Steve Tippins Ph.D.Helping doctoral students get their dissertation accepted, succeed in their careers, & change the world | Academic Career Advisor | Dissertation Chair & Founder, Beyond PhD Coaching | 35 + years of experience.

What Nobody Tells You About Choosing a Methodology

30 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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0:38

In this brief talk, the speaker critiques the common practice of selecting a research methodology—quantitative or qualitative—before clearly defining the research problem, purpose, and questions. He argues that this premature choice often leads to a mismatch between the method and the study’s needs. Instead, he recommends a logical sequence: first articulate the problem and purpose, then formulate the research questions, and finally let those elements dictate the appropriate methodology. Following this order increases the likelihood of selecting a method that truly fits the study, resulting in more coherent and effective research.

Chapters

What I see is people who come in with their methodology determined before they've even figured out what their questions are. Meaning, oh, I don't like math, I'm not going to do quantitative. Or, no, qualitative is no good, I don't want to go talk to people. And then they just pick the methodology and then move forward with coming up with the questions. And many times they don't fit. Your methodology should come out of your problem and your purpose and your research questions. Those should define which type of methodology you're going to use. So put this in the proper order, and more often than not, you're going to have your methodology right.