I'm an academic and was preparing to launch a short research project in the UK in early 2020, with face to face focus groups planned for the empirical data collection – then Covid19 hit and we were all locked down. Needing an alternative in a very short space of time, Alex Merlin Consultancy came to our rescue and were, frankly, amazing!
After we reached out, Liz was able to quickly pick up the project and rapidly became a vital member of our research team. Her expertise was invaluable in assisting us in translating our focus group plans into an interview question script, creating a data collection tool that could be delivered effectively over the phone, with no loss of data quality to the project. Her background in psychology was invaluable here, and she was able to advise as to what worked well/doesn't work within her specialist space of telecoms.
She then carried out the interviews via phone for us, mobilising a snowball sampling technique with a level of skill that meant we reached our required sample size incredibly quickly. Her data capture was exceptional, and her ability to understand the whole research process and our aims was incredibly helpful throughout.
Overall, Liz was highly professional, incredibly efficient and demonstrated exceptional levels of both diligence and skill. Without her input this project would simply not have met its deadlines successfully. Her efforts made an invaluable contribution to the peer-reviewed research paper that subsequently presented this project in an international journal, further evidencing the quality of her work.
I highly recommend Alex Merlin Consultancy, and Liz especially, for this kind of academic research work. Liz is able to engage people in a way that makes them want to get involved and contribute – something not always so easy in research – and delivers to the highest standards required by academia. I would even recommend building Alex Merlin Consultancy into your project funding costs from the very start, to make sure you have the best support and data collection team in place for your next research project!