Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse
Not long ago, a potential client reached out about a research project. We had a brief initial conversation about what he wanted to learn. A few days later, I received an email with some suggested discussion activities he’d been thinking about, asking whether they would be effective.

I couldn’t answer his question. Not because the activities were bad, but because his specific research objectives weren’t yet clear. Without knowing what the research was ultimately supposed to accomplish, there was no way to evaluate whether any particular activity would serve it.

I sent him an email asking for his objectives first. I also suggested that getting his team to discuss and agree on those objectives together would be worthwhile, so everyone was aligned before any design decisions were made. That conversation turned out to be more important than any of the activities we eventually chose.

You can’t evaluate a research design until you know what the research is trying to accomplish. The activities come second. The objectives come first.

What Clear Objectives Actually Drive

This may seem obvious, but as that experience illustrates, people sometimes know they need research without having clearly articulated what they need to learn from it. Clear objectives aren’t just administrative housekeeping, they drive every meaningful decision in the research design.

01

Methodology
Focus groups, IDIs, online bulletin boards, quantitative — the right choice depends entirely on what you need to learn
02

Creative Exercises
Projective techniques, storytelling, visual assignments — each serves a specific objective, not just the study
03

Question Design
Precise, sequenced questions that build toward the insight rather than just covering the topic
04

Time Allocation
How much discussion time each objective deserves, and in what order they’re addressed

Without clear objectives, each of these decisions becomes a guess. Methodology is chosen based on habit or familiarity rather than fit. Exercises are included because they’re interesting rather than because they serve a specific purpose. Questions are written broadly rather than precisely. Time is allocated arbitrarily. The result is research that covers a topic rather than answers a question.

Objectives Align the Team — Before It Matters Most

Back to the story. When it came time to review the discussion guide on the day of the research, there were several team members present who hadn’t been part of the earlier planning conversations. There was no friction. No last-minute questions about why a particular section was included, or whether the guide was covering the right ground. Because the team had aligned on the objectives beforehand, everyone arrived on the same page, and everyone’s information needs were met.

This matters more than it might seem. Last-minute changes to a discussion guide, the kind that happen when stakeholders haven’t agreed on what the research is supposed to accomplish, are disruptive and reduce the quality of preparation. When objectives are clear and agreed upon in advance, the research can run the way it was designed to run. The moderator can focus entirely on the conversation. The team can focus on observing. And the findings can be evaluated against a shared standard of success.

Start With the End in Mind

Successful research in the field begins in the planning phase. My philosophy is to start every engagement by helping clients envision what a successful outcome looks like before we’ve designed a single question.

A question worth asking before every research project:

“What does success look like at the end of this project?”
The answer to this question is the foundation of everything that follows: the methodology, the guide, the exercises, and ultimately the insight.

That question does several things at once. It forces specificity: not “we want to understand our customers” but “we want to know whether our new product concept addresses the needs of consumers who are currently using a competitor’s product.” It surfaces disagreements early, when they’re easy to resolve, rather than on the day of research when they’re not. And it tells me what I need to accomplish to help the client learn, advance their business goals, and demonstrate the value of the research internally.

The Path to Deeper Insight Starts Here

Research that moves a business forward begins with a clear, shared understanding of what the business needs to know and what it will do with that knowledge. When everyone on the team knows what success looks like, the moderator can probe in the directions that matter most, the analysis can focus on questions with real stakes, and the findings translate directly into decisions rather than sitting on a shelf as interesting observations. Taking the time to answer, “what does success look like at the end of this project?” and making sure everyone on the team answers it the same way is one of the highest-return investments a project team can make before the research begins.