Talking to users should be as easy and accessible as grabbing a snack at a Google office. But usually, launching a qualitative study is a whole production. That effort barrier means research happens less often than it should. As a result, good ideas surface too late—or weak ideas move forward.

This playbook introduces a simple framework to make idea generation and development easier. It’s built on:

• Familiar business situations: “Ah, this is one of those cases.”
• Standard protocols: “In this case, I do X, Y, Z.”
• Substantive involvement: The manager is a key part of the research, but their effort goes into thinking, not organizing.

Below is a simple guide for choosing the right exploratory research approach. Use it when you’re facing one of the two business situations:

A) you need to come up with something new, or

B) things are unclear and you need to figure out what’s going on.

Next: 1. Identify Your Business Situation

Table of content:

• Starting Points

  Surprise Should Be Within Reach

• Framework

  1. Identify Your Business Situation

• Full List of Guide Templates

Exploratory Research Playbook | yasna.ai