You don't always need expensive specialist software for a thesis. Many people analyze interviews with a simple spreadsheet. This guide shows you how to set one up and is honest about where Excel falls short.
Note: Ask your advisor which analysis method and software your field expects.
How to set up your sheet
- One row per passage. Add columns for interview, code, quote and timestamp.
- Define your codes. On a second sheet, write down what each code means so you stay consistent across interviews.
- Add passages. Read each interview and copy important passages with their code into the sheet.
- Count and compare. A pivot table shows how often each code appears in each interview.
- Go back to the text. Use a filter to read all quotes for a code. That's where your findings come from.
What the numbers do and don't tell you
Frequency only shows you where to look more closely. A theme isn't more important because it comes up more often. In qualitative research, what matters is what people say and in what context.
Where Excel falls short
- Lots of manual work. You copy each quote by hand, and a typo quickly creates a second code.
- Missing context. A row holds only the quote, not the conversation around it.
- Large studies. With many interviews or several coders, specialist software may be a better fit.
For more on the method, see our guide on how to code interview transcripts.
How Stillscript helps
In Stillscript you select passages right in the transcript and give them a code. The overview shows how often each code appears in each interview. Pro exports it with all quotes as an Excel file, so you can skip the copying. Your recordings and transcripts stay on your device.