What follows is the second post in a series dealing with the results of recent interviews that I conducted with mobile workers.___________
As mentioned in the previous post, affinity diagramming was used to analyze the interview results. Affinity diagramming is a qualitative analytical method comparable to exploratory factor analysis. In this case, a team of two analyzed the majority of the results together by first coming up with a set of sticky notes for each interview individually (usually around 25 “stickies” per interview, per researcher). The content of individual sticky notes generally encapsulated a single idea or issue.
Some examples are listed below:
- "[The] second biggest issue when collaborating across distance is infrastructure"
- "Multitasks in order to achieve work-life balance"
- "Distance work is slow work"
- "Checks colleagues' availability on MS Communicator before calling"
- "To resolve conflict sometimes it is necessary to close computers and talk face-to-face"
- "Sometimes it is hard to know when to get others involved"
- "Lots of information is spread across too many systems within the organization"
In this way, each sticky note served as a data point. Sticky notes with related content were placed together on a large, plain white board. Approximately 500 sticky notes were used to analyze all 10 interviews (about 250 per researcher). From this process a number of major thematic clusters emerged (the above photo documents part of this process), principally divided between the two main concepts of in sync and in touch. These themes represented the primary category divisions of:
1. Standard practices - "Practices" dealt mainly with those used for staying in sync, and typically fell into one of two subcategories, formal and informal. Formal practices included scheduled meetings (either face-to-face or teleconferencing), for example. Informal practices included unplanned emails or phone calls.
2. Strategies – This cluster encompassed strategies used to get to know fellow colleagues both within their own project team and within the larger organization (e.g., “Uses quarterly meetings to make new departmental contacts (e.g., informal lunch invites, etc.)”
3. Tools - Mostly described the benefits and drawbacks of tools used for mediated communication (e.g., phone, email, Sharepoint, and twitter, among others)
4. Breakdowns/Gaps - Included unresolved issues in which neither tools nor strategies could provide an adequate solution (e.g., "Energy levels differ in across-the-world communication" or "The volume of email cannot be processed in a single day")
5. Coping strategies - Solutions to problems (e.g.,"Checks with team at end of day while commuting in car", or "Uses agreed upon code in email subject line to determine information priority")
6. Benefits - Mostly had to do with staying in touch; e.g., "Informal face-to-face exchanges build trust and establish working relationships" could be considered benefits of staying in touch with colleagues.
7. Needs - What is needed to accomplish project and daily work; e.g., "Must be able to remotely access and maintain records"
8. Other - Included data points that didn't fit into the above category.
Next, mind mapping was used to further classify, narrow, and define the major categories that emerged during the affinity diagramming sessions. This mind map will appear in the next post.
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