Thematic analysis
Thematic analysis is a qualitative research method for identifying, grouping and interpreting recurring patterns, or themes, across a body of unstructured feedback such as interviews, tickets or open-text survey responses.
Also known as Qualitative coding
How does thematic analysis work?
You read through the material, label meaningful segments with codes, group related codes into candidate themes, review and name those themes, then report them with supporting quotes. It moves from raw text to a small set of explanatory themes.
Why is thematic analysis useful for product teams?
It turns hundreds of scattered comments into a handful of themes a team can act on, while preserving the exact quotes that back each one, so the analysis stays defensible.
Can thematic analysis be automated?
AI can propose codes and cluster text into themes far faster than manual coding. The judgement, naming the themes and deciding what matters, stays human, and every theme should link back to the underlying quotes for verification.
Put it into practice
Thematic analysis, in brief
Thematic analysis is a qualitative method for identifying, grouping and interpreting recurring themes across unstructured feedback such as interviews, support tickets or open-text survey responses.
A code is a label applied to a single segment of text; a theme is a pattern that emerges when related codes are grouped together and interpreted.
Related terms
- Qualitative researchQualitative research is the study of customer attitudes, motivations and behaviours through non-numerical methods such as interviews, observation and open-ended feedback, aimed at understanding why people act as they do.Read more
- Customer feedback analysisCustomer feedback analysis is the process of collecting qualitative and quantitative feedback, organising it into themes, and quantifying those themes so teams can prioritise what to act on.Read more
- Customer insightA customer insight is a non-obvious, evidence-backed understanding of customer behaviour or motivation that can change a decision, distinct from a raw data point or a single piece of feedback.Read more
- Voice of customerVoice of customer (VoC) is the practice of systematically capturing what customers say about their needs, expectations and experiences, and feeding it back into product, marketing and service decisions.Read more
- Affinity mappingAffinity mapping is a way of making sense of qualitative research by writing each observation or quote on its own note and grouping the notes by similarity until clear themes emerge.Read more
- Research synthesisResearch synthesis is the step after collecting research where you combine everything you heard into a small number of findings, each backed by evidence, that the team can act on.Read more
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