This is in response to the question of Jean Providence: Are there cases you might have seen in the professional conduct of evaluation where quantitative methods PRECEDED qualitative methods? 

I would say that 1) you cannot measure what you don't conceive well, so a qualitative exploration is always necessary before any measurement attempt. If my wife visits some furniture shop and text me: "Honey, I found this marvelous thing for the kitchen, cost 500 and it's 2 m. long and 1.5 m. wide. You agree?" I wouldn't know what to answer, because in spite of all the numbers she gave me, I have no idea what she is talking about, qualitatively. Does she mean a table, a cupboard or a carpet? It makes no sense to quantify anything without first qualifying it.

2) This being said, there is also room for qualitative approaches after a quantification effort. You are right about that: in some cases, a survey may yield results that appear odd, and one way to make sense of them is to "zoom" on that particular issue through a few additional qualitative interviews. 

Hope this makes sense.