research methods

  • our research is our method, not separate from
  • deeply involving a community means people > research process > your own wants and needs
  • small orgs often don’t have time to do the research collabs they want to do and big orgs don’t have consistent strategy across isolated teams
  • ‘Move Slow and Learn Things’ -> move at the speed of users and accommodate their needs and prior experiences
  • goals: understanding a problem space / building a preliminary solution / validating previous research / insights for advocacy
  • doing desk research on specific communities before approaching them or defining research goal is really important - they’ve often posted public blog posts, accounts, articles etc already on the troubles they’re facing - don’t want to waste anyone’s time
  • is there a need for an academic scholarly framing in research for it to be vigorous
  • the complexities of tech systems / social systems makes it more difficult to question, we need interdisciplinary work for that
  • moving away from current conceptions of robust/reliable/legitimate
  • don’t bring everything into the sameness, work within relationality - bring the coexisting differences
  • participant sampling - can’t represent an entire population - purpose and strategic sampling to see who offers meaningful insight, or who can help deepen and clarify understanding of particular issues