How to Code Open-Ended Data
A Thematic Coding Guide for Market Research
As any market research or customer insights team knows, collecting open-ended survey data is just the beginning. The real challenge, and opportunity, lies in turning that qualitative data into strategic clarity.
For many teams, the default has been outsourcing thematic analysis. But that model trades away speed, context, and control. Today, researchers are pulling thematic coding of open-ended data back in-house. As tools have evolved, it’s now quick and easy to accurately code verbatim data while maintaining full control & accelerating analysis timelines.
But that also means it’s more important than ever to have a solid understanding of thematic coding methodology.
This guide walks through four scalable, insight-rich approaches to thematic analysis, no matter what tool, technology, or AI platform is used.
Four Approaches To Thematic Analysis
Inductive: Explore new patterns directly from the data.
Deductive: Validate known themes from theory or past research.
Semantic: Code and analyze only what’s explicitly said.
Latent: Uncover implied meanings beneath the surface.
What Is Thematic Analysis?
Thematic analysis is a method for identifying, analyzing, and interpreting patterns (or themes) within qualitative data. Whether it’s open-ended survey data, interview transcripts, user feedback, or online comments, the goal is the same: extract structured insight from unstructured content.
At Fathom, we built our platform for research teams to deliver accuracy at scale without delay, empowering teams to surface nuanced and detailed insights from open-ended data quickly and rigorously.
Why Market Research And Customer Insights Teams Are Bringing Thematic Coding In-House
Outsourcing was once the only option for handling large-scale qualitative analysis. But that meant losing ownership, sacrificing speed, and relying on third parties to interpret your respondents’ voices. Today, tools like Fathom are flipping that equation.
Bringing thematic analysis in-house gives you:
Faster, iterative cycles — code, validate, analyze, and report quickly
Full control over your data — no one knows your strategic needs like you
Integrated translation — global data sets without translation costs
Shorter turnaround times — 10x faster than outsourcing
Streamlined analytics — interactive dashboard to analyze coded data
The 4 Types of Thematic Coding & When to Use Each
1. Inductive Thematic Coding
Let the data speak for itself. You don’t start with categories. Generate them through immersion and iteration.
DIRECTION: Bottom-up (data-driven)
USE CASE: Exploratory research, new domains, understanding changing context, product or customer feedback, new public opinion
STRENGTH: Flexible, often reveals unexpected themes
RISK: Can feel unstructured if not carefully reviewed
Why it works: Great for teams trying to make sense of a new product space, market shift, or audience voice without pre-baked assumptions.
2. Deductive Thematic Coding
You enter with a framework, often based on prior studies or stakeholder hypotheses, and use the data to test it.
DIRECTION: Top-down (theory-driven)
USE CASE: Validating hypotheses, waves of tracking
STRENGTH: Efficient, aligned with business goals
RISK: May overlook novel or emerging insights
Why it works: Excellent for longitudinal studies, benchmarks, or testing specific hypotheses, where consistency and comparability matter.
3. Semantic Thematic Coding
You focus only on what’s explicitly stated, no interpretation, no assumptions.
FOCUS: Surface-level meaning
USE CASE: UX feedback, NPS comments, support tickets
STRENGTH: Clear and easy to communicate
RISK: May overlook emotional nuance or root causes
Why it works: Ideal when stakeholders need quick, actionable summaries of what users are saying at face value.
4. Latent Thematic Coding
You move beyond what’s said to what’s meant, analyzing tone, phrasing, and implied beliefs.
FOCUS: Hidden assumptions, deeper meaning
USE CASE: Brand perception, behavioral drivers
STRENGTH: Uncovers emotional motivators and unmet needs
RISK: Risk of over-interpretation without guardrails
Why it works: If your objective is to get under the skin of your audience or decode sentiment behind loyalty, this method excels.
Of course, you can combine inductive or deductive with latent or semantic frameworks to align your code frame with your specific needs.
The Step by Step Guide for How to Code Open-Ended Data
Here’s the simple, repeatable process that underpins rigorous deductive thematic coding.
Tools like Fathom streamline this process, and we’ll get to that next. But it’s important to understand the methodological foundations of quality thematic coding.
Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the Data.
Whether it's interview transcripts or survey exports, read through it. Context builds clarity.
Step 2: Identify Initial Codes
Highlight phrases or points of friction. Don’t overthink; start broad.
Step 3: Create Themes
Group your codes based on repetition, tone, or relevance. Use contrast to surface nuance. If doing this manually, can be helpful to have multiple people do this exercise to reduce individual bias.
Step 4: Refine Your Themes
Split vague ones. Merge similar ones. Drop the ones that don’t add value.
Step 5: Code the Data with Binary Codes
Apply the established codes to every response. Ensure codes are accurately tagged to every theme that the response contains. Once again, if doing this exercise manually, having more than one person code the entire data set increases accuracy with inter-coder reliability.
Step 6: Analyze your coded data.
Analyze your coded open ended data, then structure your report with key themes, quantified distribution of themes (ideally for key segments), representative quotes, and summaries.
How the Process Differs for Deductive Thematic Coding
When starting with a predetermined, established code frame, after familiarizing yourself with the data, skip to either Step 4 or 5.
If you want to hold the code frame exactly the same with no adjustments, skip to Step 5.
In many cases though, you’ll want to account for new and emerging themes that weren’t present in past waves of this data. This was difficult to do when the coding process was completely manual. But tools like Fathom make it easy to identify and add new themes to the data and begin to track them as they emerge.
How Fathom Leverages AI To Streamline High-Quality Thematic Coding (while adhering to the methodological principles)
UPLOAD YOUR DATA:
Translate if needed directly on the platform; no external translation needed.
AI CREATES THEMES AND GROUPS FOR HUMAN REVIEW:
While that’s happening, you familiarize yourself with the data by reading a representative subset of responses in an interface designed for just this.
HUMAN REFINEMENT AND REVISION:
Review and refine suggested themes and groups to align your code frame perfectly with your strategy and needs. Make sure theme names and theme descriptions are nuanced and specific to your use case and context.
AI ACCURATELY CODES EVERY RESPONSE:
Based on your finalized code frame, AI tags every response accurately, being sure to apply multi-coding everywhere where multi-coding applies. This is key to accurate analysis and to insight auditability.
ANALYZE CODED DATA IN AN INTERACTIVE DASHBOARD:
With streamlined insights, statistical analysis, comparative analysis, and built-in sentiment analysis.
When working with an established code frame (deductive coding), the code frame can be reapplied from within Fathom, and it’s easy to add new and emerging themes so your reporting truly represents your data.
Fast, Nuanced And Super Accurate Thematic Coding
Analyzing high volumes of open-ended data with thematic analysis is no longer a slow, outsourced burden. With the right frameworks, and the right platform, you can do it in-house, at scale.
Why Researchers Choose Fathom:
Speed and ease: Fathom transforms open-ended analysis, making it 10× faster, 5× more detailed, and effortlessly intuitive. With over 30 million responses analyzed, Fathom enables teams to quickly and easily uncover deep insights from high-volume qualitative data—delivering speed, depth, and simplicity.
Nuance, detail, and control: Fathom’s platform delivers thematic coding with unparalleled nuance, detail, and accuracy — giving researchers full control through human-in-the-loop workflows, context-adaptive frameworks, and transparent data security. The result: fast, rigorous insights that stay aligned with your strategy and grounded in your data.
Delightful and powerful analytics: Fathom delivers structured, insight-rich analytics that make sense of complex qualitative data. Designed for clarity and depth, it helps researchers uncover trends, compare segments, and communicate findings with confidence.
You’ve got the open-ended data. If you’d like to start getting more value from it - we’d love to help!
