Problem Framing and Research Questions

Covers the end to end practice of uncovering, defining, and validating the true problem before designing solutions. Includes techniques for framing ambiguous challenges, performing root cause analysis, and translating business needs into clear problem statements and research objectives. Covers designing and prioritizing research activities including stakeholder and contextual interviews, user interviews, surveys, field research, observational studies, analytics review, competitive and market analysis, and selecting appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods and sample considerations. Emphasizes hypothesis driven research, rapid prototypes and experiments, ethical practice, and using analytics to validate insights. Describes how to set clear success criteria and key performance indicators, surface stakeholder assumptions and constraints, convert vague needs into testable research questions and hypotheses, and produce deliverables such as research plans, personas, user journeys, empathy maps, prioritized findings, and actionable recommendations that inform decisions and design goals.

MediumTechnical

31 practiced

You have two weeks and four research options: 8 in-depth interviews, an unmoderated usability test with 50 participants, an analytics cohort analysis, and a competitor benchmark. Prioritize these activities for the highest-priority ambiguous problem and justify your order using a framework of your choice (e.g., RICE, impact-effort). Outline what you'd expect to learn from each.

MediumTechnical

37 practiced

The product goal is simply stated as 'increase retention.' Write three distinct, testable hypotheses that could explain current low retention. For each hypothesis, propose the most appropriate research method (qualitative or quantitative), the primary metric you'll use, and a quick description of how you'd validate or falsify the hypothesis.

HardTechnical

31 practiced

Engineering bandwidth is limited. Propose a rapid experimental plan to validate three competing checkout designs without full engineering builds. Include guerrilla testing approaches, no-code or HTML prototypes, instrumentation strategies that minimize engineering time (e.g., feature flags, click proxies), how to measure outcomes, and how to interpret noisy signals.

MediumTechnical

56 practiced

Describe how to run a contextual inquiry in a workplace setting. Cover pre-visit preparation, researcher roles during observation (e.g., apprentice vs observer), types of artifacts you would collect, how to gain permission/access, and practical techniques to reduce observer influence on behavior.

MediumTechnical

34 practiced

Draft a 10–12 minute moderated usability test moderator script for evaluating a search-with-filters feature. Include the opening, three concise tasks with success criteria, suggested probing questions, participant debrief questions, and closing. Make the script usable by another researcher with minimal context.

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