Research & design templates

Design Research Template

A design research map is a grid framework showing the relationship between two key intersections in research methodologies: mindset and approach. Design research maps encourage your team or clients to develop new business strategies using generative design thinking. Originally designed by academic Liz Sanders, the framework is meant to resolve confusion or overlap between research and design methods. Whether your team is in problem-solving or problem space definition mode, using a research design template can help you consider the collective value of many unrelated practices.

Design System Components Template

Managing design system components across multiple teams shouldn't feel like herding cats. This flexible template helps you track component status, versions, and ownership while keeping designers and developers perfectly in sync. Built with Miro Tables, it transforms into your team's central hub for design system management—because consistency is everything when you're scaling.

Technology Product Canvas Template

Originally created by Prem Sundaram, the Technology Product Canvas allows product and engineering teams to achieve alignment about their shared roadmap. The canvas combines agile methodologies with UX principles to help validate product solutions. Each team states and visualizes both product and technology goals, then discusses each stage of the roadmap explicitly. This exercise ensures the teams are in sync and everyone leaves with clear expectations and direction. By going through the process of creating a Technology Product Canvas, you can start managing alignment between the teams -- in under an hour.

Bird's Eye View Observation Template

The Bird's Eye View Template helps you to observe people without interrupting them. This approach is useful when you cannot communicate with people directly or want to avoid disrupting their activities. By minimizing your impact, you can maximize your discoveries. The objective is to observe and listen without intervening. Direct observation, as well as video and screen recordings with prior consent, can be valuable.

Growth Experiments Template

Many ambitious companies are eying the future and aiming to grow. But growth decisions can be leaps of faith that are risky and costly. That’s why growth experiments make so much sense. They offer a systematic six-step method that reveals which strategies are most effective, how they’ll affect your revenue, and how they compare to your past approaches. By helping you test out your strategies for scaling your business before you fully commit, growth experiments can save you serious time, resources, and money.

Co-Creation Template

The Co-Creation Template enables the visual expression of ideas using essential elements. Analysis of these creations identifies explicit and implicit needs. For instance, a human resources team may use symbols to envision their ideal work environment. The output reflects people's desires and expectations.

Design Review Template

Constructive feedback is a valuable skill. The Design Review Template provides a structured approach for effective conversations. Critiques promote collaboration and drive improvement, inspiring all participants. It's an accessible way to involve people beyond your core team.

Zoom Levels Template

The Zoom Level Template is a tool to examine a problem from various perspectives. For more innovative solutions, consider the issue broadly. Ascending the ladder enables you to broaden your perspective (ask, 'How might we?'). When confronted with an overly broad scope that hinders progress, descending the ladder helps narrow your focus (ask 'What if we narrowed?').

Rose Thorn Bud Template

The Rose Thorn Bud Template offers a color-coded approach to examining data and structuring problems. The team is instructed to approach each situation thoroughly, methodically, and analytically. They are motivated to identify a positive experience (pink), a negative experience (purple), and a promising goal or insight (green). Identifying Roses, Thorns, and Buds helps in gaining a better understanding of one's challenges.