Original subtitles

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 the study.

Everyone on the team needs to have a common grasp of

the history leading up to

the current situation. Think of it this way:

Your team needs 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 recommendations.

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 solve.

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.

That's why identifying

your research goals is so important.

Essentially, they drive the entire study.

How do you develop research goals?

Let's break it down.

The goals of your research will

differ from project to project.

It will fit into one of

three categories depending on when

during the product lifecycle,

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.

The goals of the research are to better

understand the user problem you're trying to solve.

You want to make sure that there's

a real need for the product.

For our dog walking app,

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 product.

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 user's problem.

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.

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 are the handful

of questions you plan to answer during the study.

These should not be

the literal questions you plan

to asks 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.

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.

You should know when you've

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 like,

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 qualitative.

You might remember that we talked about

quantitative and qualitative research

in an earlier video.

Quantitative research focuses on data that can be

gathered by counting or measuring -- think numbers.

Qualitative research focuses on observations about

why and how things happen -- 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? -- will 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.

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 journey.

Ready to explore the world of key performance indicators?