Since the 1950s, the critical incident technique (CIT) has aided researchers in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of qualitative data. In the student affairs literature only a very small number of CIT studies exist. Using the two most recent publications as examples, this article provides a detailed overview of the CIT, highlights its benefits and limitations, and offers specific recommendations for future applications of the CIT in student affairs research and practice.In 1954, John C. Flanagan, professor of industrial psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and one of the founders of the American Institute for Research (AIR), published his landmark article on the critical incident technique (CIT)-a qualitative research method. The CIT was an outgrowth of the Aviation Psychology Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces, which Flanagan was commissioned to lead in the early 1940s. In spite of its original military applications, the CIT has been widely heralded and used in several fields and professions, including counseling, psychology, nursing, communications, medicine, and social work (Butterfield, Borgen, Amundson, & Maglio, 2005). The marketing literature, in particular, has witnessed an explosion of CIT-related articles-more than 150 studies have been published since the early 1990s (Gremler, 2004).