Designing Research

Mitigating Risks

Today's session consisted of learning processes that tailored our research in hopes of reducing the risks that would coincide with our business ideas.

[Business Principals Venn Diagram]

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Identifying Risks

- Type A: does the problem exist?

- Type B: is there a solution already?

- Type C: do people care enough to switch?

- Type D: (optional) other assumptions about details of your idea.

[How do these risks/assumptions affect your business?]

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Primary and Secondary Research

When asking questions to the public or via survey, there are a couple rules that you need to follow to reduce the risk of getting false data.

Avoid leading questions - Leading questions can retrieve responses based on emotional bias. Remember: people might say what you want to hear.

Avoid hypothetical questions - Giving the respondent a hypothetical forces them to imagine a scenario and think about their response. The respondent might find this confusing and difficult to respond to as they might not be able to imagine the scenario.

Make a choice between open and closed questions

'KISS': Keep It Simple Stupid - Over complicating questions will most likely receive over complicated responses.

Ask about the negatives

Ask about quantities and amounts

My Example

Assumption - assuming our home workers do not go to the establishment itself that makes the sandwich. Sandwich shop could be within walking distance.

- Do you like sandwiches?

- If so, Would you consider walking to a sandwich shop from home?

- How far away do you live from a sandwich shop?

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In Context: OddWatch

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Reflection Segment

"Identifying risks for my business idea is a procedure that I've undertaken previously (~two weeks ago). Seeing a layout like this tempts me to redo a risk assessment using the methods covered today. Especially since my idea remains in limbo (feasibility of the business was questionable). Something that might be worth doing, is allowing a peer to add to my risk assessment after pitching to them. Having a second input to poke holes in the business idea would reveal more risks/assumptions. I think this would be even more effective when including the principals of the primary and secondary research covered today."

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What I've been listening to: