How to Create a Research Plan

The research space is virtually infinite. We could spend all of our research time and effort talking to the wrong people about the wrong topics.

A research plan helps teams to focus in on the areas that have the highest chance of yielding insights that will help them achieve their product goals.

A research plan should be incredibly quick to create (less than an hour) but it needs to include the following sections:

1. Background and Objectives - the product strategy and our current product goals.

2. Research Questions - high level questions to uncover our biggest uncertainties

3. Timeline

4. Participants - which personas or job-roles are we going to target

5. Methodology - which research techniques do we think will help us get the best insights within our constraints

6. Resources - what tools and how much money do we need to complete the research

Having a clear research plan can help save a lot of time in unnecessary or untargeted research. In my article this week I share some examples for each section of the plan.

This Week’s Updates

Enabling the Team

Organizations Are Distributed Systems by Malte Ubl
Viewing organizations as distributed systems can enhance efficiency. Go through approval processes similar to database transactions, the benefits of asynchronous workflows, and the concept of optimistic locking to streamline decision-making.

How Hard Should Your Employer Work To Retain You? by Charity Majors
Organizations should consistently keep to pay bands and avoid making exceptions to their own rules, ensuring that existing employees are valued equally to new hires. This fosters a culture of fairness and reduces the need for last-minute retention efforts.

Product Direction

The Lifecycle Of Goals: Research, Discover, Deliver, Monitor by Itamar Gilad
Manage the lifecycle of goals; by emphasizing the need for research, discovery, delivery, and monitoring to ensure that teams stay aligned with overarching business and user outcomes

The Ghosts In The Machine by Liz Pelly
Spotify's "Perfect Fit Content" (PFC) program commissions music from production companies and lists it under fabricated artist names. This strategy has raised ethical concerns about transparency and fair compensation in the music industry.

Continuous Research

How to Create a Research Plan by Rory Madden
A well-structured research plan is essential for maintaining focus and direction. By focusing on clearly defined objectives, timelines, and methodologies, teams can ensure their efforts yield actionable insights that drive the product forward.

How Qualitative Researchers Can Level Up Their Quantitative Research by Brad Orego
Integrating both qualitative and quantitative methods gives comprehensive insights into user behavior and preferences. By expanding their skill set, researchers can offer more robust and actionable findings. [Sponsored Content]

Continuous Design

The AI-Augmented Designer: Navigating The Future Of UX Design by Kuldeep Chandel
Integrating AI in UX design can provide data-driven insights and inspire innovative design directions. However human oversight is needed to ensure AI suggestions align with user needs and organizational goals.

What Does It Really Mean To Have An “Experience”? by Roger Laureano
Roger explores the importance of context in shaping user experiences, diving into different interpretations and their impact on product design and user interactions.

Continuous Development

How To Set Effective Quarterly Goals And Okrs For Platform Engineering Teams by Dilesh
A guide on setting effective quarterly goals and OKRs for platform engineering teams, focusing on alignment, measurability, and continuous progress tracking.

Five Trends That Will Drive Software Development in 2025 by Brian Wald
Software developers will broaden the scope of how they use AI with promising new applications for improving security, the key trends include: AI-driven app modernization, DevSecOps adoption, and the rise of integrated development platforms.

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Video of the Week
Key Strategies to Win Executive Backing on UX
to Ignite Design-Led Business Growth

In this panel, industry leaders share key strategies for securing executive buy-in for UX, demonstrating its tangible impact on business outcomes, and aligning UX with core business objectives. Discover practical advice on presenting UX outcomes, using data to show value, and ensuring UX is integrated throughout the product lifecycle.

If you're looking to elevate UX within your organization or harness the power of design for business growth, this video is a must-watch. Check out the full video here 👇

The Results of Last Week’s Poll

The question: What’s the biggest challenge in sharing research insights across teams?

The biggest risk is research is that insights sit on a shelf gathering dust. This was reflected with the two biggest challenge that teams face: Engaging other teams to explore available research (31.3%) and making insights discoverable (25%).

Linked to the point of making sure that research is actioned is making sure that when people do come looking for insights that they are up-to-date and not stale. This is a difficult one, particularly as things move fast these day (goodbye OpenAI, hello DeepSeek!).

There are two types of research - product / market level research and customer/deep level research. Product and market research doesn’t move as fast so even one or two year old data is useful. However at the customer level, things move fast. Rather than trying to maintain data over time, I believe it is quicker, and more effective, to throw away research after a few months and redo interviews. Controversial, I know. But the other option is to spend a lot of time analysing whether data is fresh (how do you validate that without new interviews?) and then risk actioning out of date insights.

If you find these challenges familiar, take a look at our Continuous Research course for practical solutions to improve the flow of research insights within your organization.