Discovery operations guide
Determine scale
Reading time: 5 minutes
In this guide, we refer to the project’s conceptual constraints as the project frame (scope), and the operations and logistical constraints as the project scale.
These questions can help you explain the difference:
Problem frame (scope) answers what and why
- What are you studying?
- Why? What is your reasoning for this study?
Problem scale answers how and where
- How will you study your problem?
- Where will you execute that study?
This guide uses four elements to help you determine project scale: number of teammates, number and type of stakeholders, number of locations, and number and type of deliverables required by the project. These are not the only elements to use when evaluating your project’s scale, but they are useful ones.
Use your best judgment to weigh the importance of these items when first determining your scale/scope. Aim to keep the scale as small as possible, as it will help you stay inside your Problem Frame.
Resist the urge to include everyone who seems related to the project on the team. You can keep people informed on your project without inviting them into the core research or stakeholder teams. Identify how site types influence your understanding of your project, and your research.
Small scale
A small scale project is one in which you have:
- One research team of 2-3 teammates
- A single, individual stakeholder, such as a group or department Director
- A single location, and
- A single deliverable.
Teammates: Teams should always be at least two people: one person to perform HCD Interviews, one to take notes.
Stakeholder: A stakeholder can be the person who developed the initial project brief, or someone you or your leadership approached with the initial brief.
Location: Understand the physical location where your research will happen. It can mean buildings, but it can also be virtual. The internet is a real place.
Deliverable: Deliverables can include reports, lists, white papers, journey maps, or a variety of other outputs from a project. When you begin, work with your stakeholder to define the form but not the content. The deliverable content must accurately and minutely reflect your research, including the voice of the research participants and any other group(s) studied.
Small/medium scale
A small/medium scale project is one in which you have:
- One research team of 2-3 teammates
- A small number of stakeholders, and
- Either a single, complicated deliverable, or a few smaller deliverables.
Teammates: A single research team of two to three people is sufficient.
Stakeholder: No more than two individuals or groups.
Location: Limited to a single research location.
Deliverable: Could be a single, difficult or multi-part task, like the evaluation of a long-standing system and recommendations on how to change it, or the documentation and compilation of several different work processes for review. If your deliverables sound similar to the scale of these tasks, then you have a small/medium scale project, rather than a small scale project.
Medium/large scale
A medium/large project is one with:
- More than one research team (4-8 teammates)
- Multiple stakeholders, including institutional stakeholders
- Multiple locations, and
- Multiple deliverables.
Teammates: These projects require more than one research team because of the timeline, and availability of participants or team members. Managing logistics for multiple team members requires extra effort that must be calculated into the total effort required by the project.
Stakeholder: Stakeholders can be a mixture of individuals, and offices or organizations. Include the points of contact for institutional stakeholders and keep them informed so they can report back to their organization on the project.
Locations: Even if you’re operating in a single department or region, if your team must perform research in both physical and online locations, then the project involves multiple locations.
Deliverables: Deliverables could be multiple or simply large scale. As deliverables get larger, have detailed conversations with your stakeholders about formats. Always follow the research; change the deliverable format, rather than adapting the research to fit the deliverable format.
Large Scale
A large scale project has:
- More than one research team (4-8 teammates)
- Multiple stakeholders, including institutional stakeholders
- Multiple locations, and
- Multiple deliverables.
Teammates: If you have multiple teams in the field, have ways for each team to report their findings on a weekly basis. This can be a shared document, a template document, or a template slide deck. Reporting on a regular cadence ensures that data is not lost in the course of the teams’ activities.
Stakeholder: A large stakeholder group immediately means a large project. Keeping your stakeholders informed, involved, and aligned is a necessary and energy-heavy task. If you do not have the bandwidth to do this, consider asking your leadership if you and the team could break the project down into several smaller projects.
Locations: Lots of locations means a lot of travel. This brings with it several potential problems, including submitting for and receiving travel permission and funding, factoring in drive or fly time, and considering team members’ energy levels. If at all possible, never have team members travel and perform research all in one day. It’s a recipe for team exhaustion, and the quality of your research will suffer.
Deliverables: Deliverables at this scale require time to produce. Be sure to build in production time at the end of your research process to make the deliverables that your research, your leadership, and your stakeholders deserve. Do not risk all your hard work by not giving yourself enough time to make excellent deliverables.
