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Hi again, we now know the seven elements of a research plan.

Let's discuss a few of them in more detail, the project background,

research goals, and research questions.

These elements shape the rest of your research study.

So developing them is really important.

Let's start by examining the project background of a research plan.

This element summarizes the situation leading to the needs for this research.

It's a brief explanation you can give to anyone who asks,

why you're doing this research.

Why is the project background an important part of your research plan?

Establishing a project background gets the team on the same page.

At the beginning of this study, everyone on the team needs to have a common ground.

Of the history leading up to the current situation, think of it this way.

Your team meets to agree on why you're doing the research.

Before you start the study, a clear project background also shows you

understand why you're doing this research and promotes confidence in the overall

quality of your analysis and insights.

The value of this might not be apparent when you're planning your

study, but it will be when you present your research to people who have

the power to act on your recommend.

Now that you know why the project background is an important

part of a research plan.

You're ready to create your own.

Keep these three things in mind.

As you write the project background, identify the signals that

indicated research was necessary.

Ask yourself why you're doing this research.

And if there's a problem you're trying to.

Describe any previous research that has been conducted or

solutions that have been tried?

How have previous attempts brought us closer to solving the problem?

Lastly, list insights, the research will generate an insight is an

observation about people that helps you understand the user or their needs.

From a new perspective, a great insight inspires clear action

and uses simple language.

In the project background include how the insights will be used and what decisions

will be made based on those insights.

There might be a lot of information, but keep the project background concise so

that everyone on your team will read it.

Now let's move on to the second element of a research plan research goals.

This element might also be called research objectives.

Research goals, state the specific ideas that you want to learn from the

research or what you would like the outcomes of the research to be research

goals, help you understand what is the bigger picture of doing this research.

And that's why identifying your research goals is so important.

Essentially they drive the entire study.

So how do you develop research goals?

Let's break it down.

The goals of your research will differ from project.

It will fit into one of three categories, depending on when, during the product

life cycle, you run your research.

If you run research before you start the design process, your research

goal should help you understand why, or if you should build the product.

As a reminder research at this time is called foundational research and the goals

of the research are to better understand the user problem you're trying to solve.

You want to make sure that there is a real need for the person.

For our dog walking up, the goal of foundational research would

be to understand if there is a need for a dog walking app.

If you run research during the design phase, your goal should help

you understand how to build the.

Research at this time is called design research and it will give you the

answers you need to move forward through the design process with confidence.

In our example, the goal of design research would be to learn how

you should build the dog walking app and what features it will

need in order to solve the users.

Finally, if you run research on a product after it has been launched your

research goals, help you understand if the product worked as expected,

this type of research is called post-launch research and the goals

reflect whether you have successfully completed what you set out to do.

The post-launch research goal for our dog-walking app could be to

understand if the app we designed attracts and retains regular users.

So now you've got the hang of the project background and research goals.

Next let's think about the third element of a research plan, research

questions to put it simply your research questions or the handful of questions

you plan to answer during the study.

These should not be the literal questions you plan to ask study participants.

We'll go over these later.

When we start creating our interview script.

Instead, the research questions should be the questions you want your

research to answer and should align with the goals of your research.

So why are research questions important?

They guide your research research questions, provide focus and

structure for your research study.

In addition, research questions will be the main topics you

cover in your presentation.

A few quick tips for writing research questions.

A good research question should be actionable.

You should be able to identify a clear way to attempt to answer the question.

And you should know when you found the answer you're looking for.

Make sure your research questions are specific and not too broad.

You want to answer specific questions and produce meaningful data and make sure

your research questions aren't leading questions should be neutrally phrased so

that they don't sound like you're assuming a particular answer to your question.

For example, let's say your research goal is to make your dog walking app

easier to use in order to keep customers, you might ask research questions.

On average, how many times a week does a user hire a dog Walker through the

app or what frustrated users most about finding a dog Walker through the app?

One last thing to keep in mind about research questions.

The way you write research questions will determine whether your research

method should be quantitative or quality.

You might remember that we talked about quantitative and quality, the

state of research in an earlier video quantity, state of research focuses

on data that can be gathered by counting or measuring think numbers.

Qualitative research focuses on observations about why and how things

have, I think, written descriptions.

Let's revisit the example from our dog walking app.

The first research question on average, how many times a week does a user

hire a dog Walker through the app?

We'll give you quantitative numerical data.

The second research question, what frustrated users most about finding

a dog Walker through the app will give you qualitative information.

Both of these questions are important to consider for your design and they focus

on different parts of the user experience.

All right.

Do you feel you can write a project background, research

goals and research questions.

You can do it for our next adventure.

We'll describe how to measure the success of your.

Ready to explore the world of key performance indicators.