The last MAXDAYS 2025 session was titled “Turning Data into Insights: Using MAXQDA for Product & Strategic Research.” Alejandra Farias and Kathleen Tan from IPEX were the presenters. They spoke about IPEX that is focused on thermoplastics. Tan is a Design Researcher coding for qualitative data and Farias is a foresight strategist. At IPEX, they have worked on UX research through qualitative research studies. Tan uses MAXQDA for complex projects with multiple sample populations, complex research, multiple locations, informing more than one key strategy, and larger datasets. Tan memos and AI use in MAXQDA. They spoke about “enhancing research with AI” to increase research depth by finding patterns and reducing analysis time. Summaries helped than identify new themes and confirm coding strategies. Farias studied industrial design and focuses on manufacturing, technology, design, foresight, AI, and sustainability at IPEX. Farias started using MAXQDA to organize and analyze large amounts of data. Farias started watching tutorials and exploring the software. Farias shared some of the tools they use: word frequencies and combinations to find trends and themes, and support coding. They use codes and subcodes and memos. The AI tools that Farias uses include AI summaries, AI chat, AI suggest, and subcodes. The OCR feature allowed Farias to extract text from images and even helped the team process handwritten submission forms. Farias also noted the Chrome web collector extension they used to capture websites. Farias presented a case study detailing work on their sustainability trends report. MAXQDA helped the team save articles and organize the information. Farias has been using the AI Chat to ask about sustainability in documents. In Memos, Farias defined inclusion and exclusion criteria to autocode segments. For example, Farias defined ideas and used a spreadsheet. Farias spoke about using the AI Assist features and learning how to use the AI to get inspiration for subcodes and themes. I appreciate the advise they shared and how they used the AI tools and MAXQDA features. This session gave me several ideas about using memos.
