enough sugar, but despite that I was rather pleased with the way it'd turned out. Mentioning this, Carol and Annette turned to me and said "Well, you never bake us anything" and so yesterday afternoon I baked them all a cake. I wanted to do something to say thanks to them all for helping with my dissertation surveys, and this seemed the perfect thing to do.
It turned out really well, lovely and moist and sweet enough this time! I've spent the day basking in their praise! It's been a nice boost to be honest. I think we all like to show off a bit at times, and to show that I've got a few talents that they don't expect is always good! Of course, this now means that I'll have to bake them a few more, but I don't mind at all, as it's something I really enjoy and devoting sometime to baking isn't really a bad thing.
The questionnaires are being returned now, and I'm pleased with both the response rate and the results I'm getting from them. Despite my worries about it, I'm getting some material that's useful even if not all the respondents felt able to answer all the questions. One of the respondents even noticed the typos that had slipped past me, Steve and my tutor Jackie! Oops!
I have to admit I'm a bit worried about the follow up interviews. Fitting everything in might be tough and I'm wondering if two focus groups might be better than a few in depth interviews. I'm worried that some people might not have enough to say looking at the responses on the questionnaire and that if I've got a few people together then they might respond better and bounce ideas off each other. I'll have a think about it and talk to Jackie and see what she thinks. Is changing plan now a good thing? Can I justify why? We'll see!
We went swimming for the first time in weeks again last night. As I've said before, sometimes life gets in the way of everything else, and we've had things to do the last few Wednesdays. Still it was really pleasing to manage 40 lengths without too much difficulty, and do it in possibly our best ever time. It's good to see us push ourselves a bit more each time.
Current Music: Neil Finn: Sinner
Current Novel: Lance Parkin & Mark Clapham: Beige Planet Mars
Current Questionnaire Returns: 23/ 45
posted by Si @ 9:43 pm
2 Comments:
All depends on what you're trying to find out. Plain and simple focus groups are a good way to find out a median reaction to hypertheticals and possibilities, they're less good at clarifying a range of deeper emotional reactions (since some group members will dominate, and the herd will follow).
Focussed interviews on the other hand are excellent for finding out personal reactions, without the influences of the crowd. They're also more intimate and people are more likely to voice opinions or make suggestions that they'd never do in a group.
Certainly interviews take more time, but they're also a lot easier to analyse than a focus group and more conclusive in their findings. Generally one should use a mix of 'em.
Now (and I'm thinking about what little I know about your project here) I think through conducting your survey you should already have some hypotheses to test - so a couple of focus groups would be the way to go.
There's a couple of excellent books I could recomend on conducting them and analysis (very practical and readable in an afternoon).
Ah, cakes are a good way of impressing people at work! My lemon drizzle wasn't even perfect (you should know, you poured in the lemonjuice!) but they still heaped me with praise and demanded more! Cakes are a good tool to get you popularity in the workplace!
Si.
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