Need tips on sharing data before full analysis

Process & Techniques
#1

Hi, all. I have a pretty good grasp of my tools for gathering data, and analyzing it, though I can always continue to learn. However, the study I’m currently conducting is taking longer than expected, because we have a lot of clients with varying schedules.

Here’s the question: I’m about half way done with performing field observations and semi-structured interviews. I already have hundreds of lines of raw data, flagged by type of event and area in our product. Management wants me to give a preview to the product managers now. My concern is that I will have a lot more info to synthesize into my findings and report. It will also take a lot of time to put together kind of an interim report. Do you ever share raw data (with participants de-identified) directly with product managers? any other suggestions on how to give them a “sneak peek” without mis-leading them to make decisions now, before hearing from the other half of the participants?

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#2

if management wants you to give an update, then it’s quite hard to say no I imagine? Rather than a full blown interim report, would a quick update suffice? Perhaps just a high level call/email/chat where you share some trends/patterns that’s you’ve noticed but caveat that it’s all subject to change.

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#3

I’ve been in a situation when the bosses suddenly wanted to see the work half done. The work was not research data but the situation seemed to be pretty much similar to yours. The lesson I learned was to understand what exactly they wanted to see and why. Whether they need to be sure that the process is under control and that delay is not due to some… I don’t know… procrastination or whatever. Or they need to make some decision right now based on the intermediate results.

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#4

then it’s quite hard to say no I imagine? Rather than a full blown interim report, would a quick update suffice? Perhaps just a high level call/email/chat where you share some trends

Yes difficult, but I would say No if I had a good defense. I did wind up just summarizing patterns and “so far” discovery. Thanks for the idea.