What is useful about Indepth Interviews is its intimacy. It is possible to get close to the thinking of one respondent at a time when intimacy and individuation are called for.

One of my recent IDI studies made it very clear that when properly done, IDIs are really intensive focus groups... the facilitator and the respondent. Engaging a respondent in a short time so that we can capture the needed learning is a very exciting and useful approach to understanding consumer behavior and attitudes.

It is useful to employ a full range of interviewing tools as part of the indepth interviewing process... including several "quantitative" tools that allow us to zone-in on respondent feelings and attitudes.

For example, conjoint measurement and homogeneity analysis work well to amplify the our understanding of consumer behavior.