Services

Qualitative research

MI provides international solutions with qualitative research. We developed expertise in fielding studies in countries across the globe. Our experts tap into diversity of viewpoints and candid conversations with respondents to find patterns that provide answers to clients’ research questions. Our data collection team will sit in a high-rise office in Geneva conducting stakeholder interviews or on the ground in Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa, conducting cognitive interviews.

Our face-to-face, phone or online qualitative research services include:

Development of customized questionnaires that are uniformly understood in different countries
Customized cognitive Interviews
- Cognitive interview is an interviewing technique that is especially useful for testing multicultural questionnaires (that will be used in several countries) and gives a good direction on how questions need to be modified, if some response categories are missing or redundant, which questions are perceived as sensitive.
Focus groups
Stakeholders interviews
In-depth interviews
Content Analysis
Case studies
Ethnographies
Narrative research
Observational studies

Quantitative research

We will develop standardized and customized methodologies for general and target populations (e.g. minorities, migrants, refugees, LGBTQIA, diasporas).

Cost of data collection around the world is increasing every year. As technology develops, we adopt methodologies that allow to transition data collection from one modality to another without losing trends. Our data collection capacity spans across the world. The data collection service could be used as a stand-alone service or as part of a multi-component service including data analysis and report writing.

Our team of quantitative experts will help you to formulate hypotheses and match them with the quantitative methodology. We will collect and analyze the right data or analyze the data that were already collected. Our researchers will conduct the right statistical analyses whether it’s just group differences with a t-test or an analysis of Bayesian inference.

Our Quantitative research and data collection services include:

Data Collection

With our data collection services come:

Understanding of local culture and political realities
Questionnaire development
Double-translation of surveys into local languages
Sampling frame development
Interviews in local languages
Sophisticated training of data collection teams
- Development of training manuals
- Training of interviewers and supervisors
Development and enforcement of quality control procedures
Development of statistical weights
Data vetting
Data validity and reliability analyses
Utilization and comparison of different collection modalities (e.g. face-to-face, phone, online)
Cost sensitivity

Survey and Test Design

Designing surveys to clients’ needs
Developing constructs for sociological, educational, psychological, and professional surveys or tests
Generating survey/test items and establishing validity link between the items and constructs
Designing sampling frames
- Stratification
- Weights
Piloting surveys/tests
Performing routine administrations of surveys/tests
Developing statistical analyses/test scoring procedures
- Data Cleaning
- Reliability and Validity analyses
- Psychometric analyses
  - Exploratory/Confirmatory Factor Analysis
  - Classical Test Theory
  - Item Response Theory
- Predictive Analytics
- Univariate/Multivariate group differences
  - ANOVA
  - ANCOVA
  - MANOVA
- Communicating results on administration basis

Research Design

The type of research problem your organization is facing will determine the research design. Whether quantitative or qualitative approach suits your research question, we will design a study to produce valid, reliable, and generalizable results. Depending on your organizational need, our methodology experts will help you to choose from experimental, non-experimental, correlational or descriptive types of research design.

Design of experimental and non-experimental studies
- Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design
- Posttest-Only Control Group Design
- Solomon Four-Group Design
- Factorial Design
- Blocked Design
- Repeated-Measures Designs
- Correlational Designs
Design of standardized and customized surveys with specialization in multi-country data collection
General and targeted population studies
Cohort studies
Meta-Analysis Systematic Reviews
Case-Control Studies
Case Report and Case Series

Statistical Consulting

MI’s team can assist you with rigorous survey development and data analysis at any step of your research process. Based on your research goals, we will develop statistical solutions specific to your organizational needs. Our statistical and decision science experts are trained in frequentist and Bayesian inferences, psychometric theory including CTT, IRT, and Generalizability theory, and statistical programming.

Frequency and descriptive analyses
Parametric and Nonparametric tests
Log-linear analysis
Sampling design and analysis
Statistical modeling and estimation
- Linear Models
- Generalized Linear Models
- Multivariate Statistics
  - MANOVA-based techniques
  - Discriminant Function Analysis
  - Canonical Correlation Analysis
  - Principle Component Analysis
  - Factor Analysis
  - Structural Equation Modeling
    - Path, Latent, MTMMM, LOC, LCA, LTA
  - Bayesian estimation
  - Time series
    - MA, AR, ARMA, ARIMA, SARIMA models
  - Risk analysis
  - Survival analysis
  - Psychometric analyses
    - Item analysis based on Classical Test Theory
    - Calibration using Item Response Theory models
    - 1PL, 2PL, 3PL
    - Partial Credit and Graded Responses models
    - Testlet models
    - Scaling, Linking, Equating
Database management

Capacity Building

We help your organizations to build research capacity.

An essential component of any successful research project is a well-trained research team. Team members need training in basic job-related research skills as well as specialized training relevant to the unique geographical or social complexities of the research project. MI will train your team to any specifics of research process.

Examples of capacity buildings offered by MI:

Sampling frame and sampling route development
Training of interviewers
How to conduct online/offline focus groups and cognitive interviews
Data analysis
Application of statistical weight to data

User Research

MI researchers help companies discover and explore the nature and quality of user experience. Building on the in-depth knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods, our experts are able to take on user research projects of any complexity suitable for any stage of product development. The insights generated by MI will support designers and engineers in creating remarkable user experiences.

Our UX research toolkit includes:

Contextual inquiry
User interviews
Diary studies
Focus groups
Surveys
User personas
Task analysis

Machine Learning

The process of machine learning unleashes the power of exploration and prediction. Machine learning builds on data insights to develop predictive models that are rooted in traditional statistical methodology.

In the process of data analysis, we will identify target variables (outcomes) which are to be predicted, and an optimal set of predictors. Using these sets of variables, we will generate a function that maps inputs to desired outputs. We will continue the training process until the model achieves desired levels of accuracy on the training data. Next, a validation process using different data sets will take place.

Additionally, using dimension reduction algorithms, MI will help to reduce the number of variables in clients’ datasets to fewer numbers of factors.

The machine learning algorithms used by MI analytical team include:

Linear regression
Logistic Regression
Naïve Bayes
Decision Tree
Neural Networks
kNN
Random forest
SVM
k-means cluster
Dimensionality reduction
Gradient Boosting algorithms
- GBM
- XGBoost
- LightGBM
- CatBoost