6. Framing Your Study

About This Course

Summary

A research study requires careful choices. This course will help you decide what knowledge your organization needs, the purpose your users have, and the framework for a study. You will bring your knowledge from the other courses in the series to this capstone course, so that together we can set up and pursue your own study.

Yes, framing your study comes first. But in terms of learning how to do this, you need a deeper understanding of the components of this method. So it’s best if you take Listening Deeply and Thinking Styles (or Mental Model Diagrams as Opportunity Maps) first. Check the learning paths chart.

Whether it’s your first research study or your umpteenth, you can always use help clarifying what knowledge goals to aim for.

This course will lead you through the development of your own project framing. The live class sessions will include discussion and exercises meant to help you step through all the decisions. You’ll learn about how many participants to recruit to make sure patterns emerge in qualitative data. We’ll cover thinking styles as audience segmentation, and how you can start with hypothetical thinking styles if your organization doesn’t have them yet. Finding participants for your study is fraught with false leads, so we’ll outline some stronger methods for finding people who truly have a lot of experience with your scope, and who will perform well in a listening session.

When it comes to clarification, your stakeholders can probably use a better grasp on the uses of qualitative and problem space research.

You’ll also learn to show your stakeholders how your study will ultimately guide your product & service strategy. The homework between classes requires that you collaborate with your stakeholders to get the input you need to support them more deeply … because so many stakeholders don’t know how to ask for the knowledge they truly need. This course will help you speak more clearly to your stakeholders about what kind of research you can produce what kind of knowledge will come out of it.

You will learn how to:

• check your philosophy: constructivist, positivist
• clarify your framework: inductive, deductive, abductive
• choose your scope by getting outside the box of your organization
• narrow your scope by choosing a purpose containing rich thought
• find or hypothesize the thinking styles that are a priority
• gather candidates from stronger sources
• filter candidates through spoken screeners

Course Features (for new format in bundle):

• Videos that don’t require you to look at the screen
• Exercises with answer sheets
• Downloadable diagrams
• Closed captions for each video, along with descriptive transcripts
• Accessible PDFs
• Downloadable transcripts
• Add on Live Group Meetings to do the exercises with Indi
• Live Group Meetings count toward Certification in Problem Space Research
• Membership in Indi’s Slack workspace (no time limit)

If you want to bring rock-solid, reliable information to your organization, you need to know how. You need to know how to push back on requests like, “What are the highlights?” “Trends?” “Pain points?” You need to know how to let the data show the variety of people’s real interior cognition. These two courses in data synthesis will give you these skills.

It will set in stone fundamentally important things: how to approach the studies in thinking styles, what's the solid screening strategy and why this type of research is important.

– Olena Bulygina - Oct-2019

If you're always struggling in your research scoping and recruitment, this is the course for you.

– Pei Ling Chin - Oct-2019

It's like getting a step-by-step framework with Indi as teacher + mentor + coach + consultant. I'm not sure you could do better.

– Jim Thornton - Oct-2020

The class is very hands-on—you have the chance to practice on your own project and get Indi's feedback on top of that. It's a brilliant course!

– Sonja - Oct-2019

Framing Your Study is full with practical, spot-on tips and advice. I do user research daily and I was able to enrich my practice since class one!

– Olena Bulygina - Oct-2019

If you are new, sign up to get step by step guidance on the research process and get more confident in doing it yourself.

– Zulaikha Rahman - Oct-2020

If you want to learn how to do the user research the right way from an incredible person, who will also have a huge impact on your life in general, then don't ask "why," just sign up!

– Gosia - Oct-2019

If you are doing research already, sign up to get exposed to perspectives and approaches that can really push your thinking.

– Zulaikha Rahman - Oct-2020

I chose the Friday/Saturday session for the range of views. Hearing from classmates in Malaysia, Siberia, Australia, and more, increases my awareness and opens empathetic potential.

– Jennifer Strickland - Oct-2019

I’ve encouraged many to take these courses!

– Jennifer Strickland - Oct-2019

I’ve seen so much hope for our industry in these courses. Instead of the ego-filled focus on the solution space, I’ve seen humility and infinite curiosity to understand the people with purpose.

– Jennifer Strickland - Oct-2019

Indi doesn't make your recruitment magically easier, but helps you understand what's important to prioritise, and how to minimise the challenges you're facing in recruitment and scoping your study.

– Pei Ling Chin - Oct-2019

I tell people about the course when I think what they’re doing would benefit from understanding the problem more.

– Anita Shervington - Oct-2020

If people and purpose resonates deeply with the work you do, please sign up for this class.

– Vanitha Shankar - Sep-2021

Set aside time each day (1-2 hours) for reading and preparing for the course, do not try to do your homework in one sitting.

– Svetlana Ratner - Oct-2020

Framing Your Study is the perfect course for you if, like me, you have been struggling to define the right scope for your study or were not sure how to get the right people.

– Sonja - Oct-2019

This is really worth it, but be ready to work hard. It would be better to be prepared (read medium, books, etc). But this is really worth it! :-) and... you could be flooded and drown :-)

– Natalia Harzu - Oct-2020

Learn how to get started with your project, use your own research project in homework examples with real feedback from Indi and team.

– Jim Thornton - Oct-2020

Try to overcome shyness and communicate more with other participants - this is also very valuable.

– Svetlana Ratner - Oct-2020

Try to free your mind for pure non-judgmental perception. Be ready to be surprised.

– Svetlana Ratner - Oct-2020

If this type of qualitative research is new to your or your organization, this is a path for stepping out of the status quo research methods by going deeper.

– Jim Thornton - Oct-2020

The greatest qualities we bring to this work are radiantly on display in Indi. She lets others feel safe to exude their own passion.

– Jennifer Strickland - Oct-2019

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: If I have questions about the course content, will Indi answer them for me?

A: Asking a question in the Slack community will give Indi, her team, and many other Slack members a chance to see the question and respond to it.

Q: Do the recordings qualify me for Indi’s Problem Space Certification Program?

A: Not quite. You will also want to join the Live Practice series for each course. In these Live Practice meetings, you get to work on exercises together with Indi and others. This is where we discuss nuances of context and share experiences that help others prepare to conduct their own research. Live Practice meetings give you a chance to double your knowledge and demonstrate your understanding.

Other Languages

Take this course in Chinese through UXOffer: