alexe-ev Scope Discovery Research
Purpose
Help teams define a focused, time-boxed discovery research scope — including the right questions, methods, participants, and expected outputs — before committing to research execution.
Skill type
Conceptual skill
Use this skill when
- A team is about to start discovery research without a clear scope
- Multiple research questions are competing and need to be prioritized
- A research proposal needs to be reviewed or approved
- A new product area requires an initial exploration plan
Do not use this skill when
- Research is already underway and the goal is synthesis (use synthesize-qualitative-research)
- The question is specific to usability (use plan-ux-research)
Required inputs
- Product area or problem space being explored
- Business or product decisions the research should inform
Optional inputs
- Existing assumptions or hypotheses
- Available time and resources
- Prior research on the same topic
- Team constraints
Upstream context
Works best when:
- A product problem or opportunity area is identified
- Strategic context exists (what are we trying to decide?)
If upstream context is missing
Produce a set of framing questions to establish research scope before scoping the research itself.
Downstream handoff
Output can feed:
- run-user-interviews (scoped research → interview plan)
- plan-ux-research (scope informs UX research design)
- synthesize-qualitative-research (scope defines what to synthesize)
Instructions
- Define the research goal: what decisions will this research enable?
- Identify the key questions the research must answer (limit to 3–5).
- Identify what is already known vs. what is genuinely unknown.
- Select appropriate methods for each question (interviews, diary studies, observations, etc.).
- Define participant criteria and volume needed.
- Define timeline, output format, and how findings will be used.
- Identify risks: what if we don't find what we need?
Output
Provide:
- Research goal and decisions it will inform
- Key research questions (prioritized)
- Known vs. unknown assumptions
- Methods per question with rationale
- Participant criteria and volume
- Timeline and output format
- Risk and contingency plan
Risks / caveats
- Research without a clear goal produces interesting but un-actionable findings
- Scope creep in research is common — limit to 3–5 key questions per initiative
- Methods must match questions — not all questions require interviews