  Last week, I analyzed the interview data collected from Allan and Jeanie. The data itself is extremely interesting and very inspiring.
Allan and Jeanie provided a full range of strategies for framing research or expertise in lenses that are memorable and interesting to others. But my coding scheme seem to only serve a categorization purpose, rather than illustrating the relationships between the different strategies, processes and frameworks they shared. What I need to do is to read a bit more about grounded research (get the articles from my office), and look at the data again.
Another issues that emerged from my data analysis is that the interview questions didn't get much into the different types of expertise that consultants have -- technical, social, contextual, business, and how they match their expertise to the different types of clients needs -- technical, social and contextual. What types of questions need to be answered? I think this will largely depend on how I would use the data in the end. What type of data would be most useful to the firms? Directing these questions to Jon would be a good idea, but before that, I need to think through this first.
I have notes from previous conversations about why are we doing this research. I should go back to this tomorrow, check it out, and try to determine how will my research be useful to the end users, what would be interesting to them, how should i modify my interview questions, and whether it is necessary to modify my research questions.
I'll come back to these questions tomorrow. From my conversation with Jeanie, it also became clear that with client responsiveness, we are not just dealing with clients as an organization, but also individuals within that organization. Whatever the consultant does need to meet the individuals' needs as well as the organization's needs in order to succeed. Those needs may not be the same. The personal touch is an important aspect that I haven't thought about much in developing my conceptual framework. How could I address this aspect in a simple, elegant way? Will come back to this question tomorrow as well.
One more thing that I need to do asap is to construct a research plan for the summer, now that the spring quarter is over. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish my pilot study and research proposal by the end of the summer. This will allow me to give it to my dissertation committee before September, and present it by the time that Allan comes back. 
