Plan Your Research for Better Insight

Research becomes our weapon to discover the problems and solutions to a case study. But do you know that there are some things that we must prepare before we start doing research?

Yup, we have to prepare a Research Plan before starting research. But why do we need a research plan? Why not just go straight and conduct research?!

A research plan is needed to know exactly what problem we want to solve. So that the data we get later is not biased. And the solutions we provide are what we need.

What's in the Research Plan?

Background

The background of your research. Here you must know why you want to research and what triggers you. In essence, #WHY?

This is the essential part for the team to align on first so that everyone has the same view and scope on the core of the problem.

Objective Research

Here we must know what we want to get or achieve from the research that we will do. So that we not only gain insight from the research results but also have a reference to the goals at the end of the research stage.

Research Question

We want to find answers to the main points during research, which we can then dig deeper to get some insights. For example:

1. What are the obstacles experienced by users when looking for information about X activities?
2. How can I make it easier for users to find information on X activities?

Research Method

Here we can determine the appropriate research methods to get answers that match our goals.

Is it Attitudinal or Behavioral?

Need Qualitative or Quantitative Data?

Tools

Here we can prepare tools or auxiliary applications to support the research process later. Be it physical tools or supporting software. For example, Recorder, Zoom/Google Meet, etc.

Research Participant Profiles

Who, where, and what are the criteria of potential participants (specific/general) that we want to reach. It also explains how we recruit them into the research process.

Budget

We must also prepare funds to support the research process, such as participant incentives, transportation costs, etc.

Timeplan

Explanation of how long the research process takes and details of the research stages.

Interview Question (optional)

For Attitudinal Research, it is also essential to prepare a question. This is done at the end of the research preparation stage because a researcher already has enough knowledge to pour into a question.

It is possible to conduct research with the existing provisions directly. Still, it would be better to do documentation so that a researcher has a reference in conducting research and remains focused on the scope they have determined.