I am a detective.
Before becoming a product and UX researcher leader, I was a detective in a large metropolitan area. I have solved everything from child abuse cases, to robberies, to homicides.
I now use the skills I developed to solve business mysteries.
If you are a researcher, you are a detective.
There are parallels between good research and good detective work.
Both seek to establish the truth through a trail of evidence with the aim to arrive at a solution.
Both are potentially high-stakes.
Both operate in a world of uncertainty and must revise existing predictions or theories given new or additional evidence.
Using probabilistic thinking, a researcher's or detective's job is to understand the what and why.
It's not just about observing what a person does; it's trying to understand the reasons behind it. — Dan Ariely
To think like a detective, you must have an ‘investigative mindset’.
Having an investigative mindset is as basic as ABC.
Assume nothing. Detectives believe all stories are possible, until they are not. They follow the trail of evidence.
Believe nothing. Detectives are skeptical. We are always looking for ways to disprove a hypothesis through evidence.
Challenge and check everything. Detectives repeatedly ask the questions 'What do I know?' and 'What do I not know?’ Detectives recognize that correlation does not imply causation. They know the safest way to test any hypothesis is to try to disprove it.
“It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." – Sherlock Holmes in Scandal in Bohemia