Discovery operations guide

What to expect

It’s time to organize your findings into a report and produce any explicit deliverables that were decided on at the beginning of the project.

At this point, you might find that one of two extremes may occur: either you don’t return the results your leadership and/or stakeholders would like to hear, or you will confirm exactly what they thought. For example, at a technology startup, the founder might want to implement a certain feature or service. A research team might talk to users about the possibility of this feature or service and find that most users aren’t interested. Given the low interest, implementing the feature would not be worth the company’s time. Although this news might make the founder a little disappointed, they will be able to review the team’s findings, see that they’re based in valid research, and make a wise business decision. Knowing not to implement will ultimately save the company time, money, and prestige.

Conversely, your research might confirm what your leadership and stakeholders previously thought. In this situation, it’s easy for people to say that they already knew this information, and to question whether they should have enacted the entire research process. Point out that, prior to your research, the organization had an idea and some colloquial evidence of what might be happening, but now they not only have rigorous data backing those ideas, they now also have identified starting points for informed action.

Presentation checklist

Use this checklist to move through the presentation and communication of your findings and deliverables: