Plan

Frame research questions

Turn the brief or decision into open questions that research can answer.

How to do it

1. Read the brief and any data you already have.
2. Write questions about behaviour and motivation, not opinions on features.
3. Keep 3 to 6. Cut the ones you would not act on.

Tip. Good research questions start with how, what or why, and can be answered by watching or listening to people.

What you need

Start from:

• Brief or Decision

It is better with: Survey results or Analytics.

What you get: Research questions

A research questions template has these sections:

• Questions

Where it fits

• Discover (Double Diamond): Learn what is really going on, before jumping to answers.

Usually comes after

• Write a project brief
• Frame a decision

What to do next

• Write an interview script
• Compare competitors
• Scan the web
• Find coverage gaps
• Build a survey

Templates that use it

• Exploratory study: We don’t know the problem well yet: why do people do what they do?
• Double Diamond: A whole project, from understanding a problem to a tested answer.
• Jobs to be done: Why do people start using, switch to or leave a product like yours?