Build a theme matrix from interview notes

A theme should connect to actual observations, including disagreement. Count support carefully instead of treating repeated notes from one person as independent evidence.

Define the evidence boundary

Give the research teammate a bounded set of documents or an explicit source scope. Request references next to claims and keep observation separate from interpretation. An AI summary is not independent verification of a source. Where live web access is unavailable, work from the supplied snapshot and label its date rather than describing the findings as current.

Inputs for this workflow: Sanitized interview notes with participant IDs.

Work through the task

1. Extract observations with source references.
2. Group themes and preserve counterexamples.

A brief you can adapt

Create themes.csv with theme, observation, participant_id and source location. Separate quotes from paraphrases and include contradictory evidence.

The filenames above are examples. Replace them with your actual inputs and destination before submitting the task.

Review the deliverable

Trace several observations back to their notes and check that one participant is not counted as several people.

Where this approach can fail

A small qualitative sample does not establish population prevalence.

For the related desktop setup, see write task brief.