Become Researcher
12 weeks · 4 milestones
Apply research methods to real-world decisions: user research, market analysis, competitive intelligence, and synthesis. Proof is a published finding that changed a product decision or business direction — not an academic paper.
Milestone map
Milestone map
3 milestones
Conduct a complete research cycle on a real question — one that is genuinely uncertain and that matters to a real audience (your employer, a publication, a community, or an academic field). The cycle must include: a written research question with scope boundaries (what the research will and will not answer), a methodology note (why you chose this method over alternatives), data collection (primary data: interviews, surveys, experiments; or secondary data: systematic literature review), analysis, and a written findings document with explicit limitations. The research must be shared with the audience — presented to a team, published, or submitted for review.
Proof required
Submit the research question and scope boundaries (1 paragraph), the methodology note (why this method — 150 words), the data collection artifact (interview transcripts, survey results, literature database, or experiment log), the findings document (500–2,000 words depending on scope), and evidence the research was shared (a meeting agenda showing the presentation, a published link, a submission confirmation, or a colleague email confirming receipt).
What gets checked
- Research question has explicit scope boundaries — 'what makes teams effective?' is not a scoped question; 'what management practices correlate with engineering team velocity in companies of 20–100 people?' is scoped
- Methodology note explains why this method and not an alternative — 'I used interviews because they are useful' is not a methodology note; 'I used semi-structured interviews over a survey because the question requires understanding the reasoning behind practices, which closed-response items cannot capture' is
- Findings document includes explicit limitations — 'I only spoke to 8 people so these findings may not generalise' is the minimum; 'this sample is biased toward companies that agreed to participate, which likely excludes teams with the lowest performance — the findings should not be extrapolated to poorly performing teams' is better