Combining individual interviews and focus groups to enhance data richness

This paper is a presentation of the critical reflection on the types of findings obtained from the combination of individual interviews and focus groups, and how such triangulation contributes to knowledge production and synthesis.

Increasingly, qualitative method triangulation is advocated as a strategy to achieve more comprehensive understandings of phenomena. Although ontological and epistemological issues pertaining to triangulation are a topic of debate, more practical discussions are needed on its potential contributions, such as enhanced data richness and depth of inquiry. METHOD: Data gathered through individual interviews and focus groups from a study on patterns of cancer information-seeking behaviour are used to exemplify the added-value but also the challenges of relying on methods combination.