The research process involved both action research (by planning, acting, and reflecting with stakeholders) and technological solution development (by reviewing the literature around the development of music technology in the field of music therapy and interactions with stakeholders to inform technological development). These two elements were intertwined throughout the research ending with the final MAMI Tech Toolkit. 

The data collection process involved stakeholder meetings with multiple stakeholders, individual discussions with key stakeholders, and practical sessions with the children and young people using technology. 

The stakeholders involved with this research are both the central users of the technology (the children and young people at the school) as well as those facilitating this use (the practitioners that surround them). The research sites and participants selected as stakeholders represent practical users of accessible music technology and therefore could illuminate issues around such use. Purposeful sampling has been used to gain stakeholders, this has been criterion based in that the stakeholders have interest in using, have used, or do use music technology. The selection of these stakeholders has been opportunistic in that they have presented themselves throughout the undertaking of the research activities. Where the sample has been stakeholders in the form of children and young people, they have been selected by stakeholders in a snowball (or chain) manner, in that the practitioners know of children, or know of teachers of children, that had an interest in being part of this research, which could also be considered criterion sampling in of itself. 

The research approach used throughout the data collection can be considered to be an example of ‘starting where you are’ in that it was began through personal interest and with several connections to stakeholders already in place. Throughout the research there was an aim to enact an insider stance, in that the research endeavoured to meet people where they were, and to carry out the research by following the stakeholders lead where possible. 

A key mechanism throughout this research was the use of the tools within the kit as ‘technology probes’ (Hutchinson et al 2003). The ‘tool as probe’ mechanism was used to elicit requirements from the stakeholders through an iterative design process. Technology probes included in the MAMI Tech Toolkit were developed throughout the research with each element of the kit moving through a series of iterations.