Want to see how NVivo is applied in real life? See how NVivo was used in the community research project to rebuild Christchurch's city center after the earthquakes. This is an overview of how researchers prepared and planned to undertake this project and how they used NVivo to analyze and organize their data.

1. Rapid community consultation:
Research preparation – planning
for the unknown
Patrick O’Neill
Senior research officer
AERU – Lincoln University
Formerly Christchurch City Council

2. • Share an Idea – its context
• Project planning: when the comment style and
volume is unknown
• Developing appropriate questions
• Managing an initial and evolving coding
structure
• Reacting to evolving challenges and keeping
the end in mind
• Information collection quality control in a large
multi-faceted process
Introduction

3. • Themes
– With many unknowns planning was constant and
evolving
• While we planned at the start
• Planning didn’t stop
– Communication and attitude was flexible and
open
– Risk management was constant and the radar
was always on
Introduction

4. • September 4 and February 22 earthquakes
– The numbers
• 7.2 eq in September
• 6.3 eq in February (Christchurch city)
• $30 - $40 billion rebuild
• 50% of central city buildings demolished
• 10,000 homes demolished
• 6,000 families moved
• 400,000 tonnes of silt
• Most homes damaged
Share an Idea – its context

5. • The immediate impacts
– The central city immediately evacuated
– Streets were instantly flooded with water and
people
– Eastern suburbs covered in silt, sink holes
appear, houses destroyed
– Sewerage, power, water, phones off
– The impacts were ongoing
• the quakes didn’t stop
Share an Idea – its context

6. • The immediate reaction
– Initially volunteers and then emergency services search
for survivors
• New Zealand and the international community supports
Christchurch
– People mobilise – streets, neighbourhoods, Civil
Defense, Student Army, Farmy Army.
– People queued for water, dug toilets, moved silt, looked
after themselves, their family, friends, dealt with
aftershocks and planned for the next one
– We barbequed a lot of crayfish (lobster) and steak
– We got good at guessing eq magnitude
– The city was tired, many were anxious and scared, some
left
Share an Idea – its context

8. • The government reaction
– CERA (29 March)
– Multi faceted coordinated recovery for Canterbury
• The Christchurch City Council reaction
– Central City Plan
• New team restructured (Strategy and planning, marketing, public
affairs, research, seconded planners, project managers)
– My role: research analyst - part of five person team
» Advice and management of data collection, analysis management
and report writing
• Flag ship project for the city
• Public will be involved in the planning – Mayor 29 March
– Engage the public in the process so they have buy in into the outcome,
create a better plan and instil public confidence
Share an Idea – its context

9. • The public reaction to Central City Plan
– Wanted to be involved
– Wanted their city to be world class
– Wanted to listen
– Wanted to talk
– Wanted to be listened to
Share an Idea – its context

10. • So what does the context mean for
the research?
– High level of public interest and scrutiny
• Process needed to be participant focused and transparent
– Public were going to be asked for their opinions
• A lot were going to say something
• We had to have a way of including their comments
– The public was highly educated in the topic
• Christchurch is their city
• Became more educated in urban design, transport planning,
heritage value, building standards, seismic activity through
seminars, online and through papers
Share an Idea – its context

11. • So what does the context mean
for the research?
– The government and the council were in a hurry
– The government and council want to do a fine job for
Christchurch
– The conversation would be complex and evolve
• In terms of what was talked about
• How it happened
Share an Idea – its context

12. Project planning: when the comment style and
volume is unknown
Date Action
29 March CERA announced – to last 5 years
29 March Mayor announces the public will have a say
13 April Initial public involvement planned
18 April Analysis planning commenced (contacted Lyn Lavery Academic
consulting)
29 April Expo announced to public
14-15 May 10,000 people attended Share an Idea Expo
May- June Share an Idea initiative ongoing
19 May Word clouds and word trees available
27 May 40,000 ideas analysed
20 June End of Share an Idea collection process
4 July 106,000 ideas analysed
11 August Draft Central City Plan Released

13. • Physical challenges
– Staff have personal circumstances to deal with
• People were very tired
– Working in the city Art Gallery
• No meeting rooms, few normal resources
• Stand up fast meetings became the norm
• Very open plan
– Lots of media, public interest
• the Royals visit ~ Richie McCaw, Prince William.
Project planning: when comment style and volume
is unknown

14. • The research challenges
– Planning
• Everything was live – there were no trial runs
• If things went wrong, there would be little time to fix them
• There was a desire to get as much information as quickly
as possible
– Desire for initial findings within four days of the initial expo
• Unknown quantity of data and formats
– We knew that there would be a lot, but how much is a lot?
– There were estimates between 5,000 – 30,000 attending the
expo
– There was a huge number of ways for the public to provide
ideas
Project planning: when the comment style and
volume is unknown

15. • The research challenges
– Planning
• Unknown final use of data
– The analysis structure evolved with the findings and the
process
– We didn’t know what the plan would look like, so we didn’t
know how to inform it
• Balance needed between dividing work tasks and
cohesion
• Unknown what would need to happen
– How much data entry
– Amount and speed of coding
– Unknown analysis depth and breadth
Project planning: when the comment style and
volume is unknown

16. • Planning process response
– Staying flexible and maximise opportunities
• The open plan and close proximity made meetings
informal and effective
• The lack of space meant meetings were
uncomfortable and public – stand up in foyers
• The pressing deadline meant that calls were made
and people moved on
• 90% quality was the threshold to move on
– In most cases it was as good as 100%
• Communication and flexibility was key
Project planning: when the comment style and
volume is unknown

17. • Research response
– Risk management
• We planned for a big project, then contingency planned to double
– Continuous planning
– Project broken into parts - each could be ramped up/altered
quickly if needed
• Data capture
– Planned post it notes for 20,000 people
– Laptop kiosks
– Multiple response options:
» Paper questionnaire for longer responses
» Grafitti wall
» Kids pictures
• Data entry
– Post expo we needed lots of people for a short time
– Team of 30 temps that eventually reduced to about 6 with the option of
expanding.
Project planning: when the comment style and
volume is unknown

18. • Research response
– Data management and posting
• One person responsible as the gatekeeper who sent data
• Ensure all data had been transferred
• Used Dropbox
– Data coding
• Data coded by Auckland Academic Consulting team
• Team that could expand
• The team in two places
– Data synthesis and analysis by analyst team in
collaboration with planning topic specialists
• Analysts paired with planners
• Analysis review
Project planning: when the comment style and
volume is unknown

19. • Research response
– Query and report provision
• Planners made aware of the what NVivo could do –
summaries and queries
– Overall summary analysis, identification of
synergies and conflicts and the overarching
themes
• Collaborative meetings
• Overview created
Project planning: when the comment style and
volume is unknown

20. • What makes up a city?
– So what do you ask about?
Developing appropriate questions
People Events Galleries
Transport Sport Buses
Commerce Trees Business
Parks Heritage Movies
Buildings Cafes Squares
Arts Cars Sustainable
Markets River Building heights

21. • City initially broken into four themes
– Space
– Life
– Move
– Market
• Initially just two questions asked
– What do you want in the Central City? And why?
– What do you not want in the Central City? And
why?
Developing appropriate questions

22. Share an Idea expo

23. • If ask about specific topics then some are
missed
• By being open, the public drives the
conversation
– They were informed
– It is their city
• The process did move to more specific
questions to fill gaps
– Consistent online and workshops
– Coordinated with planners
– Responded to what had already been said.
Developing appropriate questions

24. • Coding coordinated between planners,
coding team and analysts
• Needed an initial structure as no time to
develop with comments
– Tight data dictionary
• Meant that there was agreement within the coding
team and between CCC and Academic consulting.
• Initially driven by planning teams
• Comment drove additions to coding
Managing an initial and evolving coding
structure

25. Managing an initial and evolving coding
structure

26. • The plan developed into five themes, so analysis
evolved also
– Green city
– Distinctive city
– City life
– Transport choice
– Market city
– Transitional city
• Natural for the plan to evolve to reflect what had
been said
• Communication with planners to find out their needs
• June 13 - 6.2 earthquake
– Remote access makes work possible
Reacting to evolving challenges and keeping
the end in mind

27. • Constant pressing need to provide as much
information as possible
– Trees and clouds
• Need to find balance between providing
information that was accessible – such as
queries and representative of all data
– With so much data many stories biased to a
particular argument could be told
• Cars v bikes/walkers
• Low rise v high rise
• Quality boutique retail v the comfort of malls
Reacting to evolving challenges and keeping
the end in mind

28. • Aim to ensure all information informed the
Plan
• Consistency across all formats a goal
• Some information was used outside the
central city
• NVivo allowed everything to be included in
the same project
Information collection quality control in a
large multi-faceted process

29. Information collection quality control in a
large multi-faceted process
Source Source Type Ideas Coded for
Analysis
Total Ideas by Source
Type
Ideas as a % of Source
Type
Share an Idea – web
entries (140 text limit).
(includes Let’s Hear It
survey submitted via
Share an Idea
website)
Website 20,418
Share an Idea – follow
up questions
Website 18,556
Other data submitted
via Share an Idea
website (group ideas,
ideas longer than 140
text limit, emails)
Website 6,172
Share an Idea website total 45,146 43%
Post It notes Expo 25,908
Laptop idea entries Expo 6,238
Let’s Hear It survey
(completed at Expo)
Expo 13,997
Children’s art Expo 359
Kid’s activity sheet Expo 337
Lego model Expo 183
Other Expo data (longer
ideas, graffiti wall)
Expo 4,019
Expo total 51,041 48%

30. Information collection quality control in a
large multi-faceted process
Source Source Type Ideas Coded for
Analysis
Total Ideas by Source
Type
Ideas as a % of Source
Type
Let’s Hear It survey
(submitted in hard
copy form to Council
post Expo)
Council 1,468
Voicemail messages to
Council
Council 192
Radio questions (The
Edge and The
Rock stations)
Council 1,966
Council total 3,625 3%
Letters from public
(email and hard
copy)
Independent 603
Miscellaneous
submissions (email and
hard copy)
Independent 1,809
Other data
(includes other
ideas,
postcards)
Independent 1,901
Independent 4,314 4%
Workshop group
comments
Workshop
1,273
Workshop individual
comments
Workshop
592
Workshop total
1,865 2%

31. • With many unknowns planning was constant
and evolving
– Coordinating between public affairs/marketing,
analysts and planners
– Human resources
• Reduced data entry staff numbers
• Extended coding time
Summary comments

32. • With many unknowns planning was constant
and evolving
– Second stage of question process developed
• Created schedule for question creation, editing,
dissemination, analysis and answers
• Coordinated consistent questions across web and
community workshops
– Reporting
• Word reports to planners and meeting process arranged
• Created reporting system
• Provided draft reports
– Communication and project updates became regular
• Project became part of theme leaders meetings
Summary comments

33. • Risk management was constant and the
radar was always on
– Planning for what could happen
• Loss of power and data
– Copies in Auckland and in cloud (Dropbox)
• Analysis wasn’t happening fast enough
– Called in extra reviewers
– Considered others
– Having contingencies ready
• Extra ‘post its’ on hand – knew shop closing times
and stock levels
• Temp agency available with data entry staff
Summary comments

34. • Communication and attitude was flexible and
open
– Fixing/deciding things as they happened
• Great to have a calm voice of reason in Auckland
(Lyn) to bounce ideas and solve problems
• Perfect having a knowledgeable person who was
getting a little sleep
– Understanding others
• Council teams and consultants (web team) aware of
others needs
– Trust and belief that we would get there
Summary comments

35. • Thanks to CCC for the opportunity to present
– Congratulations on completing the final version
of the Central City Plan
• Thanks to QSR for providing the forum to
present this seminar.
Thanks and happy festive season