Research Design
Although the objective of our entrepreneurial education is to learn you to experiment, it's still a good idea to plan your experiments. We call it the research and design process, but it actually is a continues series of experiments. Still we believe you need to strategize en plan your experiments, it makes them so much more effective. Don't plan to long and don't try to plan everything at once, just plan-do-act-check in cycles varying from a few hours to one week.
For this course we will use "Design Thinking" as design process and in each step of the design process we will apply the appropriate research process. The main objective of this activity is to find critical assumptions and exchange them for facts.
Example of the design and research process:
Design process
step 1
Research
Strategy and
Methodology
for this phase
PDCA
Reflection
adjust strategy
Design process
step 2
Research
Strategy and
Methodology
for this phase
PDCA
Reflection
adjust strategy
Design process
step 3
Research
Strategy and
Methodology
for this phase
PDCA
Reflection
adjust strategy
Design Process:
define customer segments, regionality and nature of business and indicate level of ambition
observe and investigate at random (the Crazy Ant phase)
apply critical thinking to gain understanding of the problem
observe to understand the operational environment
solve the right problem by defining it
define the circumstances under which the problem is worth solving
imagine or conceive many solutions to solve the problem
choose the best solution and refine by prototyping
Test:
formulate critical path to success
formulate critical assumptions
test prototype to check assumptions
repeat step 2 and 3 when necessary
When you have a "winner" EXECUTE!
Reasearch cycle
PLAN:
Orientation: formulate required outcome of this design phase
brainstorm
Strategy: formulate research strategy
choose methodology
substantiate choices
plan activities
DO:
Data gathering
do desk research
conduct interviews
Formulate hypothesis
analyse data
apply critical thinking
CHECK:
Test hypothesis
desk research
surveys
interviews
ACT:
Adjust hypothesis when necessary and test again
assess information
apply critical thinking
determine actual outcome of the research process
REFLECT:
Review the research process
review
reflect
act to adjust the general research strategy
Upload papers to your portfolio folder and link them to your page. You can create sub-pages to this page if necessary.
Continue: https://sites.google.com/site/moocmodules/research-for-entrepreneurs/design-thinking