Systems should work for people; people should not work for systems.
Research, for me, often still relies on my background in troubleshooting and problem-solving. Every troubleshooter needs a toolbox. My methods are my tools. This list is not exhaustive because I am on a never-ending learning journey to add tools daily.
RESEARCH TOOLS for designing, executing, analyzing, and reporting research.
- Qualitative methods
- Surveys (demographics, quantitative, qualitative)
- Research ethics (for working human subjects or participants)
- Data storytelling and presentation
- Program evaluation
- Interviews (all of 'em, all the kinds)
- Focus groups (there's more to it than you think)
- Participant observation
- Literature reviews, open-source data reviews, and policy analysis
- Content analysis, media analysis, social media analysis, and netnography
- SWOT and competitive analysis
- Journey mapping, personas, and mind mapping
PEOPLE SKILLS.
- Active listening
- Rapport building
- Verbal, written, and graphic communication
- Critical thinking, analytical thinking
- Mentorship and collaborative leadership
- Business development and client relationship building
- Sense of humor
- Non-verbal communication
- Diplomatic and respectful
- Reliable. trustworthy and loyal
- Authentic and honest
- Open-minded and open to new experiences (flexible and tolerant)
- Intuitive and empathetic
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS.
- Human-Centered Design
- Agile Lean research (embedded, iterative and fast)
- Customer Experience (CX)
- User experience (UX), and to a lesser extent user interface (UI)
- Gap analysis
- Distinctive capability analysis
- Human-centered organizational analysis
- Trauma-informed approaches
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (aka, respectfulness and thoughtfulness)
- Grounded theory
- Participatory action research and applied anthropology
- Ethnography
- Phenomenology
- Narrative inquiry
- Institutional governance
- Hermeneutics and semiotics
- Hegemony and resistance