The first thing we do after having wrapped up the interview phase, is to revisit our research questions. These are the questions we set out to answer, and this is what we aim to deliver on. It might have been something along the lines of “do people think it’s unnecessary to recycle” or “are people going to want to use this app”, type of questions. (Read more about what a research question is here.) We’ve put a lot of effort into conducting the research to learn more, and so this is what we want to be able to answer.
The outcome we’re expecting is probably not going to be in the form of a solid truth that gives us a clear yes or no as an answer to our questions, so we won’t start looking for that as we dig into our data. Instead, what we expect, and hope to get out of research are explanations to why we answer our research questions the way we do. We might uncover dilemmas, complexity and unexpected surprises, and that’s great.
Sure, sometimes we are looking to make a decision whether or not to do XYZ, and the answer to that might be yes or no, but that is the answer that the decision makers will get to. The research should inform that decision making, but not necessarily make it.
The research should inform the decision making, but not necessarily make the decisions.
Practically, it’s good to get all the notes, pictures, videos, etc. in one place so that everyone has access to…