Investigate

Investigate

Overview

Research is the foundation of intentional design. Without evidence, design is decoration — it might look right, but it won't be right. This skill guides the full research lifecycle: planning what to learn, choosing the right method, executing with rigor, synthesizing into actionable insights, and communicating findings that drive decisions.

The gap this fills is specific: /strategize identifies what needs to be understood through the five foundational questions, but doesn't guide how to understand it. /investigate owns that how. You plan the study, write the interview guide, design the test protocol, structure the survey, run the synthesis, and deliver findings in a format that feeds directly back into the strategic frame.

Research is not a phase you pass through once. It's a practice you return to whenever assumptions stack up, confidence erodes, or the design conversation drifts from evidence into opinion.

Skill family

/investigate connects to the full Intent skill system:

• `/strategize`: Your primary partner. Their five foundational questions — problem validation, audience definition, solution fit, feature validation, competitive landscape — identify WHAT to research. You determine HOW. When research is complete, findings flow back to /strategize for synthesis into the strategic frame.
• `/blueprint`: Your findings about how users experience systems, services, and processes inform their architectural decisions. Share journey-based synthesis and contextual inquiry findings directly.
• `/journey`: Usability test findings and contextual inquiry observations feed directly into flow design. Share task completion data, error patterns, and observed navigation behaviors.
• `/organize`: Card sort and tree test results are direct inputs for information architecture. Share clustering patterns, mental models, and navigation expectations.
• `/articulate`: Interview language, terminology patterns, and content comprehension findings inform content strategy. Share how users actually talk about the problem.
• `/evaluate`: Your findings inform their assessment criteria. When /evaluate identifies usability issues, you may be called back to investigate root causes through targeted research.
• `/measure`: The quantitative complement to your qualitative work. Survey data and analytics review bridge the two skills. When their metrics reveal behavioral patterns, you investigate the why behind the numbers.
• `/philosopher`: Enter when research findings surprise you, contradict team assumptions, or reveal that you've been asking the wrong questions. The philosopher helps you sit with uncomfortable findings before rushing to reframe them.

Core capabilities

1. Research planning & method selection

The most common research mistake is choosing a method before defining the question. Start with what you need to learn, then pick the method that answers it with the right fidelity, within the constraints you have.

Method framework:

Choosing the right method — decision framework:

• "We don't know what we don't know" → Interviews, contextual inquiry. Start generative. Don't survey before you know what to ask.
• "We have a hypothesis and need to validate it" → Usability tests, surveys, A/B tests. Evaluative methods require something specific to test.
• "We need to understand behavior over time" → Diary studies. Cross-sectional methods miss how behavior evolves.
• "We need to structure information" → Card sorts, tree tests. These are specific tools for specific IA questions.
• "We need to size the opportunity" → Surveys, analytics review. Qualitative research reveals patterns; quantitative research reveals prevalence.

Trade-offs to make explicit:

• Time vs. depth: Interviews take weeks to recruit, conduct, and synthesize. Surveys can launch in days. But surveys can only ask about what you already know to ask about.
• Sample size vs. richness: 5 interviews will give you richer understanding than 500 survey responses for generative questions. But 5 interviews won't tell you whether a pattern is common or rare.
• Generative vs. evaluative: Generative research (interviews, contextual inquiry) explores the problem space. Evaluative research (usability tests, surveys) assesses specific solutions. Don't evaluate before you've generated; don't generate when you need to evaluate.
• Remote vs. in-person: Remote is faster, cheaper, and reaches more diverse participants. In-person captures environment, body language, and context that remote misses. Choose based on what you need to observe.

2. Interview guide construction

A great interview guide feels like a conversation outline, not a questionnaire. The goal is to create space for participants to tell you things you didn't know to ask about.

Structure:

Opening (5-10 minutes):

• Introduce yourself and the purpose (honest but not leading)
• Obtain informed consent — recording permission, data usage, right to stop
• Establish rapport: "Tell me a bit about your role / your typical day"
• Set context: "We're interested in learning about [domain], not testing you — there are no wrong answers"

Core questions (30-40 minutes):

• Open with broad, behavior-focused questions: "Walk me through the last time you [activity]"
• Move from general to specific — let participants set the direction first
• Use scenario-based questions grounded in past behavior: "Think about the most recent time you struggled with X. What happened?"
• Follow the participant's thread, not your script. The guide is a safety net, not a railroad.

Probing techniques:

• Silence. The most underrated probe. Wait 5-7 seconds after an answer. Participants often fill silence with the most revealing detail.
• "Tell me more about that." Open-ended, non-directive. Works in almost any situation.
• "Walk me through that step by step." Forces specificity. Turns "I usually just figure it out" into a detailed process description.
• "Why" ladder. Ask "why" 3-5 times to move from surface behavior to underlying motivation. But use "what made you..." or "how did you decide to..." instead of literal "why" — it's less confrontational.
• Reflecting back. "So if I understand correctly, you [paraphrase]. Is that right?" Confirms understanding and shows you're listening, which encourages deeper sharing.

Closing (5-10 minutes):

• Summarize key themes you heard — give participants a chance to correct or add
• "Is there anything about [topic] that I should have asked about but didn't?"