Research Topic Brainstorm Template
Align research goals, cluster ideas, and debrief with stakeholders.
About the Research Topic Brainstorm Template
Before you can sign off on your UX research plan, you need to know you’re asking the right research questions. A research topic brainstorm with your team can ease navigating the different stages of the design process, from discovery to testing.
Whether you’re doing stakeholder interviews or user group outreach, you should focus on the right topics and ask questions that generate useful insights. To ensure that you understand your customers and translate that knowledge into intelligent and inspiring design solutions, first brainstorm with your team what (or who) is worth researching.
What is a Research Topic Brainstorm
Research topic brainstorming helps you generate questions for stakeholder or user interviews based on topics like partnership opportunities or first-time experience.
Ideally, brainstorming questions worth asking during user research activities can help you clarify:
Your user research objectives: What questions are you trying to answer? What do you need to know at this point in the design process?
Your user research hypotheses: What do you already know? What are your assumptions? What do you think you understand about your user’s behavior, and potential solutions you can fulfill based on unmet needs?
Your user research methods of choice: How will you fill in your knowledge gaps? Based on the resources available, what methods will you choose?
Use these three steps to turn your brainstorming session into a repository of questions. Aim for 3-5 prioritized research questions in your UX research plan document.
When to use Research Topic Brainstorms
Research topic brainstorming happens in the early stages of user research and enables you to build a foundation, generate inspiration and ideas, and evaluate design choices to better serve user needs.
A research topic brainstorm can help UX researchers:
Frame questions in the “5 Ws and H” structure (who, what, when, where, why, how), so your team can generate a variety of insightful questions (but remember to keep your research objective specific!).
Prioritize questions needing to be answered right away and those that can be more valuable later on.
Externalize hypotheses to minimize external bias (such as client or team influence).
Choose the right research methods to fulfill your objectives.
Use your early hypothesis to demonstrate and compare what you actually discovered during research.
Create your own Research Topic Brainstorm
Making your own research topic brainstorms is easy. Miro is the perfect tool to create and share them. Get started by selecting the Research Topic Brainstorm Template, then take the following steps to make one of your own.
Define key research areas. Do you want to look at new opportunities for partnering with other business areas? Improve your app’s onboarding flow for new users? Pick 1-4 key topics your team thinks are worth exploring.
Brainstorm questions relevant to each research topic. Aim for quantity first, then prioritize for quality and impact. Keep criticism aside. Also, this part of your research brainstorming should be timebound (try the Countdown Timer) and tied back to your business goals and user needs.
Identify research or knowledge gaps. Based on what you’ve just brainstormed, what’s missing? What don’t you already know? Record these missing elements on sticky notes as well.
Ask relevant stakeholders or team members for feedback. Invite collaborators onto your Miro Board using a preferred method (like sharing public links to invitations to edit via Slack or email).
Add your preferred research questions to your UX research plan. Your prioritized research questions form an important segment on your UX research plan – copy over the sticky notes and update your research plan accordingly.
Get started with this template right now.
Priority Matrix Template
Works best for:
Business Management, Strategic Planning, Prioritization
If you need a little more than a basic to-do list, then you’d probably benefit from a Priority Matrix. The Priority Matrix template is designed to help you determine which tasks are critical so you can focus on the most urgent needs. In a 2x2 matrix, input your priorities based on whether they must be completed with high or low urgency and are of high or low importance. Applicable to project management and personal management alike, use the Priority Matrix template to improve business processes, create efficiency, remove blockers, and reduce operational waste.
Plus Delta Template
Works best for:
Software Development, Meetings, Retrospectives
The Plus Delta template is a simple but powerful tool for collecting constructive criticism from a group. The format encourages you and your team to focus on what went well, what you should repeat in the future, and what you should aim to change. To complete a Plus Delta template, simply make note of things that are working and things you would like to improve. You can then file these elements into two separate columns. Use Plus Delta to showcase wins and learnings for your team, stakeholders, employees, and bosses.
Agile Kata Storyboard
Works best for:
Storyboard, Design, Planning
Optimize your Agile processes with the Agile Kata Storyboard template. This template is ideal for Agile teams looking to improve their workflows and problem-solving techniques. It helps you visualize the steps of the Agile Kata, including problem identification, solution brainstorming, and iterative testing. Use this template to facilitate continuous improvement, enhance team collaboration, and ensure your Agile practices are effective and efficient.
Look Mock Analyze Template
Works best for:
Design, Desk Research, Product Management
Doing your homework (aka, the research) is a key step in your design process, and the Look, Mock, Analyze approach helps you examine, structure, and streamline that step. With this powerful tool you’ll be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses, what you did right or wrong, and whether you spent time efficiently. Our Look, Mock, Analyze template makes it so easy for you to discover inspiration, mock up designs, and get feedback — you can start by setting up your board in less than a minute.
Empathy Map by Invoke
Works best for:
Market Research, Research & Design
The Empathy Map template is perfect for understanding user behavior and motivations. It helps teams capture insights into what users think, feel, and do, ensuring your designs meet their needs. Ideal for UX and product teams.
Workflow Template
Works best for:
Project Management, Workflows
The digital world requires collaboration, and better collaboration leads to better results. A workflow is a project management tool that allows you to sketch out the various steps, resources, timeline and roles necessary to complete a project. It can be used on any multi-step project, whether it’s a business process or otherwise, and is ideal for plotting out the tangible actions you’ll need to take to achieve a goal and the order in which you need to complete those actions.