Step 1

Set- up a 45-minute meeting with relevant stakeholders

In the meeting invite, set expectations about what the meeting will be about and its goals. You can use the example meeting invite below as a template to form your own. Possible meeting/event titles could be “research intake session,” “aligning on research study needs,” or “planning a  research study.”

TIP: Ask for consent to record the entire session. You can use it to double-check that you correctly understand what your stakeholders need and how to design your study.

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Step 2

Discuss meeting agenda and goals (5 min)

Once everyone has arrived, reiterate the purpose of the meeting: to align and capture the needs, requests, and expectations for the upcoming study. Below is an example introduction that you can use or modify.

Example Introduction: “Hi everyone, thanks for coming to this meeting. Today, I’m going to ask some questions to understand what to study and everyone’s expectations, needs, and goals for the study. I’ll read a question aloud; we’ll discuss our answers, and I’ll take notes. Near the end of the study, I’ll review the notes and study details and recommend a potential study design. Later today, I’ll send over a finalized research plan for everyone to review and confirm. Does that sound good? Let’s get started.”

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Step 3

Define the study goals with your stakeholders (10 min)

Step Goal

• Arrive at several related research questions, hypotheses, or topics to study
• Define the MIP in an accessible or practical way
• Define the goal, decision, problem, prediction, or priority that the research’s findings will be used to influence
• Design an appropriate study (in your head) that meets the study goals

Engage your stakeholders in conversation and learn more about why they want to learn the things they do. And if you can stop fruitless, “interesting,” or unethical research questions from being considered, do it. Recognizing bad research can be effective in establishing credibility as a researcher. Go a step further and build your research culture by refining bad questions into fruitful ones.

Possible questions to ask to define study goals

• What do you/we want to learn?
• what decision or action are you/we trying to make? What’s affecting the confidence or speed in making this decision? What information from the people who use the product will help inform that decision? Who’s accountable and capable of making that decision?
• What is the metric, KPI (key performance indicator), or OKR (objectives and key results) are you/we trying to influence?
• Who you/are we trying to understand? What characteristics or qualities are important for you/us to help recruit the Most Informative Participant (MIP)?
• What will you/we do after the data has been collected? How will what you/we learn to influence the product or decision-making process?
• What problem or issue are you/we trying to understand? How long has this problem been going on? Is this problem getting worse or better over time? What would happen to the problem if you/we did nothing? What solutions or fixes have you/we and others already tried?

Make sure to take notes so you can clearly understand and confirm what your stakeholders are saying.

TIP: Document all incoming or suggested research questions, hypotheses, and topics in one central document. This will help you recognize common areas of curiosity or important patterns across parts of the business.

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Step 4

Document/gather study expectations (15 - 20 min)

Step Goals

• Get all the details you need to design your study and write a research plan properly
• Understand the recruitment and sampling requirements
• Understand the reporting requirements
• Define a study timeline that’s practical and sustainable
• Finalize an appropriate study (in your head) that meets the study goals and expectations to recommend

In this step, you want to make the upcoming study as real and practical as possible. If you don’t fully understand the expectations and demands for the study, you might spend a lot of resources conducting fruitless research.

Questions to document/gather study expectations

• What do you/we expect to find or learn?
• What do we already know?
• When do we need to have reviewable findings?
• Is everyone expecting recommendations based on the research?
• How would you like answers to these research questions to be shared?
• Does there need to be a presentation?
• Roughly how many participants are stakeholders expecting to learn from?"
• How will you/we incentivize people to participate?

TIP: If you can set more practical expectations, take the time to do so. Avoid setting yourself up for unsustainable research.

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Step 5

Provide a brief, practical and tentative study design (Last 10 min of meeting)

Once you feel you’ve understood the goals and expectations for the study, propose a study design and timeline. In the back of your mind, as you go through steps 1 - 3, start to ideate and design your study. What’s practical? What risks do you predict will affect your study design? How will you collect data and analyze it? How long do you need for reporting? You can check out Collection 3 for more help on designing a study.

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Step 6

After the meeting, write and share your research plan

Guide 03: A Practical Research Plan

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Step 7

Review and confirm the research plan before starting your study prep

The minimum details you need to confirm at: the questions of your study, the post-study goal or decision, the MIP definition, and when findings need to be delivered.