DEVELOP RESEARCH STRATEGY AND PLAN
Developing a Research Plan Developing a research plan creates an initial course of action and aligns your team around the same goal. The research plan should act as a guide for activities and timing but also be flexible enough to adjust with new insights and opportunities. Every new customer interview and observation opportunity will take the research in unexpected directions and lead to the discovery of new actionable insights and patterns across interviews. Discovering the real customer job-to-be-done is more important than checking off the boxes on the original research plan. Establish a Goal: This is the big picture of your research. Provide an overview of what the research aims to achieve. Form Research Questions: What do you want to learn? The answers to these questions will help you to achieve your research goal. Set a Schedule: Document the intended date and description for each research activity to be performed. Determine Activities: Describe the activities that will be performed (i.e. user interviews, observations, expert interviews, group activities) and what the output will provide to the research. Develop a Recruitment Plan: Develop your recruitment criteria, including the attributes that you will be looking for in participants. Consider what kind of participants can provide you with the most valuable information and outline how you plan to recruit these participants. Establish a Budget: Based on your activities and recruitment costs, determine how much it will cost to conduct the research. Form a Task List: Detail the activities, establish ownership of tasks, and estimate the due date to complete each task.
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