Research Topic Brainstorm Template
Align research goals, cluster ideas, and debrief with stakeholders.
Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies
About the Research Topic Brainstorm Template
Before you can sign off on your UX research plan, you need to know you’re asking the right research questions. A research topic brainstorm with your team can ease navigating the different stages of the design process, from discovery to testing.
Whether you’re doing stakeholder interviews or user group outreach, you should focus on the right topics and ask questions that generate useful insights. To ensure that you understand your customers and translate that knowledge into intelligent and inspiring design solutions, first brainstorm with your team what (or who) is worth researching.
What is a Research Topic Brainstorm
Research topic brainstorming helps you generate questions for stakeholder or user interviews based on topics like partnership opportunities or first-time experience.
Ideally, brainstorming questions worth asking during user research activities can help you clarify:
Your user research objectives: What questions are you trying to answer? What do you need to know at this point in the design process?
Your user research hypotheses: What do you already know? What are your assumptions? What do you think you understand about your user’s behavior, and potential solutions you can fulfill based on unmet needs?
Your user research methods of choice: How will you fill in your knowledge gaps? Based on the resources available, what methods will you choose?
Use these three steps to turn your brainstorming session into a repository of questions. Aim for 3-5 prioritized research questions in your UX research plan document.
When to use Research Topic Brainstorms
Research topic brainstorming happens in the early stages of user research and enables you to build a foundation, generate inspiration and ideas, and evaluate design choices to better serve user needs.
A research topic brainstorm can help UX researchers:
Frame questions in the “5 Ws and H” structure (who, what, when, where, why, how), so your team can generate a variety of insightful questions (but remember to keep your research objective specific!).
Prioritize questions needing to be answered right away and those that can be more valuable later on.
Externalize hypotheses to minimize external bias (such as client or team influence).
Choose the right research methods to fulfill your objectives.
Use your early hypothesis to demonstrate and compare what you actually discovered during research.
Create your own Research Topic Brainstorm
Making your own research topic brainstorms is easy. Miro is the perfect tool to create and share them. Get started by selecting the Research Topic Brainstorm Template, then take the following steps to make one of your own.
Define key research areas. Do you want to look at new opportunities for partnering with other business areas? Improve your app’s onboarding flow for new users? Pick 1-4 key topics your team thinks are worth exploring.
Brainstorm questions relevant to each research topic. Aim for quantity first, then prioritize for quality and impact. Keep criticism aside. Also, this part of your research brainstorming should be timebound (try the Countdown Timer) and tied back to your business goals and user needs.
Identify research or knowledge gaps. Based on what you’ve just brainstormed, what’s missing? What don’t you already know? Record these missing elements on sticky notes as well.
Ask relevant stakeholders or team members for feedback. Invite collaborators onto your Miro Board using a preferred method (like sharing public links to invitations to edit via Slack or email).
Add your preferred research questions to your UX research plan. Your prioritized research questions form an important segment on your UX research plan – copy over the sticky notes and update your research plan accordingly.
Get started with this template right now.
Remote Design Sprint Template
Works best for:
Design, Desk Research, Sprint Planning
A design sprint is an intensive process of designing, iterating, and testing a prototype over a 4 or 5 day period. Design sprints are conducted to break out of stal, work processes, find a fresh perspective, identify problems in a unique way, and rapidly develop solutions. Developed by Google, design sprints were created to enable teams to align on a specific problem, generate multiple solutions, create and test prototypes, and get feedback from users in a short period of time. This template was originally created by JustMad, a business-driven design consultancy, and has been leveraged by distributed teams worldwide.
Breakout Group Template
Works best for:
Education, Team Meetings, Workshops
Breakout groups provide an excellent opportunity for teammates to have candid conversations and connect on a more intimate level than is possible during a broader meeting. When you’re in a large group setting, it can be difficult for people to feel safe or comfortable speaking up. In a smaller group, participants can feel safer sharing their ideas. Since the group is more intimate, teams are empowered to participate rather than observe.
The Product Storyboard
Works best for:
Product Management, Planning
The Product Storyboard template enables product managers to visualize product experiences and user journeys. By mapping out key touchpoints, interactions, and scenarios, this template helps teams understand user needs and pain points. With sections for defining user personas, storyboarding user flows, and capturing feedback, it supports iterative product design and validation. This template serves as a storytelling tool for communicating product visions and guiding product development efforts towards delivering exceptional user experiences.
Product Backlog Template
Works best for:
Agile Methodology, Kanban Boards, Product Management
Development teams are often juggling many products at once. A product backlog is a project management tool that helps teams keep track of projects in flight as they build and iterate, so you can store everyone's ideas, plan epics, and prioritize tasks. The highest-priority tasks are at the top of the product backlog, so your team knows what to work on first. Product backlogs make it easier for teams to plan and allocate resources, but it also provides a single source of truth for everyone to know what development teams are working on.
Product Strategy - Understand the "Why"
Works best for:
Product Management, Planning
The Product Strategy Understand the Why template emphasizes the importance of aligning product strategies with business objectives. By defining the "why" behind product initiatives, setting clear goals, and prioritizing initiatives, this template ensures strategic alignment and focus. With sections for articulating vision, setting objectives, and defining success criteria, it provides clarity and direction for product teams. This template serves as a strategic guide for product managers to develop and execute product strategies that drive business growth and customer value.
4P Marketing Mix Template
Works best for:
Marketing, Brainstorming, Workshops
Product, Place, Promotions, and Price. Starting with this template (and those 4Ps) you can choose the best way to take your product or service to market. The secret is to create just the right mix—deciding how much each P needs in terms of investment, attention, and resources. That will help you build your strengths, adapt to the market, and collaborate with partners. And our tool is the perfect canvas to create your marketing mix and share with teams and across your organization.