Kath Rhodes

Biography

I would describe myself as a qualitative enthusiast. I’m one of those lucky people that loves what they do. I’ve been doing this job long enough now for my hair to have gone from mousy blonde to mousy grey. What have I learned along the way? To tune in. To explore how people’s personality and behaviour impacts what we’re researching — as well as what they say. Oh and culture matters too.

Qualitative research has transformed during my 30 year career. I think that’s kept my interest in it alive. Recent challenges have been around doing research remotely, but challenges have turned into opportunities: now participants can ‘show us’ their world through mobile apps, they can ‘reflect’ more through communities, they can do research in ways that suit them, which is fantastic.

So, I intend to keep learning, reading, watching, and apply everything I learn in life to what I do in work, because that’s what I love to do…