Everyone has been talking about Millennials for a long time now.
In the 2010s, they were often described as the generation reshaping qualitative market research — pushing it online, challenging traditional methods, and demanding more involvement in the research process.
Much of that was true. But a decade on, the picture is more nuanced.
Millennials — those who came of age through the 2000s and 2010s — are no longer the “next” generation. They are established consumers, professionals, parents, and decision-makers. And while they remain hugely important to brands, how they engage with qualitative market research has evolved.
This article revisits the original thinking and explores what Millennials really mean for qualitative research in the present.
Who Are Millennials — And Why Do They Still Matter?
Like the generations before and after them, Millennials are often grouped together as a single demographic. But in reality, they span a wide range of life stages and experiences.
What unites them is the context they grew up in:
- The rise of the internet and social media
- Rapid technological change
- Economic uncertainty alongside expanding choice
- Increased awareness of wellbeing, ethics, and sustainability
Millennials have often been described as confident, community-minded, goal-oriented, and collaborative. While broad generalisations like these now feel overly simplistic, one idea still holds: Millennials expect to be involved, not talked at.
They are used to sharing opinions, shaping products, and contributing feedback — and they bring those expectations into research environments.
What We Got Right in 2015
In the original version of this article, we argued that Millennials were accelerating a shift towards digital qualitative research — particularly online communities.
That insight largely proved correct.
Millennials were early adopters of:
- Online qualitative platforms
- Digital diaries and forums
- Mobile-first research participation
They helped normalise the idea that rich qualitative insight didn’t always need to happen in a viewing facility. Engagement, flexibility, and speed became just as important as geography.
Millennials also reinforced the value of partnership-style research — where participants feel listened to, respected, and involved rather than “researched on”.
What’s Changed Since Then
What we didn’t fully anticipate a decade ago was digital fatigue.
While Millennials are highly digitally fluent, that doesn’t mean they want every interaction to happen online. In fact, attitudes have shifted noticeably. A February 2025 survey conducted by Quad via The Harris Poll found that 78% of Millennial adults often wish they could disconnect from digital devices more easily.
This matters for qualitative market research.
Engaging Millennials isn’t about defaulting to digital — it’s about choosing the right methodology for the context, topic, and people involved.
Online communities still work brilliantly in many cases. But so do:
- In-depth interviews
- Hybrid approaches
- Carefully designed face-to-face or accompanied methods
The shift hasn’t been away from traditional qual — it’s been towards more thoughtful method selection.
Millennials and Qualitative Market Research Today
Millennials continue to value:
- Research that feels relevant and purposeful
- Clear explanations of why their input matters
- Flexibility around time and participation
They are also more discerning than they once were. Trust, transparency, and authenticity play a bigger role than novelty or technology alone.
For qualitative researchers, this means:
- Avoiding assumptions based on age alone
- Recognising diversity within the Millennial audience
- Designing research that respects attention, time, and lived experience
Methodology matters — but recruitment quality and engagement design matter just as much.
What This Means for Qualitative Research Now
Millennials haven’t “thrown traditional research out of the window”. Instead, they’ve helped move the industry away from one-size-fits-all thinking.
They’ve shown that:
- Digital isn’t always better — but it can be powerful when used well
- Engagement comes from relevance, not just platforms
- The best qualitative research adapts to people, not the other way around
In that sense, Millennials are still shaping qualitative market research — not by demanding constant change, but by reinforcing the importance of fit, flexibility, and human-centred design.
Final Thought
A decade ago, Millennials represented the future of qualitative market research. Now, they represent something more useful: proof that good research evolves alongside the people it seeks to understand.
From our experience recruiting and working with Millennials across a wide range of qualitative projects, the strongest insight comes from matching the right people with the right methodology. That’s why recruitment quality, thoughtful screening, and method selection remain just as important as the platform itself.
At Angelfish, we work with Millennials across online and face-to-face qualitative research — focusing on recruitment quality and methodology fit to ensure insight is grounded in real experience, not assumptions.
