- There is always a bias involved, and it is mostly confirmation bias. Try to reduce it during synthesis, even if you would not be able to get rid of it entirely.
- It is all about framing; you could frame it in a particular way to solve/tackle the core problem; or you could frame it differently to drive home your point.
- No amount of research is going to be sufficient. It’s about knowing what is ‘good-enough’ research (which is never less than 5 users) or the optimum timeline to find out what we don’t know (or disapprove of what we already know).
- We don’t know what we don’t know. Account for unknown variables in the game. Or, better yet, know where to draw the boundaries.
- Output depends on input; the way we ask questions of a user will influence the response.
- It is not always about what the user says. It is more about how the user thinks/perceives and the factors that cause what they say and act.
- A validation to test the pattern we observed/unearthed is required to be sure we weren’t dreaming.
- Co-relation is not causation. Avoid linking/interchanging them. Just like #1 and #2, this applies to our lives too.
- Test the null hypothesis.
- Be genuinely curious about the topic and its users. You would uncover and learn a lot more than what you had initially set out to do.