Today was the first day of my PLAN class for the current small but mighty cohort! I’m always delighted by their questions and abilities to excel when provided bite-sized instruction and actual examples.

They can ask me anything anything. I answer all questions (straight up!) based on my own experiences crawling through the trenches.

Examples from today:

• How can a project address multiple metrics (reach x amount of users and reduce churn)

• How do you manage goals that are too broad or conflicting?

• How do you know when you've identified a problem that is worth answering but is also precise enough?

• Do you need stakeholder buy-in for ALL studies (quick usability tests).

• What are the differences between plans you would create as a consultant versus as an in-house researcher?

• Is there a way to get stakeholders involved during synthesis without setting aside a half or full day?

• How do you differentiate segments of people and questions?

• How do you create a reasonable timeline? budget?

• How do you handle clients when they have unrealistic expectations about timing or cost?

I love helping other people learn how to fish!