Intro to Research

📋 Plan

Before you talk to anyone, know exactly what decision your research needs to inform. Unfocused research creates the illusion of progress while leaving you no closer to a real answer.

1. Define Your Research SprintOne sprint, one decision — staying narrow is what separates useful research from expensive conversation.
   • Identify the single decision this sprint needs to inform before anything else
   • Choose one focus area: product, pricing, onboarding, positioning, or retention
   • Select one customer type you're testing assumptions about
   • Timebox the sprint so findings stay fresh and actionable
2. Set Impact, Goals, and ApproachWork backwards from the business outcome you want to affect — every question should earn its place.
   • Impact: what outcome are you trying to drive? (retention, activation, conversion)
   • Goals: what do you need to understand to drive that impact?
   • Approach: what method best surfaces those answers?
   • Align your team on all three before recruiting begins
3. Recruit the Right ParticipantsWho you talk to shapes everything you learn — bad recruiting is the most common source of false signal.
   • Source from your network, existing customers, and targeted outreach
   • Reach out with a clear, honest ask that sets expectations upfront
   • Screen with 2–3 qualifying questions before confirming
   • Prioritize participants who match your ICP, not just who's available
4. Select the Right MethodDifferent questions need different methods — don't default to interviews for everything.
   • Use interviews for open-ended behavior exploration and problem discovery
   • Use surveys to quantify patterns across a larger group
   • Use concept tests to pressure-test specific ideas or early prototypes
   • Match method to the decision you're trying to make, not what's most comfortable

• Can you state the one decision this sprint is meant to inform?
• Do you have a clear Impact → Goals → Approach chain?
• Have you screened your participants against your ICP?
• Is your method matched to your question type?

🎙️ Learn

The interview is where most research either succeeds or silently fails. Structure your conversations to zoom out, zoom in, and zoom back out — and stay alert to the biases that corrupt findings without ever announcing themselves.

1. Structure Your InterviewsA good interview has three movements: zoom out to understand context, zoom in on the problem, then zoom out again to surface what matters most.
   • Open by zooming out — understand their broader role, goals, and current workflow
   • Zoom in on the specific behavior or pain point you're researching
   • Close by zooming out again — surface trade-offs and what matters most to them
   • Let the structure guide you, not script you — follow interesting threads
2. Recognize and Avoid the Three BiasesMost bad research isn't obviously wrong — it's quietly shaped by biases you didn't notice until it's too late to fix.
   • Confirmation bias: seeking evidence that confirms what you already believe
   • Acquiescence bias: participants agree because they want to be helpful, not because they mean it
   • Present orientation bias: people describe what's top of mind, not what's most consistently true
   • Name these biases to your team before a sprint so everyone's watching for them
3. Ask Better QuestionsThe quality of your insight is a direct function of the quality of your questions — most default questions produce polite, useless answers.
   • Ask open-ended questions — avoid anything with a yes/no answer
   • Ask about the past, not the future ("What did you do?" not "Would you ever?")
   • Never lead with your hypothesis baked in ("Do you find X frustrating?")
   • Ask the same thing 2–3 different ways to cross-check what you're hearing
4. Build a Discovery GuideA guide keeps you consistent across interviews without making you robotic — it's a structure, not a script.
   • Separate behavior questions (what they do) from attitude questions (what they think)
   • Write questions for each interview phase: zoom out, zoom in, zoom out
   • Prioritize ruthlessly — you won't get through everything
   • Leave space for follow-up and the threads you didn't anticipate

• Does your interview flow through zoom out → zoom in → zoom out?
• Are your questions about past behavior, not hypothetical future behavior?
• Have you eliminated leading questions from your guide?
• Is your discovery guide a structure, not a rigid script?

⚡ Act

Data is not insight. Insight is not action. Most research dies in the gap between observation and decision — this section closes that gap with a framework for synthesis and a discipline for sharing findings in a way that actually moves things.

1. Move from Data to Insights to ActionRaw observations don't drive decisions — you have to do the work of interpretation before handing off findings.
   • Data: what you observed ("Customers said they don't use the dashboard")
   • Insight: why it matters ("They don't use it because the data lag makes it untrustworthy")
   • Action: what to do ("Improve data freshness before adding more features")
   • Never hand off raw notes — always translate to the insight layer first
2. Analyze in Three SizesNot every synthesis session needs to be a major event — match the scale of analysis to the weight of the decision.
   • Small (5–15 min): after every call — capture your top 3 observations while they're fresh
   • Medium (30–60 min): after 5–10 interviews — look for patterns across participants
   • Large (1–3 hrs): before major decisions — deep synthesis with your full team
   • Build the small habit first — it makes the medium and large sessions dramatically better
3. Share Findings That Drive DecisionsResearch that doesn't change anything wasn't worth doing — share in a way that forces a choice.
   • Lead with the insight, not the data — don't make your team excavate the point
   • Connect findings explicitly to decisions or bets currently on the table
   • Share in the format your team will actually use: doc, Slack summary, or one slide
   • Flag what you're still uncertain about — partial confidence stated clearly is more useful than false certainty

• Have you translated raw observations into actual insights (the why)?
• Did you capture notes immediately after each call?
• Are your findings connected to a specific decision your team needs to make?
• Have you been honest about what you still don't know?

Resources