Set narrow goals and hypotheses

- One way to narrow the research scope to fit into Agile settings is to break down your research goals into the smallest possible questions. You won't miss out on answering questions because you're doing research all the time, and sometimes you can combine small individual research goals. When doing evaluation work, I recommend creating hypotheses. This recognizes assumptions, frames the research, and helps the team analyze more quickly. I like to use the following framework adapted from lean startup practices. If we do build or provide this thing, then these people will do some desirable outcome. We'll know this is true when we can measure X thing. The do, build, or provide section refers to the solution you're proposing. These people represent your actual or target users. The sum desirable outcome is what you want people to do and an explanation of the value of that action. The measure of success is a way to set your goal to feel comfortable whether or not you move forward. You may be able to pull numbers from business partners like an amount of money to make something worth an investment. That would also set you up well to prove the return on investment in UX activities. When you don't have those numbers, make an educated guess. You can alter the framework to fit your purposes, but framing research this way helps you quickly identify target participants, what data you need to collect and barometers of success. Let's say that you're working on an application that allows small businesses to manage their expenses and you want to introduce a new recurring invoice feature, but you need to figure out the best place for it to live. If you turn that goal into a hypothesis, it might look something like this. "If we put the recurring invoices link in the sales portion "of the navigation, "micro-business owners will be able "to find the new feature easily. "We'll know this is true when 80% "of people asked to look for it "will be able to find it on the first try." You might then conclude that you need to make a prototype of the new navigation structure and run a usability task with a task of finding recurring invoices. Taking note of whether people find it on the first attempt. When doing exploratory research, you won't be able to set a cut and dry hypothesis, but you can still state your assumptions and narrow your goals to help you frame your research. Be clear about what questions you want answered and what decisions you want to make using the information you gather. You don't want to go into exploratory research trying to prove or disprove a point, but being explicit about your guesses can help you avoid bias. Regardless of the kind of research, there's likely going to be pressure to go as quickly as possible to fit into Agile. Narrowing your research goals and identifying hypotheses will help you plan, run, and analyze efforts more quickly.