Everyone dumps on research. It's the unwanted child of the design process, the first thing to cut. The sacrificial line item on quotes everywhere, served up only to be slashed. The favourite and most frequent victim of red ink.  

It's funny, people who will spend 30 minutes scouring online reviews for the best burrito place for lunch are fine with ignoring research when it comes to a site redesign, new app, or product launch. Makes me wonder how much these people must love burritos. 

There are a lot of reasons for this, many of them practical and understandable. When you're working hard to put together a budget in the first place, you're naturally going to look for any opportunity to reduce cost. You want to put your money in things that you can see, and the through line between research and profit often seems blurry and circuitous when you're down in the trenches of the a project. At that point research might seem superfluous or obvious, a topic that doesn't need to be revisited. Or worse, you're not interested in the design team understanding the business or market at all, you just need them to execute on a redesign as prescribed (which is kind of like sitting in the backseat and shouting directions at a blindfolded driver – a situation which won't end well for anyone).

But there is another reason people balk at research – ego. 

People like to be right. Being right is just about the most comfortable state of mind there is. Once people get to that cozy spot, they don't want to move, look around, or find out maybe they've been wrong about things. It seems counter-intuitive, but plenty of people, consciously or not, would rather double-down on a mistake than entertain the idea that they've been wrong or adopt a different outlook.

But, strong design is ruthlessly impersonal. It ignores our preconceived notations and doesn't care about what we think we know. It hates our pet projects, and mercilessly slaughters our darlings. Strong design is all about asking questions, and asking questions means admitting you might not know everything.

The first step in a project should be stepping back. Look at your goals, what you want to accomplish and make sure you have the right targets in mind (every minute spent driving towards the wrong goal is just taking you further from where you really want to be). Look at your customers, what do they want? What matters to them? How do they view your product and brand, and more importantly, why do they view it that way? What is going on in your market? What are your competitors doing?

You take those answers and start from there. The questions you ask in this stage become the road map for tomorrow. They're what guides a project to success. But you can only know where you're going if you have the courage to ask those questions in the first place and admit that you might not know everything. 

The best part about asking questions is the more you do it, the easier it gets. The more you let go of ego and engage your peers in seeking out answers, the more insights, discoveries, and inspirations you'll encounter. Being successful sometimes means letting go and being confident enough to challenge your assumptions.

Don't be afraid to ask questions, it's the only way we learn.