Table 2 Integrated formative research design

1. Pilot testing in-depth interviews (IDIs) and participatory group discussions (PGDs)

(a) Debriefing qualitative research team; four rounds of pre-pilot individual interviews

↓

(b) Finalization of pilot tool and experimental design

2. Qualitative research data collection:

↓

(c) DCE pilot interviews (n = 50)

 Njombe: 10 PGDs and 15 IDIs

↓

(d) Analysis of pilot data to obtain prior utility estimates (priors) used to generate the efficient experimental design

 Tabora: 10 PGDs and 15 IDIs

(e) DCE survey:

 Njombe (n=159); Tabora (n=166)

3. Intervention design

(f) Present and interpret qualitative and DCE results to tailor final VMMC demand creation intervention